[MTCD Android Head Units General] doitright:
So we currently have a situation where it can be quite frightening to try anything cool on the Intel head units, since if you brick it, you might not be able to recover it.

I tried to pull this information out of the manufacturer of the units I've chosen to buy (Joying), but they started out playing retarded, then after about a hundred emails exchanged including links to videos of head units booting into recovery, and a detailed explanation of why it is needed (factory reset when android can't boot, for example), the last thing I was able to get out of them (because they landed themselves into an idiot infinite loop) was "Nice day, this is Candy from Joying, Thanks for your email and info, new model is muchly stable than old model, recovery not needed, don't worry, Hope you well-understanding, Any more questions pls feel free to contact us, Best regards, Candy".

<sarcasm>HOW BLOODY USEFUL!</sarcasm>

So lets use this thread to record known methods of booting into recovery.

If you are able to get into recovery, make note of the following details;

1) Brand and model number,

2) MCU firmware brand and version,

3) Exact reproducible process to boot into recovery.

One person here (@MMTK84) has apparently been able to get into recovery to the "no command" screen by plugging in an external keyboard and pressing some buttons on it.

This is for a Joying UL135N2: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=69757832&postcount=133

Now the concerning thins about this particular procedure, is that it starts booting, and then reboots and goes into recovery. The reason this is concerning, is if it starts booting off the BOOT partition, registers the button clicks to reboot to recovery, and then reboots to recovery. This case could be bad if you happen to have a broken boot image. In other words, without further information, I wouldn't depend on it.

For... I'm not sure which unit, I found this on a Russian forum indicating pressing and holding the BACK button for about 10 seconds, releasing when the lights start flashing, and tapping it again: http://4pda.ru/pages/go/?u=https://...%3D140&usg=ALkJrhiZ8C2dCOO73ghthzievLV2mKtXyQ

*** further down in the same thread, someone else said the same process, but with the RESET button.

The reset button method might be able to apply to devices without physical buttons.

There are also TWO MORE buttons on all devices than what you see on the front panels -- the steering wheel interface buttons. Perhaps one or the other of those could, in some instances, trigger a boot to recovery?

So anybody who has these Intel head units, post your methods to achieve a boot into recovery.

Please keep the questions and discussions OUT of this thread, I'd like for it to be used exclusively to list SUCCESSFUL methods of booting into recovery.

More brainstorming;

If it becomes absolutely a problem and we find out that some devices *simply cannot* be booted into recovery, this could yield a solution;

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1522226

What that is, is an additional bootloader based on Das U-Boot, which adds in some of the missing multi-boot functionality. You stick that one in to the original boot partition, and instead of starting the kernel and Android, it instead launches a menu that lets you pick what you want to start. HOWEVER, given that this hardware is x86, we might actually have some luck with something more conventional, like GRUB.