Tell OUYA We Need a Way into Recovery

[TopherBarnett]

There's no hardware keys to press on the OUYA to get it to boot into fastboot/recovery mode. They seem to think it is a tiny minority that they shouldn't have to care about, but I don't especially feel like bricking my device. I figured I'd try to drum up a little more support on XDA.

Make your voice heard here: http://forums.ouya.tv/discussion/1380/recovery-mode/p1

 

[TadeoNYC]

There's no hardware keys to press on the OUYA to get it to boot into fastboot/recovery mode. They seem to think it is a tiny minority that they shouldn't have to care about, but I don't especially feel like bricking my device. I figured I'd try to drum up a little more support on XDA.

Make your voice heard here: http://forums.ouya.tv/discussion/1380/recovery-mode/p1

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2326377

Let OUYA know we want custom ROMs supported

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[Simonius007]

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2326377

Let OUYA know we want custom ROMs supported

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+1

 

[player911]

You just use a USB keyboard for the hardware keys.

Or download a Reboot into recovery app.

I'm not sure how Ouya could resolve this unless you are requesting a feature set on the next wave of hardware.

As far as I know there are already several custom ROMs and recovery solutions?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app

 

[TopherBarnett]

Thanks for the links. Didn't realize that thread was about the same thing because the title was a bit misleading.

You just use a USB keyboard for the hardware keys.

Or download a Reboot into recovery app.

I'm not sure how Ouya could resolve this unless you are requesting a feature set on the next wave of hardware.

As far as I know there are already several custom ROMs and recovery solutions?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app

From what I understand, the USB keyboard can only be used to crash the startup into recovery using the sysreq key trick, but if it can't get past the init.d file, you're stuck in NVflash mode without the Secure Boot Key, essentially bricking your device. So now our only real hope is that OUYA changes their mind and gives us the SBK, or some sympathetic dev from their camp leaks them.

 

[player911]

Ahhh. I didn't know it basically crashes your system.

Oddly the Ouya is the only device I don't want to hack. I don't see anything advantageous about flashing anything.

I'd be curious to know what Ouya says. They're box is hackable but I'm not sure if they would like people flashing to other ROMs that doesn't use their market.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

 

[ooBONGoo]

you guys do know that some apps like quickboot (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.siriusapplications.quickboot&hl=en) can boot your Ouya into recovery mode? What I would like to see is getting the SBK like TopherBarnett suggested so that at least we can all be guaranteed our Ouya won't get bricked permanently because the android community is innately tinkerers when it comes to android softmods and customization.

 

[bornagainpenguin]

Ahhh. I didn't know it basically crashes your system.

Oddly the Ouya is the only device I don't want to hack. I don't see anything advantageous about flashing anything.

How about bugfixes? How about a way to continue using the device three years down as a media player even after OUYA 2017 is out and the first revision of the console is increasingly abandoned? How about a way to back up your games and saves? Maybe even just a Link2SD type solution for the increasingly meager seeming 8GB internal storage?

Look, I'm in the same boat as you--the OUYA is the first Android device that I've owned where I haven't really felt a burning need to root and install a custom rom on it as soon as I could. Most of my Android devices haven't lasted a week before I had them rooted, using a custom recovery and a custom rom without the OEM crapware infested sludge slowing me down. The OUYA is the only one where I've actually used the defaults and said to myself, "Yeah, I could learn to really like this..."

Only there are some outstanding bugs that simply don't seem to be a priority and aren't getting fixed. The OUYA team has demonstrated an unwillingness to openness and an inability to communicate to its users. In the past whenever I had these types of issues, it was the community which solved most of my issues, long after the manufacturer had moved on to seek new dollars. The only reason I bought the OUYA was because of the promised openness of the console and the ability to use it with custom firmwares.

So, despite being mostly happy with my purchase I still want the promised openness that I bought the OUYA for in the first place, even if I do like the current looks of the software and want to stay as stock as possible. Otherwise there will be many who like myself will simply not bother with the next iteration of the console and no one will need to worry about what the 2017 edition OUYA looks like because there won't be one.

--bornagainpenguin

 

[player911]

I agree but I feel this article is being a little too harsh. Ouya people aren't stupid. They know whats up with the hardcore guys like us. It's not even been out a month (July 4th or something). I'm sure they are balls to the wall with getting devs on board and bug fixes and just making the thing run properly for the 95% of people who use it the way it was intended.

Once they get their crap together and things start to begin flowing naturally and they find a little free time, they might think up something.

Has anyone tried Rom Manager or anything? There has to be some way to Reboot into Recovery other then a hardware solution.

But I just don't get it. There IS a way to hack this thing... but people are complaining that it's a little dicey. Try hacking a Xbox by taking the whole thing apart and flashing a firmware to the disc drive which requires a special PC adapter. BrickCentral if something were to go wrong. Killing your device is a taken risk when you do anything done here.

I really can't see Ouya doing anything about this. If they go out of their way to make it easy to run stock android, then it might turn Ouya devs off. Perhaps once the unit is EOL, they'll provide a final rom with some extra recovery options.

 

[Oscar_david]

Has anyone tried Rom Manager or anything? There has to be some way to Reboot into Recovery other then a hardware solution.

There are a number of ways to boot into recovery: adb, third party apps like Quick Boot, terminal emulators. But there is currently no way to do it through hardware.

Essentially, we're missing the equivalent of "volume up+power" most of us are familiar with from rooting other devices. This makes soft bricks pretty much the same as hard bricks. And that's the problem.

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[IncognitoMan]

Has anyone tried Rom Manager or anything? There has to be some way to Reboot into Recovery other then a hardware solution.

Like Oscar_david pointed out... these are all software solutions to a hardware problem....

IF, for example, you flash an improper kernel or something goes haywire enough to cause it not to boot far enough in to atleast enable adb... you have a softbrick that can NOT be fixed by any software solution.

Sadly the real solution is one we probably will never get... and that's via unlocked bootloader or the keys so we can flash from bootrom recovery

 

[Shiftone]

It's mad that the OUYA guys omitted a hardware key from their design - I can't think of any other Android arm SoC based mini computer that doesn't have a pin hole button to enter recovery. All the mini stick computers like the mk802 and Google TV boxes like Pivos have this feature...

 

[bornagainpenguin]

That's the thing--I could have bought a Pivos, but didn't because I wanted to have the best of both worlds and play games as well as videos. I thought the OUYA would offer that to me, but the longer it takes to fix things the less hopeful I become.

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