Greetings! I recently rolled the dice on an eBay purchase for a Light L16 camera. The device appears to have had some serious OS problems/botched root/adb commands/I am honestly not quite sure what has gone wrong with it, but it is not even showing the OS as LightOS (the camera OS). I was wondering if any of you might have the firmware laying around somewhere, or any experience flashing these devices with AOSP/variants?
Light L16 Firmware
- Thread starter Sormaus
- Start date
Root simply refers to making changes to your camera so that you have access to everything, not just the parts that the manufacturer wanted to have access to. If you haven't made any changes to your camera yet, then you don't have to worry about Root.
To upgrade your camera to the latest version you need to follow helloavo's instructions, which are relatively simple. I copied part of his post below for your reference. The word "here" below is a link to where you can get the instructions and the latest firmware to load onto your camera. I was able to upgrade my camera using his directions and I am very happy with the result. If you don't feel comfortable following the instructions, then it would be best if you find a knowledgeable friend to help you.
Good luck, Tom
helloavo said:
I have got the firmware for 1.3.5.1.
I have added it to the GitHub repository here, under releases.
(BTW anyone can upload to this repo, please add anything that might be of use to other users)
Thank you for this info. Question though. I got my camera about a month ago, and have taken photos on it, and offloaded them onto my computer. Is this considered a change? Other than that, I am still on the software version that shipped with the camera, and haven’t altered anything about the camera.
No,, taking pictures with the L16 is not an issue. From what I could tell, this update is done just like it would have been done over the air originally, except in this case, you follow steps to get the update on your camera, and run the update from there directly.
I do understand your concerns though. There is risk associated with updating the firmware, just like when you update your phone, there is always a chance that your phone will become a brick in the process. The difference here is that if you brick your phone, you can take it in and get it fixed, but here,, if you brick your camera, there is no-one to take it to since the company is out of business. So, it is your choice. Keep the firmware you have, or take the risk and try to update it.
From your questions I can tell you aren't very technical, so it will be lower risk for you if you take your camera to a friend that is, and have them do the update. Just don't blame them if they fail, because there is always risk, all we can do is minimize it not eliminate it.
Alternatively you could just search for an L16 that someone has already updated, and buy it with some sort of guarantee that it is working. That is definitely lower risk, just higher cost.
Your choice, Tom
At least the update is not from Microsoft!
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The Post from Helloavo below contains a link to the latest firmware, unfortunately it sounds like someone loaded a different version of Android on your camera. Whether you can successfully update back to the correct firmware or not is beyond me. Sorry.
Apologies if I am missing something obvious; I'm very new here. But when I follow your link I see lots of stuff for the Lumen software but nothing for the firmware update. And I can't seem to find anything labeld "releases."
Geez. Thanks so much. I'm going to go change my name now.
hi, I am new in this i saw thisl ink with this firmware update
any one try this one ? https://github.com/helloavo/Light-L16-Archive/tags
with all that steps put in the root bla bla bla only what i did't undestand.
why said to remove the root ? before to update can causa brik . :S i m follow ur update you are awesome guys. i want to update my l16 but is any big difference? between updates ?
any one try this one ? https://github.com/helloavo/Light-L16-Archive/tags
with all that steps put in the root bla bla bla only what i did't undestand.
why said to remove the root ? before to update can causa brik . :S i m follow ur update you are awesome guys. i want to update my l16 but is any big difference? between updates ?
I found this to be a worthwhile update, and it did add several new features, like video, and some manual shooting features.
is any specific way for a diferent firware or applied to all firmware ? for now i used my camera only pictures i really wan to shoot in log exposures video idk is ok pero a really what to go safe i dont have to much $ to brick my camera and buy other .
with lumen and down to a raw work great the camera. one picture hat shot wih this camera
elgree, you are right to be concerned. I had the same concern before I installed this firmware update in my camera. It is definitely possible that it could brick your camera when you update it. If you are reasonably happy with the operation of your camera, then it is much safer to just use it with the firmware that it already has.
***To be perfectly clear, this new firmware does not improve the image quality as far as I know or have seen.***
By the way, I think the photo you posted is very beautiful. Is the fellow in your shot a friend of yours? Keep up the great shooting!
Hi James, there is no need to feel bad, it took me a lot of looking to find that link too. Perhaps you are like me, a member of the group that sees all the minutia, but misses the big picture sometimes because it is too obvious.
I just say "Oh!, how about that!" and move on.
Have a great day!
This might be a longshot, but does anyone know how to get the RAW files out of the L16 that contain the depth information?
I'll probably do some digging through the directory to try and find them, but I figured I'd ask first to save me the trouble if anyone else has already navigated to them.
I'll probably do some digging through the directory to try and find them, but I figured I'd ask first to save me the trouble if anyone else has already navigated to them.
Paddler, as you will see when you download your images from the L16, the raw file is the .lri file. A parallel file the .lris file holds processing information I believe, and may also hold depth information. To my knowledge, there is very little information at present about the internals of the raw file, and so we have to use the Lumen (Beta) desktop software to convert the .lri files into .dng files for processing in programs like Lightroom.
The Lumen software isn't bad, for relatively simple editing like cropping, f-stop adjustment, along with color and intensity correction, and it does allow you to create a jpg output file of low, medium or high resolution, so for some jobs it is sufficient. The biggest limitation of the Lumen software is that it does not run on the most recent versions of the Mac OS. Personally, I had to buy a small Windows 11 PC just to use for processing my images. Still not a bad investment considering the L16 was about $170 when I purchased it.
If you manage to learn anything about the internals of the lri and .lris files, we would certainly love to ehar about it.
Hi, I keep getting stuck on loading into the bootloader. I can get into recovery mode, and boot normally, but every time I adb reboot bootloader is doesn't seem to work. I even tried booting into bootloader from the recovery menu and nothing. the fastboot command is just sitting there < waiting for any device >. idk where to go from here. Any help would be appreciated. I'm gonna go over all the commands from the guide to see if anything makes a difference.
Have you just tried copying the update onto the camera and running it from there directly? That is what I did, and it upgraded just fine.
I picked up a unit with the final firmware version, but have zero knowledge how to extract, anyone have instructions i can follow to get everyone the firmware?
What's your final FW version? Was there one after LFC-1351-0-00WW-A01?
I think you'd need root before you can extract that.
I've been an XDA lurker for years, and this thread I found kind of recently, it's interesting that it's been steadily active for awhile now. I actually came here because I got myself an L16, and you all helped me get the update file! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I don't know what good this does for anyone, but I feel like android app devs might be interested to look at this. I extracted the APK files for some unique apps found in the L16. One appears to be camera motor control, another is the camera app itself, the gallery app, and the editor app.
I feel like this camera has insane untapped potential.
I went ahead and put those app files, their extractions, as well as another re-upload of the firmware here on my GDrive folder, anyone can have a look and download the files.
I hope it can be of help to even just one person, and I feel like if the right people made it their passion project, they could be the ones to unlock the incredible potential of the L16.
Update tutorial en minute 3:45 easy, no complicated and all files in the video description
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Your link is broken, it looks like it contains some sort of command line...
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1Just to post an update as I can see there has been some activity, nice to see there are other people interested in the L16.
I have managed to decompile the Camera and Gallery Apps using tools and guides I have found online, the L16 is using Android Marshmallow so getting them to run is proving difficult.
The decomplied apps can be found in the L16 Repo here, really need any Devs that know Java (and in particular Android) to work on this.
I am hoping the .LRI file contains all the .RAW images that are tiled together to create the final image, but I have not found confirmation of this anywhere online.
Edit: Already getting my hopes up
I am going to take apart the Camera and Gallery code in search of the code that save/loads the .lri files, this should give the layout of how data is stored in the files.
I did find this post that suggests it uses Protobuff, this would be great news as Protobuff is easy to work with.
Sunla - I can see you also have pulled the APKs to preserve them, thanks for your efforts!
if you are also trying to reverse them you need the separate .odex files for each app (.odex files contain all the code, while the APKs contain the resources like images) and the framework folder too (used for decompiling the .odex files).
If anyone wants to work on this with me just commit to the repo or reach out over Discord: ｈｅｌｌｏ#3197
Apart from breaking open the .lri file, I also want to gain access to the 16 sensors on the camera, hopefully the camera APK will shine some light on how to interact with the custom Light ASIC that controls them all.
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1
What's your final FW version? Was there one after LFC-1351-0-00WW-A01?
I think you'd need root before you can extract that.
I've been an XDA lurker for years, and this thread I found kind of recently, it's interesting that it's been steadily active for awhile now. I actually came here because I got myself an L16, and you all helped me get the update file! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I don't know what good this does for anyone, but I feel like android app devs might be interested to look at this. I extracted the APK files for some unique apps found in the L16. One appears to be camera motor control, another is the camera app itself, the gallery app, and the editor app.
I feel like this camera has insane untapped potential.
I went ahead and put those app files, their extractions, as well as another re-upload of the firmware here on my GDrive folder, anyone can have a look and download the files.
I hope it can be of help to even just one person, and I feel like if the right people made it their passion project, they could be the ones to unlock the incredible potential of the L16.1
Your link is broken, it looks like it contains some sort of command line...1Just to post an update as I can see there has been some activity, nice to see there are other people interested in the L16.
I have managed to decompile the Camera and Gallery Apps using tools and guides I have found online, the L16 is using Android Marshmallow so getting them to run is proving difficult.
The decomplied apps can be found in the L16 Repo here, really need any Devs that know Java (and in particular Android) to work on this.
I am hoping the .LRI file contains all the .RAW images that are tiled together to create the final image, but I have not found confirmation of this anywhere online.
Edit: Already getting my hopes up
I am going to take apart the Camera and Gallery code in search of the code that save/loads the .lri files, this should give the layout of how data is stored in the files.
I did find this post that suggests it uses Protobuff, this would be great news as Protobuff is easy to work with.
Sunla - I can see you also have pulled the APKs to preserve them, thanks for your efforts!
if you are also trying to reverse them you need the separate .odex files for each app (.odex files contain all the code, while the APKs contain the resources like images) and the framework folder too (used for decompiling the .odex files).
If anyone wants to work on this with me just commit to the repo or reach out over Discord: ｈｅｌｌｏ#3197
Apart from breaking open the .lri file, I also want to gain access to the 16 sensors on the camera, hopefully the camera APK will shine some light on how to interact with the custom Light ASIC that controls them all.
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6I have got the firmware for 1.3.5.1.
I have added it to the GitHub repository here, under releases.
(BTW anyone can upload to this repo, please add anything that might be of use to other users)
Backstory about this:
A user called Jerome2023 joined XDA and posted in this thread that he had the firmware and would share it for $30 transfer via PayPal, obviously this screams of scam.
The only evidence was a screenshot of a zip file (not even the files inside).
When I asked for more info or photos as proof it was legit (Like the ones I have included below), he refused claiming he was insulted by my lack of trust... on the internet...
He was then banned from the forum by admins.
He claimed the total cost to get the updater was $150 from a local camera store, I already know of 2 other people who have sent him $30 so if it really did cost $150 then at least he has made $90 back.
Honestly I don't know why he want about it in this way, I am sure everyone here would have got together the reimburse him for the cost and effort he went to get it.
I do not want anyone to be out of pocket for finding the firmware, especially since that firmware should have been made available for free by Light, but I suspect he was trying to make some money out of it.
I have heard that he did genuinely wanted to help people but sending the money was a 'trust' exercise.3Hi!
I recently purchased a cheap brand new L16 as well. It came with version 1.3.0.5. I have also been searching everywhere for a newer firmware. So far the only lead I found is a Bilibili video of a person demonstrating how to offline update the camera. They seem to have a copy of firmware 1.3.5.1 and could simply update the camera by placing the firmware file into the internal storage(which is how HMD/Nokia devices update as well).
I have DM'd the video host to see if he is willing to share or sell the firmware package. Will report back once I get a reply. Here a link to the video in case you are curious: 【Light L16相机 固件升级指南】 https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1J...eb&vd_source=ee675b02079b99672e60053aa4c88611
Please do not harass the video host, last thing we want is to piss off that one guy who might have the firmware files.3Alright I confirmed I was completely incorrect in my first post about unlocking the bootloader
this will work to unlock the bootloader/install twrp/magisk root
You might need to reset the camera, so back up your pictures/data
setup adb and fastboot (guide)
download and extract VIKIROOT from here
download magisk apk from here
download material files apk from here
download twrp.imgfrom this postfrom here
put all the files in the same folder as the adb command
open a terminal/cmd window in the adb folder
adb push exploit /data/local/tmp
adb shell
cd /data/local/tmp
chmod +x exploit
./exploit 2222
you need to toggle Bluetooth if it is stuck on "waiting for reverse connect shell"
if you get "unknown kernel" reboot and try again
It will say ===TERMINAL=== if it worked, whoami should return root.
the prompt will probably be blank
dd if=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/boot of=/storage/emulated/0/boot.img
dd if=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/recovery of=/storage/emulated/0/recovery.img (for safety)
exit
exit
If the camera becomes disconnected before you exit the root prompt, temporary root does not appear to work until the camera is factory reset from recovery. This is not necessary if boot.img was dumped successfully as temporary root is not needed again.
adb install Magisk-v25.2.apk
adb install "Material Files_1.5.2_Apkpure.apk"
Open the Magisk app on the camera and press install near the top left. Press next, select and patch a file, open the menu on the left and select material files, scroll down and select boot.img, and then press LET'S GO ->
after it completes check what file name it saved as and change the file name bolded below
(or open material files and check the download folder if you closed Magisk)
adb pull /storage/emulated/0/Download/magisk_patched-XXXXX_YYYYY.img magisk_patched.img
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot oem devlock off
fastboot reboot bootloader
fastboot flash boot magisk_patched.img
fastboot flash recovery twrp.img (not required but nice to have)
fastboot reboot
The camera will reboot to android, and magisk should have the superuser tab available.
Changing to root in adb shell now can be done with su instead of the temporary root (there will be an approval prompt on the camera)
The bootloader will now allow flashing different system versions
please tell me if you have any problems
(to just unlock the bootloader)
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot oem devlock off
fastboot reboot2I have a damaged production unit with 1.3.0.3-57 ( i see now that
V1.3.4.1 (1341) - May 2019 - is last release in the light website release notes )
at point where I have vikiroot on it.
have older unit with old firmware... is defaulted to root on debug shell.
so i guess the plan is try to sideload a rom app and pull a backup rom of the older firmware then update the older unit. anyone been down this route yet? pitfalls / successes to share?
older firmware on 'good' unit is 1.2.2_1
newer firmware on damaged unit is 1.3.0.3-57
EDIT:
Into recovery mode on both units. No fastboot =/
God I really dislike how android OS builders always go out of their way to screw over their customers.
EDIT 2:
Initial plan is to side load busybox as static compiled target to 1.3.0.3-57 unit. execute VIKIROOT exploit to escalate to root. And do a netcat dump of the OS disk block to another node. IF that works I'll do the same for the older node. At least have a full image dump of both devices.
I am tempted to attempt to do an overwrite of the disk block on the older device with the newer firmware exported image. But that's chancey. If it goes wrong the device will brick. =/2I will also mention I have a few of these devices on the way that claim to have the latest firmware. If they do, I'll happily work on cloning them and post it.
