AIGO EROS Q / AIGO EROS K / IRULU Surfans F20 / AGPTek H3 / HIFI WALKER H2

[JoeH2]

I don't think my H2 is based on the Eros Q2 Hardware.
There is a lot shielding on the Q2 Board which "normally should" be detectable with a strong magnet.
I can detect the screws, the connectors and the sd-slot, but nothing where the processor should be.
Maybe its just a new software.

How can the software be extracted from the device? Can this be done without opening the case?
Or is there any other way to install Rockbox?

[kaas]

I'm running the hosted port on a Surfans F20, downgraded from 2.7 to 2.5. Two issues I encountered: no left/right buttons in some games (e.g. sgt-net); slow scrolling, similar to this bug.
Edit: found the reason for the slowness, it happens only with "backlight fade in" turned off. Bug.
Other than that, very happy having a rockboxed player again after my xduoo x3 died, big thanks to everyone making this possible.

Edit: Thought I'd try the native port, but I get "NAND open error" when trying to backup the bootloader from the Rockbox recovery menu. I used the 32gb SD card with fat32 fs and mbr partition table. As said, I'm using a player that shipped with 2.7, could that have something to do with it? Any ideas how to resolve this? I can actually load the native port directly from the recovery menu, without installing the bootloader, and it runs much smoother (slow scrolling issue is completely gone).

[JoeH2]

 
I was very brave and tried the Native Port Installation.
Everyting went well and Rockbox is running perfectly.

BTW: Was i right with my assumption that just running "./jztool -v erosq load bootloader.erosq" can not brick the device?

So many thanks to the developers!
Rockbox saved the device from sending back, as the original firmware was absolutely unusable.

[amachronic]

I was very brave and tried the Native Port Installation.
Everyting went well and Rockbox is running perfectly.

BTW: Was i right with my assumption that just running "./jztool -v erosq load bootloader.erosq" can not brick the device?

So many thanks to the developers!
Rockbox saved the device from sending back, as the original firmware was absolutely unusable.

Great! and yes, that command cannot brick the device.

[twotoneblue]

Dear fellow Rockboxers and developers,

First, my sincerest thanks to the community that develops and maintains Rockbox - your efforts are loved and respected!

I recently got a Surfans F20 and (of course) wanted to install Rockbox on it, having had excellent experiences with Rockbox on a Sansa Clip+ 8GB that travelled with me for many years.

As in the case of @azndante @kaas and likely many others, the F20 came with firmware V2.7 on it, for which a bootloader patch is not yet available, so I decided to downgrade to V2.5 and run the hosted port/dual boot setup. This works fine, either using the prepatched image or a manually patched stock V2.5 firmware file.

From the few days I've used this setup, playing FLAC and MP3, playback and queing works fine. With a pair of common IEMs (Beyerdynamic Soul BYRD, nom. imp. 18 Ohm), I think I hear some distortion from time to time in "crowded" passages (this is with Bass @ -2), but take that with a grain of salt since the cat chewed on the cable recently and may have damaged the lead.

With pair of vintage Sennheiser HD424 (nom. imp. 2 kOhm <- yes, that is correct), the volume is a good bit lower - a quiet track may need close to max volume. The bass response is also noticeably more rolled off (as is to be expected), so some tracks may need a bit of a bass boost. But then again, I guess the intention is rarely to run such headphones directly from the F20, but rather to use the line out to a separate amplifier for the HD424s.

A brief test of audio over bluetooth under the stock V2.5 to a pair of wireless headphones (JBL Contour) seems to work allright too (volume is a little lower than when feeding them from e.g. the TV).

Unfortunately, as noted by @azndante above, the line out is silent with this setup (V2.5 patched + daily Rockbox). I upgraded to the stock V2.7 firmware and there, the line out works again (to be sure, I also did a cycle of V2.7 -> V2.5 -> V2.2 -> V2.5, testing at each point, but the line out only works with V2.7). Could the reason for this behaviour be hardware changes in the V2.7 models, or is it more likely that a hardware address or something similar changed? Is your line out working, @kaas?

BTW: should this behaviour be reported as a bug?

I can add that with the patched V2.5 dual boot setup, connecting the line out to a stereo set (with some volume up) or headphones does not produce any audible pops (in either OS), nor does unplugging during playback trigger a pause in playback in the HiBy player/OS, as it does when the line out is functional under V2.7.  I may be mistaken, but this suggests to me that the line out is shorted to ground, as in, not turned on/active. I'm no IC designer, but could this have some bearing on the alleged distortion above, by creating some form of imbalance or cause the headphone amp to run "hotter" than it should?

As a shot in the dark, I also tried to patch the V2.7 image with the V2.5 patch. bspatch produces no errors on issuing:

Code: [Select]

bpatch update_2.7_stock.upt update.upt F20-v25.bsdiff But the new update.upt image is not accepted by the firmware updater (I realize that to attempt this may or may not have made any sense - I'm alltogether unfamiliar with the content of the patch and the prerequisites of the firmware updater). The bspatch tool comes with the bsdiff package on Ubuntu, if that is helpful to anyone.

Is there anything we can try/do/report on to help the developers towards a patch for V2.7?

[kaas]

My line out is currently not working, using the hosted port. Amachronic is kindly helping with getting the native port running on my 2.7-shipped device in this thread, so you could wait for the outcome of that.

[twotoneblue]

Very interesting! Thanks @kaas - I'll follow the other thread with a keen eye, and can help out with any confirmations if data from a second unit is needed! 

[seebop]

I recently got a new "HiFi Walker H2".
Unfortunately the installed Firmware Version is 1.4 and installing Rockbox was not working.
I tried to install using Rockbox Utility.
Auto recognition failed, so i selected "HiFi Walker H2 1.3+"
SD content looks ok.

When running Firmware Update from the stock firmware, output is:

"Updater V1.1
v_v File error"

and then:
"v_v Failed"

 :'(



BTW: There is a video on YT where someone opens a Aigo Eros, but the PCB looks very different to the one of dconrad.
The PCB there has to marking "QII_V2_20190523".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPH3Trj3P00

Hey all, so I've been looking for something to replace my dead Sansa and these look like the best bang for the buck.
I'm leaning towards the Hifiwalker H2 because I much prefer the black color and the rounded corners but the post above has me worried. Does that mean there's no way to install RB on the new versions with 1.4 firmware? Or is there a way to downgrade to 1.3 before installing RB? If not is it likely to be possible in the near future?
Thanks

[speachy]

As hifiwalker doesn't provide newer firmware images for download, we don't ahve anything to work with.  We'd have to open up the player to attach a serial console, and extract the flash contents directly.  I had to do this with a v1.3 player, I expect v1.4 is the same, assuming they didn't make any significant hardware changes..

[seebop]

Well that sucks

[dconrad]

I would guess the Hifiwalker units are getting the same changes as the F20 - or at least I would hope so. Can we not use usbboot and the (native) bootloader to dump the flash contents?

[Oscar]

I would guess the Hifiwalker units are getting the same changes as the F20 - or at least I would hope so. Can we not use usbboot and the (native) bootloader to dump the flash contents?

I took the chance and ordered a Hifi Walker H2 from Amazon.de. And yes, I like the rounder edges and the feel of the device much over the Surfans F20.
Of course I've got a device with firmware 1.4. The "normal" bootloader "bootloader.erosq" gives the same "NAND open error" as on the v 2.7 of the Surfans. So, I tried "bootloader-v7.erosq" from the thread https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,54228.0.html. And guess what, it works. They seem to have the same updated hardware.
Before installing the new bootloader, I have made a backup of the original bootloader, the original firmware, and made a flash dump of the original flash. Are these backups helpful for creating a new hosted port of Rockbox? How can I share them?

[seebop]

I would guess the Hifiwalker units are getting the same changes as the F20 - or at least I would hope so. Can we not use usbboot and the (native) bootloader to dump the flash contents?

I took the chance and ordered a Hifi Walker H2 from Amazon.de. And yes, I like the rounder edges and the feel of the device much over the Surfans F20.
Of course I've got a device with firmware 1.4. The "normal" bootloader "bootloader.erosq" gives the same "NAND open error" as on the v 2.7 of the Surfans. So, I tried "bootloader-v7.erosq" from the thread https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,54228.0.html. And guess what, it works. They seem to have the same updated hardware.
Before installing the new bootloader, I have made a backup of the original bootloader, the original firmware, and made a flash dump of the original flash. Are these backups helpful for creating a new hosted port of Rockbox? How can I share them?

Good to know. So i guess that means line out doesn't work either just like it doesn't on the F20?

I think I might end up spending a little bit more and going for the xduoo x3ii which should be more straightforward..

[dconrad]

I would guess the Hifiwalker units are getting the same changes as the F20 - or at least I would hope so. Can we not use usbboot and the (native) bootloader to dump the flash contents?

I took the chance and ordered a Hifi Walker H2 from Amazon.de. And yes, I like the rounder edges and the feel of the device much over the Surfans F20.
Of course I've got a device with firmware 1.4. The "normal" bootloader "bootloader.erosq" gives the same "NAND open error" as on the v 2.7 of the Surfans. So, I tried "bootloader-v7.erosq" from the thread https://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,54228.0.html. And guess what, it works. They seem to have the same updated hardware.
Before installing the new bootloader, I have made a backup of the original bootloader, the original firmware, and made a flash dump of the original flash. Are these backups helpful for creating a new hosted port of Rockbox? How can I share them?

These backups would definitely be useful - if you want to zip them up and put them up on dropbox or your filesharing service of choice. I believe we should be able to create a hosted update image from them, and possibly (if I or someone can find the time) work through it and figure out the hardware changes for the native port.

[Oscar]

These backups would definitely be useful - if you want to zip them up and put them up on dropbox or your filesharing service of choice.

Okay, you can download the backup here.