Linux + Kodi + Emulators for old MK808B Plus TV Stick

[Grey]

So, I decided to examine the contents of some kind of box in the closet. As a result, four Android devices were found. CS918, MK809 III, Mini XPlus II and MK808B Plus.
All these are small TV boxes for Android. The RK3188 processor is installed in the first and second ones. The third one has an AllWinner A10 CPU installed.
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There is nothing interesting in the first three devices. But the MK808B is of some interest. Because there is an Amlogic S805 + Mali-450 GPU processor.

This means that you can install, for example, an old (mmmm... legacy) version of Lakka (distro for emulation) on this device.

But there is a more interesting option The Hungarian enthusiast continues to support the LibreELEC version for similar devices with the old Amlogic CPU.
Yes, the Kodi version is "only" 18.9 (Princess Leia) there. But I think everyone will agree that this is much better than Android 4.4 KitKat, which the device was sold with
In addition, Kodi Leia supports running libretro (RetroArch) cores Thanks to this, you can watch movies on the local network and Internet and play retro games! The system shows in the settings the workload of the four processor cores, the amount of RAM and even the temperature. Full HD, Samba, Bluetooth - everything works.

I was unable to compile the system in either Puppy or Arch. Cross-compilation for ARM processors. I had to run Ubuntu 18.04 from a USB flash drive and compile there For such cases, 64 gigabytes of RAM are very useful - the compilation was all in RAM.

But if you do not want to make your own changes, then you can take a ready-made image for recording to an SD card on Github. Mmmm... Or here, it's even more convenient there.

MK808B_Plus.jpeg (19.28 KiB) Viewed 855 times

[Jasper]

@Grey

I have a dedicated IPTV box which has been boot locked.

Installation of the software can only be carried out via the OS installed.

Therefore I cannot see which kernel is being used nor the hardware components.

Ideally, I would like to do the same as you and remove the original software and simply use it as a Kodi media centre. Presently, it only playbacks x264 in restrictive formats.

Any suggestions?

[Grey]

Presently, it only playbacks x264 in restrictive formats.

Some time ago, I "renounced" the use of "too branded" devices for emulation and IPTV. Just something Chinese (but not assembled in the basement) with an Amlogic processor or Raspberry. When someone shows you an expensive device and says, "oh, something's wrong", then you can grin and say "of course"

By the way, I "killed" the TV stick How? I just decided to try using an adapter that allows you to use two SD cards at the same time. It turned out that the adapter ONLY works with Raspberry Pi. Now I know it for sure
An inquisitive mind haunts me