HybridELEC Alternatives

HybridELEC reviews and mentions

• If you have a mibox3/3c (MDZ-16-AA), you can now flash dual-booting CoreELEC/EmuELEC onto it!
  2 projects | /r/MiBox | 13 May 2022

  Well if you don't know yet, **CoreELEC*\* is a JeOS (Just enough Operating System) for **kodi*\, and ***EmuELEC**** is a JeOS for **EmulationStation*\. I'm the author of project [\*HybridELEC**](https://github.com/7Ji/HybridELEC), a project that brings side-by-side dual-booting support to **CoreELEC*\* and **EmuELEC*\* on **internal storage*\, which was assumed impossible by developers from both teams. This is mainly a result of me getting bored and mad at Xiaomi's bloated stock firmware and beginning my reverse engineering on ***MDZ-16-AA**** Currently the **HybridELEC*\* *\*only\*\* supports **MDZ-16-AA*\* \(the* **Chinese*\* version of mibox3/3c, but I assume some of you who have mibox3 are actually holding this version, as searching MDZ-16-AA on ebay brings me many results with sellers located outside China)\, as ***HybridELEC**** relies on modifying the partition table **during flashing*\* via device-tree which is **device-specific*\. And since this is the ***only**** device in my hand, it's impossible for me to bring support to more devices The project is licensed under **GPLv2*\* as it is a derived work of **CoreELEC*\* and **EmuELEC*\, and you are free to fork and modify it, as long as you keep your modification open source. You need to prepare several things to flash the image 1. A tweezer, ***conductive**, or something similiar, you will need this to short two pins in the box 2. Something flat/sharp yet hard, like a *\*flat screwdriver*\, you need this to take the box apart 3. The image, you can download it via the [link](https://github.com/7Ji/HybridELEC/releases/tag/Hybrid-1.2) from the github release page, or build it yourself. The one in the release page is compressed (xz) so you must decompress it 4. A USB type A to type A cable, you need to connect the box to your PC via this cable, I got mine shipped with a cheapy capture card, but you can make one by yourself (just cut two old USB cables and connect the wires of the same color together) 5. Amlogic USB Burning Tool, I'm using v2.0.8 but there are many newer versions available You can flash the image as follows: 1. Open Amlogic USB Burning Tool and import the image, make sure you check and ***only**** check **erase flash*\, and in the drop-down menu check ***erase all**** 2. Take your mibox3/3c apart, only the case, you do not need to remove the board from the case 3. Optionally connect the HDMI cable to help you determining whether it's booted into system 4. Connect the box to your PC via the USB A-to-A cable 5. Short the two copper round test spots near the IR sensor and the sheild on the board, and hold it 6. Plug the power 7. The box should be identified by USB Burning Tool and it should start flashing, and the screen should be totally black, you need to **remove the tweezer ASAP*\* or otherwise the emmc chip won't be recognised and the flashing will fail. **If you failed or it boots into Android, you need to unplug the power and USB cable, and redo the steps above*\. 8. After the progress bar goes 100% and turns green, you can close the USB Burning Tool and unplug the power and USB cable 9. You now have side-by-side dual-booting ***CoreELEC**** and **EmuELEC*\* on your mibox3! To switch between CoreELEC and EmuELEC, you need to press **Reboot to EmuELEC*\* in the CoreELEC kodi power button menu, or **REBOOT TO COREELEC*\* in the EmuELEC quick access menu The **CoreELEC*\* and **EmuELEC*\* systems in the image are mostly delivered as-is (which means they are basically stock experience you would expect from official CoreELEC and EmuELEC release), but with minor tweaks to better adapts the MDZ-16-AA (supporting stock IR/bluetooth remotes and many more) If you have any issues about the firmware, open an issue at [the github page](https://github.com/7Ji/HybridELEC/issues). But I won't fix upstream-related issues, as all HybridELEC does is combining them and I don't have much time to fix those issues not caused by myself.