Boya

Defunct, saved for posterity, hopefully no one will nevermore need this information.

Pulled from the interwebz, forgot source...

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Recently there was an issue with Miyoo Mini firmware due to an internal hardware change

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Things that happened:

1. As of December 2022 Miyoo was no longer able to source the internal flash chip they were using so they sourced a new chip very similar in functionality, but they didn't immediately receive the additional drivers needed to enable full write functionality with this new chip

2. They released devices (starting December 20th) with this new chip and a new firmware (v202212160314, referred to as 1216 firmware) which marked the date of this hardware revision and also introduced a change to the boot process intended to cause the device to wait up to 8s for the SD card to mount (this may have been a response to issues with slower cards), but unfortunately the use of the new chip without the necessary drivers still produced the following serious issues:

--it caused installing onion to brick the device (due to a command in onion that shaved 1s off boot time)

--it caused changing boot logo with logotweak to brick the device

--it caused settings to not persist on reboot

Additionally due to a syntax error in the new boot process the 1216 firmware introduced another issue as follows:

--it caused a full 8s boot delay regardless of the SD card used

3. They identified the settings issue (which also caused app crashing issues in onion even after resolution of the bricking issue during install) and released a new firmware (v202212240121, referred to as 1224 firmware) which fixed that by saving settings to the SD card instead of internal flash. However this did not resolve the other issues

4. Onion was updated to fix the issues with devices being bricked (this removed the command that shaved off 1s from boot time. Users updating from older onion versions will continue to benefit from the 1s reduction but users installing onion on new devices will not. Realistically this is not very noticeable in any case)

5. Onion devs and community members developed a firmware patch(v202301041337, referred to as 0104 firmware) that resolves the boot delay bug

6. Devs developed an experimental workaround for changing boot logos to cope with the logotweak bricking issue

7. As of December 31st Miyoo began reverting to the old chip (apparently having successfully sourced it again in the meantime) as a result of not being able to obtain the correct drivers for the new chip, and also reverted to the 0419 firmware

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Where we stand now:

1. Current devices and devices produced prior to the start of this issue (any sold prior to December 20th) should both be using the original chip and older firmware, usually the known good version from April 2022 (v202204190828, referred to as 0419 firmware). Devices with the original chip have been reported starting December 31st, but some devices from the 31st have also been reported to have the new chip and 1224 firmware, so it is not yet clear when the last affected devices were sold. These devices should be completely unaffected by this issue going forward regardless of what onion version they are running or when they update. There is **no need for a firmware update for devices using 0419 firmware and unnecessary updates are not recommended**

2. Devices using the 1216 firmware (believed to be only a small number of devices shipped starting December 20th, exact number and last ship date unknown) will presumably experience the following issues:

-- changing boot logo with logotweak bricks the device

-- settings do not persist on reboot

-- onion does not work properly (some apps in app menu will crash)

-- boot is delayed by 8s

Users of these devices will need to update to 1224 or 0104 to make the device fully functional

3. Devices using the 1224 firmware (believed to be a somewhat larger number of devices sold from the end of the 1216 devices up until at least December 31st, possibly later) will presumably experience the following issues:

-- changing boot logo with logotweak bricks the device

-- boot is delayed by 8s

Users of these devices could optionally update to 0104 to resolve the boot delay(see next section for details)

4. Devices using the 0104 firmware patch no longer have 8s boot delay and should experience only one remaining issue:

-- changing boot logo with logotweak bricks the device

There are no specific known risks of using this firmware patch going forward, but it is not official so Miyoo could choose not to support issues caused by updating, and as a general principle users should be cautious when doing firmware updates since there is an inherent risk of bricking with each update. **Users should consider all of these factors when deciding if it is worthwhile to update from 1224**

5. An experimental workaround for modifying the boot logo without brick has been developed by community members and is being tested

6. Miyoo has been informed of the syntax error causing the boot delay bug, which was identified by community members

7. Miyoo has reverted to the original chip and the 0419 firmware and is not expected to produce further fixes for the December devices with the new chip

8. Users with requisite technical skills and access to a raspberry pi can restore devices bricked while installing onion prior to fix using the following guide: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/931367023588569180/967635766228430878/MiyooMiniUnbrickGuide.pdf

(one potential issue users may encounter following this guide is that the flash rom tool version in the guide (v1.2) does not recognize the new chip and must be updated to the v1.3.0-rc1 build in order to do so, however v1.2 can be used successfully by setting the chip type to "SFDP-capable chip" rather than identifying the specific chip in the device)

9. Users with devices bricked via logotweak can restore using the normal SD FW update process

10. Users unable to restore a bricked device should be able to receive a replacement board from Miyoo (contact them via their aliexpress support chat)

11. Discussion and development in the community is ongoing to attempt to better support the devices affected by these issues and it is hoped that all issues can eventually be mitigated via community developed software and firmware

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Link to download 0104 firmware patch:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OvmkKEtSMEWv1RY8LPsbDk0ylWzOg\_7j?usp=sharing