!!WARNING!!
1st
You cant boot the 2019 Pro with a magisk patched boot.img. If you try to run the install script with a patched image it will brick the device!!!
The script re-locks the bootloader so if you want to try using any modified .img files you need to flash them individually or modify the script.
2nd
After you unlock the BL AI upscaling is disabled. Even after the BL is re-locked. Flashing back to the normal firmware should fix this but I am not sure of that.
3rd
After flashing the "developer" firmware the fact is it is no different than the standard firmware right now.. If Nvidia provides a rooted image in the future plz pm me and I will update this post.. I am leaving this post up for anybody who like myself is looking for shield pro 2019 info and was wondering if it could be rooted taking steps similar to the 2017 here
So with that said..
I just switched from a firestick 4k as my streaming device of choice to a shield pro 2019. I tried the cheaper $160 version first but when I looked at the specs and tried to do anything to it the lack of usb ports and 8gb storage made upgrading to the $200 pro a no-brainer.
So far I have gotten a few nice tweaks installed and Ill go into that in another post.
Things you'll need
A windows or linux PC with adb-fastboot binaries SDK Platform Tools
A male to male usb cable (my laptop has a usb-c input but It wouldn't work to connect to the shield)
NVIDIA SHIELD ANDROID TV 2019 Pro Developer Only OS Image HERE
SHIELD Family Windows USB Driver HERE
USB keyboard (or shield game controller possibly?)
First thing I did was enable USB debugging. Its the same process as other android devices. Device Preferences> About > then tap build info 10x. Then Device Preferences> Developer Options> enable usb debugging.
Now I made my own male to male usb cable by just splicing two old cables together matching the colors to each other. No special wiring is needed.
I used windows but it's easier to use linux if you can since windows required me installing a driver for fastboot to work.
To put the Shield into fastboot mode. Attach the usb cable to the usb port furthest from the hdmi port. And attach a usb keyboard to the usb next to the HDMI-out. Also keep the device connected to an HDMI display during the process. If you are using a pc that shares a screen with the shield tv then I suggest using chrome remote desktop to run the commands on the pc while the shield is using the display.
Windows 10: hold shift and right click in the platform tools folder
select open powershell here
type .\adb devices
type .\adb reboot bootloader
Linux you can just open a terminal and as long as adb is installed type adb devices then adb reboot bootloader
When it reboots there is an option to unlock the bootloader. You just select that and let it reboot again. You'll know it is unlocked because when it boots up with an unlocked bootloader a warning telling you the firmware cant be verified comes up for about 10 seconds.
To flash the firmware you need to get back into fastboot. Either go through the setup again quickly to enable usb debugging once more or there's another way to enter fastboot using a key combination (A+B on the shield controller, I don't know the combination on a keyboard).
Once its in fastboot again if you are using linux
unzip nv-recovery-image-shield-atv-2019-pro-8.2.0-dev_rooted.zip and cd into the directory containing the flash-all.sh script
and run it.
In windows 10 I needed to install the nvidia fastboot drivers before fastboot would detect it.
In device manager action> scan for hardware changes there should be a device with Fastboot in the name
You need to choose the option to update driver then select "have disk" and select the android_winusb.inf file and the device type should be Android Bootloader Interface.
Once fastboot drivers are installed open the file manager to the folder containing the flash-all.bat file, hold select and right click to open powershell in this location and type .\flash-all.bat
After the script runs the device will flash the dev firmware and lock the bootloader again.
I patched the boot.img with magisk but it wouldn't boot with it. I may try again tonight with different settings to get magisk to work.
1st
You cant boot the 2019 Pro with a magisk patched boot.img. If you try to run the install script with a patched image it will brick the device!!!
The script re-locks the bootloader so if you want to try using any modified .img files you need to flash them individually or modify the script.
2nd
After you unlock the BL AI upscaling is disabled. Even after the BL is re-locked. Flashing back to the normal firmware should fix this but I am not sure of that.
3rd
After flashing the "developer" firmware the fact is it is no different than the standard firmware right now.. If Nvidia provides a rooted image in the future plz pm me and I will update this post.. I am leaving this post up for anybody who like myself is looking for shield pro 2019 info and was wondering if it could be rooted taking steps similar to the 2017 here
So with that said..
I just switched from a firestick 4k as my streaming device of choice to a shield pro 2019. I tried the cheaper $160 version first but when I looked at the specs and tried to do anything to it the lack of usb ports and 8gb storage made upgrading to the $200 pro a no-brainer.
So far I have gotten a few nice tweaks installed and Ill go into that in another post.
Things you'll need
A windows or linux PC with adb-fastboot binaries SDK Platform Tools
A male to male usb cable (my laptop has a usb-c input but It wouldn't work to connect to the shield)
NVIDIA SHIELD ANDROID TV 2019 Pro Developer Only OS Image HERE
SHIELD Family Windows USB Driver HERE
USB keyboard (or shield game controller possibly?)
First thing I did was enable USB debugging. Its the same process as other android devices. Device Preferences> About > then tap build info 10x. Then Device Preferences> Developer Options> enable usb debugging.
Now I made my own male to male usb cable by just splicing two old cables together matching the colors to each other. No special wiring is needed.
I used windows but it's easier to use linux if you can since windows required me installing a driver for fastboot to work.
To put the Shield into fastboot mode. Attach the usb cable to the usb port furthest from the hdmi port. And attach a usb keyboard to the usb next to the HDMI-out. Also keep the device connected to an HDMI display during the process. If you are using a pc that shares a screen with the shield tv then I suggest using chrome remote desktop to run the commands on the pc while the shield is using the display.
Windows 10: hold shift and right click in the platform tools folder
select open powershell here
type .\adb devices
type .\adb reboot bootloader
Linux you can just open a terminal and as long as adb is installed type adb devices then adb reboot bootloader
When it reboots there is an option to unlock the bootloader. You just select that and let it reboot again. You'll know it is unlocked because when it boots up with an unlocked bootloader a warning telling you the firmware cant be verified comes up for about 10 seconds.
To flash the firmware you need to get back into fastboot. Either go through the setup again quickly to enable usb debugging once more or there's another way to enter fastboot using a key combination (A+B on the shield controller, I don't know the combination on a keyboard).
Once its in fastboot again if you are using linux
unzip nv-recovery-image-shield-atv-2019-pro-8.2.0-dev_rooted.zip and cd into the directory containing the flash-all.sh script
and run it.
In windows 10 I needed to install the nvidia fastboot drivers before fastboot would detect it.
In device manager action> scan for hardware changes there should be a device with Fastboot in the name
You need to choose the option to update driver then select "have disk" and select the android_winusb.inf file and the device type should be Android Bootloader Interface.
Once fastboot drivers are installed open the file manager to the folder containing the flash-all.bat file, hold select and right click to open powershell in this location and type .\flash-all.bat
After the script runs the device will flash the dev firmware and lock the bootloader again.
I patched the boot.img with magisk but it wouldn't boot with it. I may try again tonight with different settings to get magisk to work.
Last edited:
