This post contains information on installing LE version 7.0 and 8.0 on S905/S905D/S905X/S912.
I highly recommend booting from SD card/USB!! Installing to internal storage may brick your Box and you will need to reinstall Android to get it working again.
0. Detailed Device Notes
WeTek Hub and WeTek Play2: No need to use the toothpick method: upgrade to the latest Android version and take advantage of dual-boot!
Odroid-C2: You don't have to choose the device tree because it's embedded in kernel.img.
Note: If you are upgrading from a different build, the safest way is to extract the contents from the .img.gz file and copy it to your SD/eMMC card.
1. Before Installing - Select Device Tree
Important: You cannot use the Android device tree because in 99% of cases it does not work.
Please look at the release thread for the device tree folder directory.
S905: First, look for the device tree with the Box name in it. In the absence of such images, download the universal one.
Example: for a Box with 2GB RAM and 100Mbit Ethernet, download gxbb_p200_2G_100M.dtb
For Boxes with Realtek WiFi, download RealtekWiFi in the device tree in the name of
S905X: You can leave the tree that is already there on the SD card (fresh install only) or select one of them depending on the amount of RAM. If your Box's internal memory is not visible when you try to install to internal memory, try the device tree with the _nand suffix.
S912: You need to select the device tree depending on the Ethernet port speed and the amount of RAM.
2. Prepare the SD card/USB drive
Note: Only 1 USB port can boot the Box. You should try all of them. Some boxes can boot from a USB drive.
Look at the beginning of the post and find the Downloads link. Download the file with the img.gz extension.
Save the downloaded file to an SD card or USB flash drive via Rufus. Alternatively, you can use the LE tool, but remember that you have to download the images manually: Installation - LibreELEC
After this, you can see that the disk capacity is 512 MB. This is normal, as there is a second (hidden) partition on the disk for the user data file!
Download the device tree as described above and rename it to dtb.img.Copy the renamed file to the root folder of your SD/USB card - replace the one that already exists.
To boot the system for the first time, use one of the following - sometimes the only way to boot the device!
Terminal Emulator: Android downloads, insert SD card/USB with LE, install Terminal Emulator app (from Google Play or APKMirror), run it and type the restart command. Your Box should boot into LE.
Toothpick method: disconnect power, insert card/disk, press reset button and connect power while holding the button. Wait until the LibreELEC logo appears and release the button.
Menu button method(works with very few devices): disconnect the power, insert the card/disk, press the Menu button on the remote control and connect the power while holding the button. Wait until the LibreELEC logo appears and release the button.
Recovery method: boot into Android, insert the card/USB drive and select Reboot to recovery. Your Box should boot into LibreELEC.
Recovery Method (2nd Option):If you have the pre-release "Update" version installed, open it, insert your LE SD card/connect your USB drive, and select the ZIP file in the update app. Your Box should reboot to LE.
Recovery method (3rd variant):Enable ADB (Google it) and issue the command adb reboot update
Update
The update process is the same on SD, USB and internal storage installations:
Important: You should also download the new device tree, and place the update file in the Update folder. You must have both files in the update folder to reboot. There is no need to rename the device tree before updating.
Installing to Internal Storage (Not Recommended, Risky)
Boot from SD card/USB first. If it works correctly, connect to your Box via SSH, execute the installtointernal command, and follow the on-screen instructions. This command cleans up the SYSTEM and DATA partitions!
Note: If your Box has a defined partition structure, you may see an error message when trying to boot from internal storage for the first time. To fix this, you'll need to reboot your SD card and run installtointernal again.
Back to Android?
If you installed to an SD card or USB drive, simply turn off your box, disconnect the media from LE, and turn on the box.
If you installed LE to internal storage, you'll need to find the firmware designed for your box and follow the installation instructions.
To boot into recovery after installing LE to internal storage, follow this procedure:
Prepare a clean, FAT32-formatted SD card or USB drive
Copy recovery.img and dtb.img from the Android firmware to the SD card (do not use dbt.IMG for LE!)
Use the "toothpick" method to boot from SD card / USB or restart the system via SSH
FAQ
Q:My remote control is not working, what can I do? A:Get the remote.conf file from the Android firmware (it is available in /system/etc) and copy it to the Configuration:/storage/.config folder via SSH or \your_box_IPConfiguration using Windows shares. You can also place this file in the root folder of your SD card. You may need to reassign some buttons.
Q:My LibreELEC settings screen is blank, how can I fix this? A:Log in via SSH and execute rm /storage/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/service.libreelec.settings/oe_settings.xml and restart.
Q:A few seconds are missing at the beginning of the video. About: Enable Expert settings, go to Settings > Video > Playback and set "Pause when changing refresh rate" to the missing amount.
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