[ROM][UNOFFICIAL][11] LineageOS 18.1 for Fire TV Stick Lite/3rd gen (sheldon/p)

[Sus_i]

If the OTG adapter could still be the problem, can anybody recommend one for the FireStick Lite?

Usually even the cheapest one you can get from china will work fine...

How to add External USB OTG Storage and Move Apps on the Fire TV Stick Lite, Fire TV Stick 3, and Fire TV Cube

In Amazon's current lineup of Fire TV models, the 2020 Fire TV Stick Lite, 2020 3rd-gen Fire TV Stick, and the Fire TV Cube (both 1st and 2nd-gen) support expanding their internal storage through the use of an external USB drive.

www.aftvnews.com

 

[ryanrudolf]

Anyone else unable to get OTG to work on their FireStick Lite? I followed all the steps as described here, and in the unlock thread, except needing to disable the rpmb check during unlock as suggested here. LineageOS 18.1 [20220505] seems to run well, but no device connected to the OTG adapter (Link to product page) is recognized / working.

What I've tried so far:

• Confirmed the OTG adapter's functionality on my 2nd gen FireStick => all devices work like a charm
• Tried different cables and different 5V chargers with up to 2.4 A
• Tried FAT32 flash drive, TV remote dongle, gamepad dongle
• Changed default USB connection mode in developer options to MTP (which interestingly gets reset to "only charging" after each OS restart), also tried some of the other modes
• USB debugging on/off
• Enabled USB host API by populating XML files in /etc/permissions as described here. This will result in various "OTG checker" apps confirming OTG support, but it has no effect on functionality.
• Inspection via ADB shell: didn't find any trace of the flash drive; lsusb is always showing the same 3 unnamed devices, no matter what's plugged in the adapter's USB-A slots

To be frank, OTG wasn't working on stock ROM either, I was secretly hoping that the custom ROM would fix that, but no luck. The stick was on Fire OS 7.2.4.2 when I unlocked it. I don't know if an update would have fixed it, but that's no option to me as I am unwilling to use Fire OS.

I'm running out of options due to my limited knowledge...any ideas?
If the OTG adapter could still be the problem, can anybody recommend one for the FireStick Lite?

OTG works fine for me for stock ROM and LineageOS ROM. could be your OTG adapter is at fault.
although with LineageOS i can see my USB stick but cant write files to it. it works fine with stock ROM so i reverted back to stock ROM for now.

 

[Merdeke]

I'm running out of options due to my limited knowledge...any ideas?
If the OTG adapter could still be the problem, can anybody recommend one for the FireStick Lite?

I'm using this one (with a microusb adapter) and it works ok for flash drive, keyboard and mouse all at once.

 

[jfmcbrayer]

are well all using the stock launcher with this build? what's the preferred replacement? I get a black screen so far when I F with wolf launcher.

I'm using FLauncher. I like the channels and access to notifications on the stock launcher, but the prominent ads for streaming apps and no choice of background are too vexing. Flauncher is simple, and available in the Play Store. There's also an update to Leanback on Fire that is pretty good.

 

[flaviokosta]

I found a solution myself. I still don't know why the volume was so low, but with the following adb command the volume can be changed to maximum:

adb shell service call audio 10 i32 3 i32 15

The 15 at the end is the volume and it looks like 15 is the maximum value.

How can i do it?
When?

I could not do it...

 

[t3chg33k]

I use Send Files to TV app to transfer files and APKs with the stick and for some reason, it only works for me the first time I open the application after a restart. Thereafter, keeps failing with a "no route found" error which I presume has something to do with the WiFi connectivity on the device.

This is a great initial effort but I suppose it is back to FireOS for me now as this thing matures, especially as I also use mirroring a lot.

 

[JHSchulz]

How can i do it?
When?

I could not do it...

Enable USB debugging on the stick, connect it via USB to a PC with ADB installed (like the one you used to install LineageOS), open a shell and type in the command.

 

[t3chg33k]

I use Send Files to TV app to transfer files and APKs with the stick and for some reason, it only works for me the first time I open the application after a restart. Thereafter, keeps failing with a "no route found" error which I presume has something to do with the WiFi connectivity on the device.

This is a great initial effort but I suppose it is back to FireOS for me now as this thing matures, especially as I also use mirroring a lot.

I went back to FireTV OS and now the remote is not pairing and I am stuck on the 'searching for remote' screen. The same remote paired fine with the stick when I first set it up and also with LOS.

Someone else had the same pairing issue with LOS instead earlier in this thread which was related to HDMI CEC but that is not the case here since I have been using the stick with a monitor.

So any suggestions as to how I can proceed? The stick hasn't connected to WiFi yet and thus I cannot use the app either to proceed further.

Edit: So for some reason, it only worked with the original remote that came with the stick. I was initially using an older remote that I had originally paired with the stick when I first set it up, before rooting. Not sure why it didn't work after the reset, may be because the firmware is different.

 

[t3chg33k]

Although I went back to stock OS, there was another issue with LOS when trying to log into an app that uses OTP. For some reason, the numeric only keypad required to enter the OTP never appeared in the app on iOS.

I use the same app now on FireOS and it does invoke a numeric keypad to enter the OTP. Not sure why it wasn't working on LOS.

 

[virtos4]

Does the voice input work?
The first post indicates it should, but it does not for me.

 

[crusherjoe2000]

Edit: So for some reason, it only worked with the original remote that came with the stick. I was initially using an older remote that I had originally paired with the stick when I first set it up, before rooting. Not sure why it didn't work after the reset, may be because the firmware is different.

I have a similar problem with the stick not pairing with the remote (the original that came with the stick). Tried everything, but in the end, I started from scratch again, re-flashed the LineageOS ROM, BUT WITHOUT GApps, and was finally able to pair the remote.

The possibility that Gapps causes problem with remote pairing was described here:

https://xdaforums.com/t/dev-rom-uno...11-for-raspberry-pi-4-b.4212945/post-86089723

 

[crusherjoe2000]

I spent quite a bit of time trying to get LineageOS working with my Fire TV Stick Lite Remote, so I want to describe my problems and how I solved them to help others with similar issues.

I followed the instructions, boot to TWRP (I had TWRP and magisk installed), wiped data, system, and cache, and flashed lineage-18.1-20220505-UNOFFICIAL-sheldon.zip and open_gapps-arm-11.0-tvmini-20220215.zip.

Everything went smoothly until it's time to pair the remote. The screen would show the image of the remote, and the animation indicates that I need to push the back and home buttons. As soon as I clicked on the home button the countdown was replaced by a spinning circle, but after a while the pairing will fail and the countdown timer start again. I tried holding the Home button for 10+ seconds, tapping it for 10+ seconds, holding Home + Back for 10+ seconds, etc. All sorts of combinations. All failed. I gave up and pressed ESC on the USB keyboard attached to the Y-splitter and continue to the rest of the setup. Once the setup is finished, I went into setting, Accessories and Remotes, and tried pairing again. LineageOS will find the "AR" device as soon as I click on the home button, but pairing always fails ("cannot pair") in the same fashion as during the initial setup. I did notice that if I hold Back+Home then the pairing failed quickly rather than a long timeout.

I though that maybe something was wrong with the remote (came with my brand new stick, with fresh Amazon batteries). Measured the battery voltages and they were fine. Also some people say that the LED light on the remote should flash if Home button is held for 10+ seconds but mine does not. So I tried pairing the remote with an Android phone. The pairing was very easy. I only needed to press Home once to let Android detect the remote, then hold Back+Home for the pairing to be done. I can even use the remote to navigate around on the Android phone.

So the hardware is fine, and I know the stick's Bluetooth is fine too because I can pair it with a generic Bluetooth keyboard with no problem whatsoever. So I started googling and found that the problem may be cause by GApps: https://xdaforums.com/t/dev-rom-uno...11-for-raspberry-pi-4-b.4212945/post-86089723

So I started from scratch, re-installed LineageOS but this time WITHOUT GApps. During the initial setup, things are even worse than before because the remote cannot even be detected. So I pressed ESC on the keyboard and got into the Home Screen, and proceed to Settings, Accessories and Remote to try to pair again.

Same problem, no device detected. So I tried to pair the remote with my Android Phone again. This time Android phone cannot detected the remote either. I took out the battery of the remote, turned Bluetooth off and the on on the phone, and finally I was able to pair the remote to the phone again.

Now I went back to try to pair the remote with the Fire TV Stick. This time it finally worked. The remote was detected as "AR" and I held Back+Home and then clicked on "pair" and finally the pairing was successful.

I also rebooted the stick a few time and the pairing continued to work.

I decided that I actually like the system without GApps. I installed F-Droid and then installed VLC from it. For everything else I just use adb install. BTW, if you are on Windows and all you need is adb, you don't need to install the whole Android SDK, you can just install this: https://xdaforums.com/t/tool-minimal-adb-and-fastboot-2-9-18.2317790/

 

[Merdeke]

I found a solution myself. I still don't know why the volume was so low, but with the following adb command the volume can be changed to maximum:

adb shell service call audio 10 i32 3 i32 15

The 15 at the end is the volume and it looks like 15 is the maximum value.

Thank you kindly for this. To begin with I had no volume problems, then one day it became too low to hear.. tried fiddling with the Consumer electronics control (CEC) choices in Settings in case that was it - and it went back to normal volume - then it went low again and stayed that way no matter the CEC settings (so maybe the initial fix was just a coincidence).

Anyway this adb command seems to have fixed volume permanently.

 

[crusherjoe2000]

I know that Fire TV Stick is supposed to boot into TWRP when it detects a USB keyboard, and indeed it boots into LineageOS directly if I power it up using a regular DC supply. But I noticed that if I have an OTG Y-splitter connected to it (so that I can plug in USB keyboard, hardrive, etc) then it boots into TWRP instead of LineageOS. Not a big deal, just that it takes an extra 5 seconds for the TWRP boot screen to time out. Is that how it is supposed to work? Is there a way to make the stick boot into TWRP only if there is a USB keyboard connected to it?

I know that this is a TWRP issue and not related to LineageOS, but I googled and did not find an answer so I though I'd ask it here.

 

[crusherjoe2000]

One more beginner's observation. Even though the lineage-18.1-20220505-UNOFFICIAL-sheldon.zip is supposed to support both NTFS and exFAT in the kernel, only exFAT formatted USB keys are recognized. I guess that is because only exFAT is supported by vold (volume daemon)?

 

[sergisx]

Thank you kindly for this. To begin with I had no volume problems, then one day it became too low to hear.. tried fiddling with the Consumer electronics control (CEC) choices in Settings in case that was it - and it went back to normal volume - then it went low again and stayed that way no matter the CEC settings (so maybe the initial fix was just a coincidence).

Anyway this adb command seems to have fixed volume permanently.

The voice assistant also helped me to increase the volume to the maximum

 

[sergisx]

I see, I think there's an option somewhere in the Settings (I can't check right now, sorry), it was called OverScan if I'm not mistaken. If it's not there, I'll include it in the next build.

If it's possible, please add the option to change the screen resolution (in the next build):
Auto
1080p 60Hz
1080p 50Hz
720p 60Hz
720p 50Hz
for old monitors.
Because "adb shell wm size 1280x720"
enlarges the image, but does not change the resolution.
A volume control would also be a useful feature, as sometimes the volume drops to a minimum and the voice assistant helps to fix it.

 

[Merdeke]

Sorry, this isn't strictly a posting about the ROM. but I am wondering: now that this is working nicely playing files copied across using a flash drive, does anyone have experience with a simple solution for using this LineageOS+FireTVStick combo to play video from an externally located collection of miscellaneous video files?

Just looking for any tips before I start fiddling about with an approach that's more trouble than it's worth!

I could host them on windows or raspberry pi , or a drive connected to an asus router. Given EAC3 codec apparently won't play, do I need a server that transcodes and provides a stream? Or is it simpler to convert any such videos to use a different audio codec, then just connect to a shared folder?

 

[n4m3less]

I found a solution myself. I still don't know why the volume was so low, but with the following adb command the volume can be changed to maximum:

adb shell service call audio 10 i32 3 i32 15

The 15 at the end is the volume and it looks like 15 is the maximum value.

Thanks for sharing! it seems to have solved the low volume issue on my device.

 

[darkside40]

Are there any serious downsides if i dont install Gapps? Is only the playstore missing or any relevant features?