CoreELEC - MINIX U9-H

Hey Guys,

Got it to work. I dont know if it is because I used the dtb file that comes with the image, or because I used the last USB (the one placed most to the rear of the device) slot.. But anyways, it's running. Now I only going to add the harmony remote, found a how to in this tread.
 
Peter said:
@Skynet
I used another one.

I use the Logitech Harmony One remote to operate the minix U9.

If you EXACTLY do step by step as described in the tutorial it should work.

Handy is: When copying a line from the tutorial, you can paste it in Putty bij clicking the right mouse button. In that case you don't need to type it over and can't make mistakes.

It worked for me.

Let me know if it worked for you.
Click to expand...

Worked great, thanks!! (y)
 
Had been using the Community 7.1.2 Android ROM and there are couple of annoying bugs, especially with regard to the Audio via HDMI connected to my LG TV (others with same brand TV have also seen this issue)

I had been using the Android OS for five primary elements:
Kodi
Amazon Prime
Xfinity Stream
You Tube
Browser

So I discovered that my LG Smart TV gives absolutely phenomenal performance with Xfinity App, YouTube App and Amazon Prime loaded directly on the TV - these are actually far superior directly on the TV apps, than they were running under Android on the U9-h - the latter two in 4k.
And Xfinity Stream particularly directly on the TV App is fabulous, in HD now compared to on the PlayStore app for the reg. Android OS

So that leaves essentially Kodi & Browser - the latter is more just a bonus, not an essential (can always look something up on phone if need be at that station!); So decided to give CoreELEC a whirl to see how that would work out.

Wow!!! What a difference in Kodi performance, in both Video and Audio passthrough!
It's quick, even running off the SD Card and the outputs are just amazing when coupled to my TV and SoundBar.

The previously mentioned audio issue from the Android ROM is non-existent on the same box running CoreELEC - which definitely points to the 7.1.2 ROM as the source of the issue.

Another bonus I discovered is that my LG TV, Vizio SoundBar AND CoreELEC ALL work off the LG Smart Remote! Indeed that was a real un-anticipated extra - I used the connection guide on-screen to connect to both the sound-bar and the Minix and I was literally stunned when I found I could navigate through the CoreELEC GUI using the TV remote.
(I tried this on the Android Platform also after enabling CEC in the Droid settings - and it does 'kinda' work but is limited in Android capability vs how it might be on an Android TV type of platform)

LG_Smart_Remote_.jpg

The net result is I have ONLY lost the browser really, but gained a whole lot of performance in all those Apps I use regularly - as well as being able to park my Minix A2 Lite Remote; so no need to juggle multiple remotes or use a Harmony or similar (only benefit I miss from the A2 is the keyboard which is faster than on-screen - but that's not like it's used too often)


I think this is the first time I've been truly happy with the U9-h - and it's really down to 2 factors (neither down to Minix I have to add) - my TV's capabilities and a custom third party ROM!

p.s. I'm sure I could get snappier performance if installing to NAND, but going to keep dual-boot for now as will be relocating this box back to original non-Smart TV in another location in a couple of weeks and will need the Android OS for those Apps mentioned at the beginning (but will keep the CoreELEC for Kodi regardless)
 
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Just a heads-up on potential problems if using a micro SD card in a USB adapter ...

I prepared a micro SD card with a USB adapter and all seemed well with creating the CE boot card; however when plugged into USB port, it would not boot;
a USB thumb drive in the same port booted fine; I then also tried a full size SD Card in the same USB Adapter - no issues with that either.
I tried multiple different image-writing programs - Rufus, Win32diskimager, Balena Etcher; tried different uSD cards - all had same result, none would boot in the USB adapter/USB slot.
Fast Forward - received a new uSD/USB adapter today - popped in the same uSD Card (that was created using the original USB Adapter into my Win PC) and it booted right up!
The Original card reader was a Kingston MobileLite G4 ; the new one a Sandisk SDDR 121 G35 (incidentally a really super-compact adapter - nice!)

So just a heads-up - if you're having difficulty booting from a USB slot in a similar matter, it might just be an incompatibility in the adapter!
 
Skynet said:
Just tried the installtointernal script and now CoreElec works really faster.
You must be sure that Device tree is good before.

For U9-H take and install this file : gxm_q200_2g_minix_neo_u9.dts

Caution : To come back to Android you will have to flash the full android image with USB tools.
Click to expand...
I did that too, but the boot priority is still mixed up.
The U9-H is still trying to boot from external HD (USB-Device, there is no OS, only the movies) and goes into bootloop. If I remove the external HDs, the U9-H boots normally and I can plug the HD back in afterwards.
How can I fix the priority of the boot devices?
 
Lyshalia said:
The U9-H is still trying to boot from external HD (USB-Device, there is no OS, only the movies) and goes into bootloop.
Click to expand...
Your external HD HAS to have been made bootable otherwise the boot manager would not recognize it - was it originally formatted as a bootable device before you started adding storage media to it?
I would suggest you transfer your media to another device temporarily, then re-format the drive as a simple storage device, then add your media back to it - that drive should then be ignored when 'looking' for bootable devices.
 
Make a HD bootable to NOT boot from it? That's a new one.
Anyway, I tried and it works, thank you very much. I just marked the only partition as "active".
BUT it works only for the one HD.
I have 2 HDs attached: Both simply bought, formatted (NTFS) and plugged in at the U9-H.
With the second HD it doesn't matter if the partition is "active" or "inactive", if both HDs are plugged in, the U9-H goes into bootloop again.
Any idea?
 
Lyshalia said:
Make a HD bootable to NOT boot from it? That's a new one.
Click to expand...
DEcosse said:
Your external HD HAS to have been made bootable otherwise the boot manager would not recognize it
Click to expand...
I meant it must have been bootable not that you should MAKE it bootable.

Certainly seems strange that once reformatted, one acts as per expectation but other still sends it to boot?
Do you know for sure there is only one partition on it?
Try using diskpart on a Windows machine
list disk will then give you all the disks Windows sees (including the actual Windows Machine disks!)
Select the USB drive e.g select disk 3 (Be VERY careful here - ensure you get the correct one to ensure you don't format one of your Windows Machine drives - you should be able to tell by the size of the disk which one you want)
Clean
Create partition primary
Select partition 1
active
Then format - I would suggest exFAT for al large drive to be used on Android system (and still compatible with other systems)
format FS=EXFAT quick
 
DEcosse said:
Try using diskpart on a Windows machine
Click to expand...
That is exactly the way I already did it, lol.
So I am sure both HDs have only one partition.
Funny thing I just experienced: It doesn't matter which HD is plugged in, if only one is plugged in, the U9-H boots. If I plug in both then I get the bootloop again.
What it I did not is reformat them. Do you think the type of filesystem matters in this case?
I will read more about CoreElec and supported FS.
 
Lyshalia said:
That is exactly the way I already did it, lol.
So I am sure both HDs have only one partition.
Funny thing I just experienced: It doesn't matter which HD is plugged in, if only one is plugged in, the U9-H boots. If I plug in both then I get the bootloop again.
What it I did not is reformat them. Do you think the type of filesystem matters in this case?
I will read more about CoreElec and supported FS.
Click to expand...

When you say that when you have BOTH HD drives attached, you end up with a bootloop. May I ask exactly how you are attaching 2 HD's?

My experience has been that the minix box only works reliably with a single HD directly attached to a USB port. When 2 separate drives are attached, each to their own USB port on the minix, minix operation can become very unstable (ie: sometimes booting normally, sometimes booting but not seeing any drives, and sometimes not completing boot at all - hanging).

The solution (for me) was to use a USB Hub, with ALL external drives plugged into the hub and the hub being the only device plugged directly into the minix box. If your drives are portable USB type drives, then you will need a POWERED USB Hub, as the minix cannot supply sufficient power for multiple unpowered portable USB drives.

Using a powered USB Hub, I typically have 4 external drives attached to my U9-H for 20+ TB of storage.
 
The U9-H has 3 USB ports. 2 of them are used seperatly for each HD (Toshiba, and yes portable). That was working wonderful for over a year, I never had a problem with that. And it is still working without any problems when I plug them back in after boot.
So I am not really convinced of the power-therory, but I will try tomorrow.
I already asked in the CoreElec forum because I think it could be a bug in the boot sequence there.
 
Is it possible to completely power off the U9 when CoreElec is running? Whenever I use 'Power off system' in CoreElec, the U9 goes to sleep mode (green led stays on) instead of completely turning off.
I prefer to completely turn off my U9 because in sleep mode it appears my hdd's keep running.

Or is the only solution to exit out of CoreElec, boot to Android and then power off from there?
 
Lyshalia said:
The U9-H has 3 USB ports. 2 of them are used seperatly for each HD (Toshiba, and yes portable). That was working wonderful for over a year, I never had a problem with that. And it is still working without any problems when I plug them back in after boot.
So I am not really convinced of the power-therory, but I will try tomorrow.
I already asked in the CoreElec forum because I think it could be a bug in the boot sequence there.
Click to expand...

Different USB devices you plug into a minix box can have slightly different power requirements, so maybe you were lucky and your devices came in just under the wire. But the power available from the minix USB ports to power external devices is definitely limited.

I run CoreElec on all my minix boxes. I dumped android a while ago. CoreElec is much more stable and with far fewer playback issues, at least that has been my experience.

Has your minix box had a recent firmware update? I ask that only to assertain if your problems might have started around the same time.
 
monologue said:
Is it possible to completely power off the U9 when CoreElec is running? Whenever I use 'Power off system' in CoreElec, the U9 goes to sleep mode (green led stays on) instead of completely turning off.
I prefer to completely turn off my U9 because in sleep mode it appears my hdd's keep running.

Or is the only solution to exit out of CoreElec, boot to Android and then power off from there?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I noticed the same thing with portable HD's. My solution was to plug the power supply brick into a power strip and turn the power strip off when not in use.
 
allmankind said:
When you say that when you have BOTH HD drives attached, you end up with a bootloop
Click to expand...
Using a powered USB hub did not change anything, I tried.

Edit:
It is a bug in CoreElec. These dudes from CE are an arrogant brood, they even fixed it for another device and do not even want to admit that there are problems with the UH-9. So this will never be fixed.

BTW: there is an option in the coreelec settings in kodi to keep USB powered when the device is off, but I don't think it is working on the U9-H.
 
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Hello ,
I have a lot of Blu Ray rip how are vc-1 ,
As i Can see on page no 2 thé VC-1 vidéo files are playing without problèm with corelec (this is a very good news ?)
because in Android Kodi this not work ....

I not read thé 17pages from this thread (just7) but as i read everybody instal corelec on sd card ....i dont need Android (i have other minix device for use Android )
So how to make a full installation with corelec into thé intern memory ? (Complète corelec/no Android)
 
Ralf said:
Hello ,
I have a lot of Blu Ray rip how are vc-1 ,
As i Can see on page no 2 thé VC-1 vidéo files are playing without problèm with corelec (this is a very good news ?)
because in Android Kodi this not work ....

I not read thé 17pages from this thread (just7) but as i read everybody instal corelec on sd card ....i dont need Android (i have other minix device for use Android )
So how to make a full installation with corelec into thé intern memory ? (Complète corelec/no Android)
Click to expand...


It's here ;)
https://theminixforum.com/index.php?threads/coreelec-minix-u9-h.261/post-9774
 
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