[DEV Thread] Open Boxee Box

[bartsidee]

As there is not that much known about actually developing on the ce4100 I decided to open up a thread to accumulate some information, so devs might come together on cracking the boxee box and we can run both xbmc and boxee by choice. Anyone with technical information that can contribute to the possible open boxee is welcome to share this here.

What is known:

To get root access to the box you first need to revert to an old firmware you can download here. Make sure you read how to disable automatic update. And read how to gain root access.

For further information on the hardware and filesystems have a look at:
http://boxeeboxwiki.org

The box at the moment is pretty tight down and all update files are signed, a possibility would be the CEFDK. As the CE4100 has no bios it uses a special CEFDK bootloader. It might be possible to adjust it and have it boot a custom image. Some devs have been looking at it for the logitech revue (same ce4100) See also:
http://www.aminocom.com/download.php...9695439435363/
http://forum.gtvhacker.com/search.ph...&submit=Search

I haven't found the UART/JTAG port on my boxee but something like the google tv hack might be possible:
http://www.gtvhacker.com/index.php/Steps_to_get_root


As the ce4100 is kind of a closed platform due to the licence restrictions intel has, there is no public kernel available. The SDK to build the kernel is only handed to intel partners. Still the SDK is distributed with the development devices one can buy from multiple suppliers:
https://www.videon-central.com/videon-store
http://shop.cc-e.eu/
http://www.adiengineering.com/our-wo...ip-set-top-box

The prices are high ($700-$900 for a single device), but it could be worth to set something up community wise, also there might be people who have such a dev box available on their work and might be able to help out.

Alright so if we can get the SDK what platform to use as for example xbmc will need some hardware acceleration.

I've done some research and it seems meego is the perfect platform to deploy on the boxee box. Meego is an opensource linux operating system which is designed to work on embedded devices.

It has already a special developement group which has been working on MeeGo TV, a special version for the CExxxx platform. They actually already have a working version with xbmc using one of the above developer boxes! But it seems they are currently struggling with the release of the kernel code due to some licence problems (again intel)

Sept 20
"MeeGo TV 1.2 Release - Status from intel No movement on open source license issues. However, all necessary components are available with reference platforms. Continue tracking, but don't expect movement any time soon."

Some general information:

Find more info how to build an image for MeeGo:
http://wiki.meego.com/Image_Creation_For_Beginners
http://wiki.meego.com/Image_Configur...ickStart_Files

Guide to get meego and xbmc on a simular tegra platform:
http://wiki.meego.com/MeeGo_Smart_TV_for_Trimslice

Usuful xbmc and meego development news:
http://www.madeo.co.uk/?tag=meego

Some work from the MeeGo TV team (packages for xbmc etc):
https://build.meego.com/project/show...vel%3Atv%3A1.2

IRC archive of the MeeGo TV team:
http://lists.meego.com/pipermail/meego-tv/


I hope this post can give a boost the development of an open boxee platform. Although I respect all the work boxee have been putting in the box I think in the end the users should have a choice what to put on it and not be dependent on a restricted platform due to content provider which he might not even use in the first place (remember boxee box owner do not all live in the US)

So please let this discussion be a technical one and lets hope more people will contribute by adding information!

[mindslap]

[rridgway]

Yep ... it's time to get XBMC running on the BB
Don't think we will get the features we are all after any time soon waiting for "stable" releases.

[brashers]

Funny. I have now taken down my boxes box and replaced it with an ATV1 with ubuntu/XBMC. Not a day passes that I do not miss my Boxee Box in appearance, temperature, and video capability. I hung in there for over a year waiting for progress to be made in the realm of XBMC with no luck. Tonight... I was hit with an urge to take a look and see if there was any new progress. This is encouraging to see. I have enjoyed the hardware, but the software limitations have been large! buffering on in Boxee vs XBMC... apps that I actually use, with a few other issues sprinkled here and there.

This is not meant to FLAME Boxee. It is just to say I hope we can get some traction here, and I am thankful to see some more initiative going out. I have thrown money in the pot of a few other attempts to collect devs to take on this task.. to no avail. If this picks up speed/momentum I am happy to through some more in, for one of the dev devices.

P.S. - I love that you are looking into meego! I have played with it on on of my laptops many times, and am more than intrigued with what they were doing. Nokia is CRAZY!

[mbryanr]

Sept 27 - Intel drops Meego - now with Tizen.
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/n...n-platform.ars

https://www.tizen.org/

[bartsidee]

Sept 27 - Intel drops Meego - now with Tizen.
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/n...n-platform.ars

https://www.tizen.org/

True but it is in it's very early stages, there is not much released about it. MeeGo gets support from a vast community and is well documented.

[maalox]

Excellent summary-- I'm looking forward to future updates. The possibility of an open platform was the reason I bought a Boxee Box in the first place.

Of course, I'm a little late to the party since I just bought my Boxee Box last week.

My first experiences with the Boxee software (through the hacking community, via the Apple TV) were overwhelmingly positive. It's a shame that the closed hardware seems to have killed interest in development.

[rjwrichards]

I'll be watching close :-)

[bartsidee]

It seems at the moment the problem is a non cracked uboot and a secure boot process that is holding back development in this thread for a complete open boxee install. What are the odds we can come to another solution...

Since the first 1.0 release has root access we might setup something like the following:
- Root the device using the 1.0 release (download)
- Attach usb drive and install the xbmc rpm from the meego guys or try to build it somehow (might be difficult without the correct packages, but we might use another ce4100 device)
- Autostart xbmc from boxee using the 'Autoexec.py', I noticed this is still in the boxee firmware, if you place this python file in the userdata/script folder (which is writeable) it will execute on boot of boxee (to start for example an app) but we might add something to boot xbmc from the usb.
- Additional, somehow disable autoupdate of boxee. (without a router config)

I'm not sure if it will work, but this is just an idea how it could work. I'm looking at the latest development of xbmc 11 Eden and I'm actually stunned how it has been further improved in the last year. With the current speed improvements for IOS it should actually blow away boxee on the CE4100

[rridgway]

Has anyone had a look at this? http://www.logicgrass.com/ce4100.html

This Chinese a company manufactures Intel Atom CE4100 development boards with pretty impressive specs, and seems to include CE4100 SDK (some of the site is Chinese, so if anyone could translate, would be helpful )