FireTV 2 Recovery Installer [v3]

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roligov

Senior Member
Dec 29, 2012
308
110
London
Yeah you called it. It was corrupt as well @rbox. Now managed to get into the recovery menu. Going to attempt a downgrade to sloane-5.0.5-rooted_r4.zip. If it bricks well then at least you don't need to risk your unit.


EDIT:

Rooting is still possible: @AFTVnews.com
- Download install_firetv2_recovery_v3.zip
- Download firetv2_recovery_v5.zip
- Extract both to same folder
- Run install_firetv2_recovery.bat
- Plug in power to AFTV2 and let it flash the recovery.
- When it's done copy ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma and sloane-5.0.5-rooted_r4.zip firmware to a NON corrupt usb or sdcard :D
- Reboot, choose recovery with a keyboard
- Install the 5.0.5.0 firmware
- Boot and bingo :good:

Great work again rbox!
 
Last edited:

AFTVnews.com

Senior Member
Jul 22, 2014
490
374
www.AFTVnews.com
Yeah you called it. It was corrupt as well @rbox. Now managed to get into the recovery menu. Going to attempt a downgrade to sloane-5.0.5-rooted_r4.zip. If it bricks well then at least you don't need to risk your unit.


EDIT:

Rooting is still possible: @AFTVnews.com
- Download install_firetv2_recovery_v3.zip
- Download firetv2_recovery_v5.zip
- Extract both to same folder
- Run install_firetv2_recovery.bat
- Plug in power to AFTV2 and let it flash the recovery.
- When it's done copy ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma and sloane-5.0.5-rooted_r4.zip firmware to a NON corrupt usb or sdcard :D
- Reboot, choose recovery with a keyboard
- Install the 5.0.5.0 firmware
- Boot and bingo :good:

Great work again rbox!

Awesome news! I'm updating a box to 5.0.5.1 right now to verify it myself.

UPDATE: Yup, I tried it myself on a 5.0.5.1 box and rooting with @rbox's script via the A-to-A USB cable went smoothly. TWRP and the 5.0.5 pre-rooted ROM installed just fine. The only difference was a prompt within TWRP to "allow modifications" that appear when it booted for the first time, prior to going to the main menu. Not sure if that's something new in TWRP or a result of going from 5.0.5.1 to pre-rooted 5.0.5. It was asking for permission to switch to a read/write mount or stay read only. I allowed read/write and flashed the ROM just fine.
 
Last edited:

zroice

Senior Member
Nov 9, 2010
706
403
Not sure if that happened to anyone else before - on a quick search it didnt come up:

I have four FireTV 4k, all with 5.0.3 and tried to install the recovery on them.

On all of them the injection process did not complete several times so I had to do it over and over again until it finally stuck. (also had to edit the script to inject files seperately so it wouldnt mess up if the 2ndinit went through but the second file did not.)

During the injection it would just stop randomly and hang at a certain %.

Eventually after up to 20 tries it went through, but it was pretty annoying to have to ctrl+c, restart the script and replug the firetvs that often.. =)

Anyone else had that problem?

Could be that it is computer related though - my flashing pc is an old pentium 4 single core.. but the mediatek_inject.exe did not take much cpu % though.
 

Han-Droid

Senior Member
Jun 23, 2010
387
79
Samsung Galaxy A50
OnePlus 7T
Is it possible to install this custom recovery AND keep the existing ROM?
I am asking because my FireTV2 is preconfigured and I want to be on the safe side if anything fails. So I'd like to make a nandroid backup right after flashing TWRP.

or

does flashing this recovery kill the rom and I NEED TO install the pre-rooted ROM right after flashing the TWRP ?

TIA !
 

Mat_london

Member
Sep 30, 2010
10
0
Absolutely can't get this or Roligovs combination to work

Hi All,
Really struggling here so may have missed something obvious. It's probably not helped by the fact that I don't really understand what the process is doing.
I've tried about 20+ combinations of install_firetv2_recoveryXXX & firetv2_recovery_YYY to no avail.
I've got Ubuntu and Windows 7 and have tried on both machines.
I'm getting the same symptoms as Romolac i.e "the error: source file is larger than target file!" message and overly short time to complete the process.
This happens with all the combinations of install_firetv2_recoveryXXX & firetv2_recovery_YYY that I've tried (including Roligov's suggested combo) except that is for Romolac's suggested combination firetv2_recovery_v3 & install_firetv2_recovery_v3.
Firetv2_recovery_v3 & install_firetv2_recovery_v3 appears to do everything it should no "the error: source file is larger than target file!" error and lots of writing going on over the course of several minutes.
I put the correct ramdisk-recovery.cpio from V3 on the SD (not another ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma ) and it still just boots straight through to FIreTV without recovery appearing.
Could someone let me know if I've got the post install procedure right?

  • Wait for install_firetv2_recovery.sh/bat to finish
  • Copy correct ramdisk-recovery.cpio or ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma to root directory of FAT 32 formatted micro SD
  • Unplug power from FireTV
  • Unplug AtoA USB from Fire TV
  • Give it 5 seconds
  • Insert SD Card and Hook up HDMI lead
  • Insert USB Keyboard
  • Insert FireTV Power and wait for Recovery to appear then take it from there

Could I also ask if anyone has got Recovery reinstalled even though they are getting the "the error: source file is larger than target file!" message.

I assume not

Many thanks

Mat










Yup, md5s are fine, and I tried downloading them agan, their extracted into same folder, and the bat and sh scripts run without error (which they wouldn't if they weren't in that same folder, all though the bat needed many restarts, thanks windows >.< )
And no its not rooted, if I run 'reboot' the firetv will restart, which I did to check I was logged into it, but it doesn't have the root user, at least not that you can log into. As I said, su not found.
The 'ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma' is on an sdcard, but it simply does not boot into recovery?!
After the script runs it just boots into the amazon desktop, the amazon logo comes on screen and it goes to the amazon prime selection, and logs in if it can.
And I checked my sdcard, used gparted and it showed no hidden partition, but I went ahead and made a new msdos partition table anyway.
And I've run the script, successfully, half a dozen times all ready, and every time it just boots into amazon prime, I've never seen the the recovery screen?!
sh script output;
Code:
Waiting for preloader...
Found port = /dev/ttyACM0
Handshake complete!
Injecting 2ndinit...
Mediatek Inject, git version fa8d8f
Locating the partition...
Reading 000000200: 100%
Reading 000000400: 100%
Opening the filesystem...
Reading 0058E0400: 100%
Reading 0058E1000: 100%
Locating the target file...
Reading 005933000: 100%
Reading 04EDFF000: 100%
Reading 005939000: 100%
Reading 050563000: 100%
Opening the target file...
Reading 005942000: 100%
error: source file is larger than target file!
Injecting 2ndinitstub...
Mediatek Inject, git version fa8d8f
Locating the partition...
Reading 000000200: 100%
Reading 000000400: 100%
Opening the filesystem...
Reading 0058E0400: 100%
Reading 0058E1000: 100%
Locating the target file...
Reading 005933000: 100%
Reading 04EDFF000: 100%
Reading 005939000: 100%
Reading 050563000: 100%
Opening the target file...
Reading 00593D000: 100%
Writing target file...
Writing 0506E2000: 100%
Writing 00593D000: 100%
Setting target file size...
Writing 00593D000: 100%
Writing 0506E3000: 100%
Reading 0506E3000: 100%
Writing 0506E3000: 100%
Closing the file...

Edit, I just noticed the size mismatch error, is that what is causing the problem? I dont remember the bat script being so short but due to the stalls it will take me a while to double check the process in windows.
 

rbox

Recognized Developer
Apr 22, 2011
1,776
2,612
Hi All,
Really struggling here so may have missed something obvious. It's probably not helped by the fact that I don't really understand what the process is doing.
I've tried about 20+ combinations of install_firetv2_recoveryXXX & firetv2_recovery_YYY to no avail.
I've got Ubuntu and Windows 7 and have tried on both machines.
I'm getting the same symptoms as Romolac i.e "the error: source file is larger than target file!" message and overly short time to complete the process.
This happens with all the combinations of install_firetv2_recoveryXXX & firetv2_recovery_YYY that I've tried (including Roligov's suggested combo) except that is for Romolac's suggested combination firetv2_recovery_v3 & install_firetv2_recovery_v3.
Firetv2_recovery_v3 & install_firetv2_recovery_v3 appears to do everything it should no "the error: source file is larger than target file!" error and lots of writing going on over the course of several minutes.
I put the correct ramdisk-recovery.cpio from V3 on the SD (not another ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma ) and it still just boots straight through to FIreTV without recovery appearing.
Could someone let me know if I've got the post install procedure right?

  • Wait for install_firetv2_recovery.sh/bat to finish
  • Copy correct ramdisk-recovery.cpio or ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma to root directory of FAT 32 formatted micro SD
  • Unplug power from FireTV
  • Unplug AtoA USB from Fire TV
  • Give it 5 seconds
  • Insert SD Card and Hook up HDMI lead
  • Insert USB Keyboard
  • Insert FireTV Power and wait for Recovery to appear then take it from there

Could I also ask if anyone has got Recovery reinstalled even though they are getting the "the error: source file is larger than target file!" message.

I assume not

Many thanks

Mat

If you are getting source file is larger than target, that means your /system partition is corrupt and you'll need to use the unbrick image. I belive @AFTVnews.com has a guide for doing it as well.
 
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Mat_london

Member
Sep 30, 2010
10
0
Hi All,
Really struggling here so may have missed something obvious. It's probably not helped by the fact that I don't really understand what the process is doing.
I've tried about 20+ combinations of install_firetv2_recoveryXXX & firetv2_recovery_YYY to no avail.
I've got Ubuntu and Windows 7 and have tried on both machines.
I'm getting the same symptoms as Romolac i.e "the error: source file is larger than target file!" message and overly short time to complete the process.
This happens with all the combinations of install_firetv2_recoveryXXX & firetv2_recovery_YYY that I've tried (including Roligov's suggested combo) except that is for Romolac's suggested combination firetv2_recovery_v3 & install_firetv2_recovery_v3.
Firetv2_recovery_v3 & install_firetv2_recovery_v3 appears to do everything it should no "the error: source file is larger than target file!" error and lots of writing going on over the course of several minutes.
I put the correct ramdisk-recovery.cpio from V3 on the SD (not another ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma ) and it still just boots straight through to FIreTV without recovery appearing.
Could someone let me know if I've got the post install procedure right?

  • Wait for install_firetv2_recovery.sh/bat to finish
  • Copy correct ramdisk-recovery.cpio or ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma to root directory of FAT 32 formatted micro SD
  • Unplug power from FireTV
  • Unplug AtoA USB from Fire TV
  • Give it 5 seconds
  • Insert SD Card and Hook up HDMI lead
  • Insert USB Keyboard
  • Insert FireTV Power and wait for Recovery to appear then take it from there

Could I also ask if anyone has got Recovery reinstalled even though they are getting the "the error: source file is larger than target file!" message.

I assume not

Many thanks

Mat
Excellent, that did the trick, although I had to use Ubuntu as Windows 7 was doing the same freezing while writing thing that it does with the recovery install
 

Sylntnyt

Member
Oct 12, 2014
26
6
I've been trying to run this for the past two days on my Raspberry Pi and haven't had much luck. I'm not sure if it's because I'm using a Pi or if I'm just not executing it right or missing something. I've tried clicking the file and the terminal never shows up, so I just run the "sh" command and what I get is what's seen in the attachment below. Any help in getting this running would be greatly appreciated as I don't have a computer nor a laptop at the moment.
 

zeroepoch

Senior Member
I've been trying to run this for the past two days on my Raspberry Pi and haven't had much luck. I'm not sure if it's because I'm using a Pi or if I'm just not executing it right or missing something. I've tried clicking the file and the terminal never shows up, so I just run the "sh" command and what I get is what's seen in the attachment below. Any help in getting this running would be greatly appreciated as I don't have a computer nor a laptop at the moment.

It won't run on a raspberry pi because the binary is compiled for x86. Unfortunately there is no python version of the injector just the whole partition writer.
 

jasonwhelan

New member
May 2, 2016
2
0
Please help

I have tried for the last 5 days to root my FireTV 2 using this method and I can't get it to work. Ive tried 2 windows 7 x64 PCs and Linux and the 2 windows PCs do the exact same thing (just sit there waiting for the preloader.)

I have definitely installed the drivers as needed in Windows on both machines and they show up in device manager but say they cannot start (which is supposed to be normal.)

In Linux the handshake script wont start because it cannot find the right device.

Any ideas???

I want to be able to set up samba shares so I can use Kodi with the files on my network, but I am beginning to think that I have an updated version of 5.0.5.1 that's blocking the rooting attempts.

Thanks!
Jason
 

PhoenixMark

Senior Member
Feb 23, 2016
57
14
Phoenix Arizona
I got a Mac guide and I've rooted this way several times. This is easy to do. Check it out if you got a Mac.

It just blows me away all the hoops windows people have to go through with drivers and what not, jeeze.
 
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jasonwhelan

New member
May 2, 2016
2
0
Mac

I tried on my Mac as well, same thing.

I finally decided to build my own cable and it still didn't work in OSX, but worked first try in Windows.

So I FINALLY got it rooted.

Thanks everyone!
Jason
 

J2048b

Member
May 9, 2015
13
1
I got a Mac guide and I've rooted this way several times. This is easy to do. Check it out if you got a Mac.

It just blows me away all the hoops windows people have to go through with drivers and what not, jeeze.


is there a mac guide for this? i sent u a pm as well if u don't mind? i just had my newish fire tv 2 take a turn for the worst out of now where and haven't the slightest clue about all this... didn't even see any zips to dn from the op's post....i guess u also have to be rooted in order to push any of this thru adbfire on a mac correct? so if i root it first will i be and to just use add fire and push the recovery thru?
 
Last edited:

PhoenixMark

Senior Member
Feb 23, 2016
57
14
Phoenix Arizona
is there a mac guide for this? i sent u a pm as well if u don't mind? i just had my newish fire tv 2 take a turn for the worst out of now where and haven't the slightest clue about all this... didn't even see any zips to dn from the op's post....i guess u also have to be rooted in order to push any of this thru adbfire on a mac correct? so if i root it first will i be and to just use add fire and push the recovery thru?

It's here http://marksmods.com/Hack-the-Fire-...-and-Install-a-Pre-Rooted-ROM-with-a-Mac.html
 
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sharont1970

New member
May 9, 2016
1
0
pre loader /bat rec

When it's waiting on pre loader, the Fire TV just reboots and doesn't catch the pre loader.
Maybe a driver issue. which I don't know how to resolve

Hi I was wondering if you have resolved pre loader issue which is not catching firetv into recovery. I'm having the same problem. bought usb hub and a-to-a usb. havent been able to get past pre loader stage and ideas would be great thx from james /;)uk.
 

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  • 20
    [size=+2]This only works if you are on a software version BEFORE 5.2.1.0![/size]


    This will allow you to install recovery easily whether you are rooted or not. The downloads will be numbered starting at v1, and at the bottom of the post it will explain what is contained within each version.

    You must extract the installer zip and a recovery zip to the same directory.

    Versions for Linux, OSX, and Windows are included. I have not tested the OSX version. Running it won't cause any damage, so don't be afraid to try it. Please let me know if it works.

    After extracting the zips, run the .bat file for Windows or the .sh script for Linux and OSX. Make sure the USB cable is connected and if using Windows your drivers are set up. Then power cycle the firetv and the script should start. It should take about 5 minutes to run.

    You must copy the ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma to USB storage or an sdcard. This must be plugged in when you boot after running the script. The one catch is you need to have a USB keyboard plugged in to select Recovery from bootmenu. So either use an sdcard, a usb hub, or unplug the USB storage once the splash screen shows up and plug in a keyboard.

    The first thing you should do after booting in to recovery is to install a prerooted rom. This will fully install recovery so you won't need the ramdisk on external storage anymore.

    Source Code
    You can find the source code here:
    https://github.com/androidrbox/mediatek-preloader-tools

    NOTE
    This method is only for people on 100% stock rom or people who have rooted with the previous method. Once you install recovery with firetv2_recovery zip file or install a prerooted rom, this method will not work.

    Thanks to everyone who has donated to me and those that helped to get me my FireTV 2. Thanks to @zeroepoch, without his work, this wouldn't be possible.

    Changelog and Downloads:
    • February 9, 2016 - v3 (md5sum: d9432930b8a6d50b6b09c31ef698b209)
      • Fixed the windows bat file
      • Everything else same as last
    • February 8, 2016 - v2 (md5sum: 05ddfdf84d4298eb2935acc02c94b70c)
      • This adds error checking to the .sh and .bat file to make sure all the files exist before attempting to start. (Thanks to @ImCoKeMaN for the idea)
      • This comes with the same version of mediatek_inject.
    • February 6, 2016 - v1 (md5sum: b55c61075607fe5d716355dbd8b03a2c)
      • This comes with mediatek_inject version fa8d8f.
    5
    Awesome work!

    For those who need a step-by-step guide with screenshots:
    [GUIDE] How to Root a Fire TV 2 by installing rbox's Pre-Rooted Image


    [VIDEO GUIDE]
    1
    md5 = b55c61075607fe5d716355dbd8b03a2c ?

    I'm just trying to make sure people are paying attention, haha. Not really. I corrected it.
    1
    You're using a 32bit ubuntu I assume? How easy would it be to switch to a 64bit version?

    Yep, Ubuntu 15.10 (32-bit)
    It was the image prepared by someone on this forum, so others may run in to the same problem.

    Not sure how hard it is to prepare a 64-bit Ubuntu VM.
    1
    When it's waiting on pre loader, the Fire TV just reboots and doesn't catch the pre loader.
    Maybe a driver issue. which I don't know how to resolve

    @AFTVnews.com has an excellent guide: http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-root-the-amazon-fire-tv-2/