yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Sony Xperia X Compact Questions & Answers] TotalNew:
Thank you. But can´t get into service mode. When i try the led blinks red.

I´m not sure if the drivers are correctly installed. When i download them from sony, i installed them as legacy hardware but it have the status "not working".

How can i install them?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Questions & Answers] harryharryharry:
I think even without drivers installed the phone should go into service mode if you follow the aforementioned steps (only then it shows up in Windows device manager as an unknown device), so that sounds bad. You should try with another pc and another usb (data)cable.

I don't use Windows myself so I can't help you with driver installation, but I gather if Sony provides drivers it should be an easy 1-click installation. Maybe someone else can chime in on that.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Questions & Answers] pseudonym58:
By installing Xperia Companion on your PC or Mac you should have any drivers that might be needed. So if you cannot successfully connect to your computer in any mode, then it seems likely that you'll have to send it in for repair. Edit: But do try another cable first, as was suggested.
[Google Pixel 3 XL Questions & Answers] Chippelchen:
Are there any differences between these two methods? Just wondering because I want to clean install my Pixel 3. Do I have to unlock my Bootloader in order to flash a stock image?
[Google Pixel 3 XL Questions & Answers] Badger50:
Yes, you'll need to unlock the bootloader, which will wipe your phone, if you want to install factory images going forward. They are essentially the same firmware, however, an OTA through the settings menu will not wipe your device, whereas fastbooting a factor image will. Unless you know the work around that is :cool:
[Google Pixel 3 XL Questions & Answers] parakleet:
If you want to manually flash anything you have to unlock the bootloader.

Clean install with -w wipes the phone.

Dirty install without -w installs over the partitions retaining settings.

I dont do a dirty install often but I have never had an issue with Google images doing so.

Custom ROMS all day long dirty install cause problems.

I wouldnt recommend Dirty installs when a version upgrade occurs.
[Google Pixel 3 XL Questions & Answers] FernBch:
You don't have to unlock to flash a Google API, only a custom firmware. Unlock is only needed to flash the boot/bootloader image. I'm locked and can flash all but the latter.
[General Questions and Answers] godkingofcanada:
Anyone seen these handheld retro units from China? Gba, gb, gbc, nes, snes, Sega, psx, cps1+2.

I'm trying to locate firmware. Factory or otherwise, trying to figure out what this is running.
[General Questions and Answers] JohnnySJ:
Hello,

I bought one, and after watching a few videos i wrote in the comments of a Youtuber who's pretty knowledgeable about these kind of units. He told that it runs some kind of linux, and that several similar units are hacked and flashed with a distro that while imo is still very dated, runs a lot better and truly shows the potential of the device. The distro is called open dingu os, if im not mistaken. Here is the link of the video. Hopefully this helps. I would love to have the device with a better os. https://youtu.be/izKA3_rtDD0

EDIT:

I also found the forum for the OS used to improve these devices:

https://boards.dingoonity.org
[General Questions and Answers] godkingofcanada:
Thank you!
[General Questions and Answers] godkingofcanada:
I know Rob a little. I'm the guy who did a full unit teardown. The photos are up here on xda
[General Questions and Answers] JohnnySJ:
That's awesome!

Man, im crossing my fingers. Hopefully this unit can be improved. Thanks!
[General Questions and Answers] godkingofcanada:
No problem. I've got a small army of development boards. It's very possible I can find a way in. PS4 was modded using the same setup. And this has absolutely nowhere near that type of security I'm sure.
[General Questions and Answers] godkingofcanada:
Plus, there has to be a way. They flashed it at the factory. I opened it up looking to see if maybe there was an internal sd, but no. It's a flash memory. And I don't think I saw two. So it must be partitioned to keep us out. Maybe I can find a tool to unpartition it or locate the hidden partition.
[General Questions and Answers] JohnnySJ:
I am definitely not at your technical skill level, but does that mean it actually comes with an SD that has been specifically partitioned to be seen by that os? Is it removable? Maybe inside a linux distro you can see the contents or the partition table. Also, you mentioned "flash" thats a term i normally hear for Android. So does this unit probably have a bootloader of some sort?
[General Questions and Answers] JohnnySJ:
Ok. I saw your other post, it answered my questions. As i am nowhere near your technical skill level, i can help by doing some research, maybe i can find the firmware files. If they intended to update the device at some point, then there must be a repo somewhere with the OG firmware...

---------- Post added at 01:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:53 PM ----------

Found their website:

http://www.powkiddygame.com

Now I'll do some digging and try to find the firmware...
[General Questions and Answers] JohnnySJ:
Haven't had any luck finding the firmware. Their site afaikn cannot be translated bc it uses images instead of text. I am trying to contact a Chinese friend with some tech knowledge to see if he can find out more in the site, or in the social network used in china (Weiboo). I'll keep you posted.
[General Questions and Answers] festa20:
Has anybody got further with this I'm needing the powkiddy x18 firmware and I'm stuck cant find it anywhere.
[General Questions and Answers] legumbre19:
i have this model too . there is no information about this console

I have see that if you press power buton + vol- the computer recognizes it as ADF device and is possible that enter in flash mode ????
[General Questions and Answers] o-marshmallow:
No news about this device ?
[General Questions and Answers] ooMoo:
Is there a way of changing what games appear on the home screens? I just got one for £30 and am trying to set it up with games my son will like.
[General Questions and Answers] JohnnySJ:
There is another thread here with more up to date information, including a newer firmware. Here is the link:

https://xdaforums.com/general/off-topic/powkiddy-x16-7-retro-arcade-t3880966/page4#post79818633

---------- Post added at 05:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:22 PM ----------

Was it a typo? Do you mean the X16?

If so, like i mentioned there's another thread here in XDA with a link to a newer firmware. Here is the link:

https://xdaforums.com/general/off-topic/powkiddy-x16-7-retro-arcade-t3880966/page4#post79818633
[General Questions and Answers] Linn crowe:
X16 newer version "lol"play ps1 games?emulator already preloaded with a few ps1 games,I'm getting conflicted answers, thx
[General Questions and Answers] Makoj:
Hi

I have a X16 device with 2018 Firmware. Please link newer Firmware. Thanks!
[General Questions and Answers] godkingofcanada:
The other threads on this seem to have vanished, i have the firmware download linked on techtoytinker.com

I was digging into this device more today, despite seeing the internal memory im not convinced we are 100% in yet. the emulators seem to launch from ./emulator but we cant see that folder. I do however have a theory it might be possible to add an emulator to G drive as it now pops up on pc, and write a script that points there. there is a lib folder on g, and on other devices like this putting libs in there is detected at launch, so thats something at least.
[General Questions and Answers] ThegreatHAMbino:
Please keep us posted, its a shame that those old posts disappeared because there was a lot of good info there. Have you tried reading the flash with a bin walk? Kind of something similar to what they did with the game+watch handheld. Might be a good place to start.. or was that what you meant when you mentioned the dev boards/ps4 hacking?..
[General Questions and Answers] ThegreatHAMbino:
I'm new here to posting but have been here a few times looking at the old x16 post. I have an x12 model so I've been digging around trying to find any information I can in regards to the hacking/homebrew scene. Not a bad device for the money but definitely has its shortcomings.
[General Questions and Answers] mforce2:
What ever happened to this thread ? https://xdaforums.com/t/powkiddy-x16-7-retro-arcade.3880966/

I think it's a bug with the forum.
[General Questions and Answers] ThegreatHAMbino:
Id say it is too, whenever I click on it, it says there's an error. That must be the original post with the new fw, pdf, etc.. there was a lot of good info there..
[General Questions and Answers] mforce2:
I contacted technical support about that old thread. If you know some admins maybe we can also ask them.

I just got the Powkiddy J6 and it has some similar SOC, the Actions ATS3603 and it runs on uCOS.

I opened a development thread for it with my findings so far here: https://boards.dingoonity.org/other-game-systems/powkiddy-j6-development-only-thread/

I would really have needed some resources from the old thread though.

Especially useful would have been some documentation. Does anyone have that ?
[General Questions and Answers] ThegreatHAMbino:
I think a guy named Omar and Kikione? helped figure a few things out. It's hard to remember back, I really hope the issue can be resolved..
[General Questions and Answers] ReX_1986:
Hallo

Ich bin neu hier. Es tut mir leid, aber ich spreche kein Englisch, also benutze ich Google-Übersetzer. Zum Thema

Ich habe auch die powkiddy X16 Konsole und fand eine Firmware. Habe es noch nicht ausprobiert.

Hier ist ein Link:

https://techtoytinker.com/powkiddy-x16-handheld
[General Questions and Answers] erexx:
3 pages but page 2 is lost.

Page 2 seems to be the most important. :(

Page 1 - http://web.archive.org/web/20201203...ms.com/t/powkiddy-x16-7-retro-arcade.3880966/

Page 2 - lost

Page 3 - https://web.archive.org/web/2020120.../t/powkiddy-x16-7-retro-arcade.3880966/page-3

Firmware update - Looks like the result of the lost thread without details.

https://techtoytinker.com/powkiddy-x16-handheld

Tool created to mod res files.

GitHub - o-marshmallow/Powkiddy-RES-editor: RES Editor for Powkiddy X16 and X8 consoles

RES Editor for Powkiddy X16 and X8 consoles. Contribute to o-marshmallow/Powkiddy-RES-editor development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com
[General Questions and Answers] o-marshmallow:
@ThegreatHAMbino Waw, you still remember my name :LOL:

@erexx Hello guys, I haven't connected to XDA for a while, I didn't even know that the old thread was down. Well, I reached the point where I was able to modify a firmware a user posted. This firmware was the one with bubbles on the screen (NOT the PSP-like one). Looking at my archives, I've found back the modified FW I made:

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

The only modification done is when you plug the tablet to the PC, it will also mount the system partition, not only user partition, letting you see all the binaries used inside. both partitions will be writable! Interestingly, the binaries are not stripped, so all the debug symbols are still there.

You'll need the powkiddy flasher program and ADFU drivers to install it. The name of the program is "Actions PAD Product Tools", you'll be able to find this on Google.

Another interesting finding I've made is that if you open the console, on the motherboard itself, there is a test point to UART TX pin:

by soldering a cable there and connecting it to a USB TTL module or an Arduino, you'll be able to get message from the system (GND can be taken from the SD Card slot case).

I could modify one of the binary by hand, i.e. by modifying the binary code, to print out a message on the UART when executing it. However, I was not able to rebuild a binary from scratch with an SDK I found online (which was for a similar device as stated in the archive you've found)

Note: Multiple members of the former thread and I have tested the modified firmware and reported it working. Still, I am not responsible for any potential damage it could cause to your device.

EDIT: The Powkiddy RES editor will let you modify the RES file you'll find in the system partition. thanks to this, you'll be able to modify the icons image. The icons title can be modified by editing the ".desktop" files

EDIT2: Just found the following link online which SEEMS to be the original firmware:

x16 - Google Drive

drive.google.com

It also includes the Action Pad software for flashing the boards.
[General Questions and Answers] ThegreatHAMbino:
Yeah man there was a lot of good info there, name just kind of stuck lol. Thanks again for re-explaining your findings. I found the debugger too going through my drive. Rebuilding the binaries can only be done with the proper sdk then? How hard would it be to say start from scratch and build an operating system for the device? Tracking down an sdk for such a device when considering all the rebranding proves to be next to impossible..
[General Questions and Answers] o-marshmallow:
@ThegreatHAMbino The debugger ? Have you tried it so far ? :oops:

I was only able to find documentation about a USB debugger but was never able to find the executable.

As I said, the SDK I found before is very similar to the one of the powkiddy. I am sure there were only few twicks to do before getting it to work: I compared the compiled code file from the SDK binary and the one embedded in the owkiddy and they are similar: same format (ELF), same sections, same start entry address, same address for OS functions, but still, whenever I tried to execute this bin on the powkiddy, I got a kernel panic (I could see it on the serial), I never udnerstood where was the problem. If only I could find back the link to the SDK...

Another solution is to ask Powkiddy themselves for an SDK. I did it 2 or 3 times but didn't get an answer. If multiple people do this, they may reply. The HW is pretty good honestly, but the SW is really bad. I was thinking about changing the OS, trying to port Linux on it for example but that would take a lot of time: we don't have a proper debugger, nor a JTAG interface, we only have a Serial interface, that's tricky.

EDIT: FOUND IT!

Google Drive: Sign-in

Access Google Drive with a Google account (for personal use) or Google Workspace account (for business use).

drive.google.com

The last one is the SDK I was talking about
[General Questions and Answers] ThegreatHAMbino:
Sadly no, I haven't had a chance to really play around with it yet. It's from the old posts as well, another member had made a little headway iirc around p.15-19 and dropped the download link. It seems like all the information about the actions chipsets is scattered in the wind. I believe the hardware is a lot more capable than what the software is allowing for. The price point encourages the modding/homebrew aspect but it's lackluster performance out of the box it just doesn't stand out enough to be taken seriously. I'll try to put together a folder of what I've came across so far in the next couple days as a means to help further in the project.
[General Questions and Answers] mforce2:
Thanks guys for all the info you posted here.

I have Powkiddy J6 which is quite similar to this and I was hoping to do a bit of hacking on it because I really like the hardware and for the price paid it's cheap enough to play with. I am sure it can do more with the right software and it even has an IPS display.

I couldn't really find a firmware for the Powkiddy J6 so I am going to try and read the one that's currently on it. The other way would be to place a binary on the SD card that I can get it to execute and have that one dump the firmware but that's probably a bit more tricky.
[General Questions and Answers] Billy_Blaze:
I recently ordered a Powkiddy X16 and it should arrive sometime this week. Once development (hopefully) starts, if you guys need someone to help test firmwares I’d like to help when needed. I agree that the hardware is more than likely being hampered by mediocre software. If a proper firmware can be written then this could turn into a great budget emulation handheld. You guys have my support. 👍👍
[General Questions and Answers] ThegreatHAMbino:
Sorry for the delay guys, I'll post a few things later after work. I have a pdf of the chipset. The debug tool, and a few other odds and ends like the actions tablet tools. Look for an update today..
[General Questions and Answers] mforce2:
How did you modify the firmware ? I mean what tools did you use to unpack it and pack it ? Also I was wondering what exactly did you modify on the file system.

Thanks a lot.

In the meantime I'm working on creating some software to run on the Powkiddy J6 and I imagine that with some small modifications it could also run on the X16. I'd have to check the X16 .app file to figure out but I'm not sure how to unpack the firmware.
[General Questions and Answers] ThegreatHAMbino:
Here you go guys, this is what ive came across/salvaged so far... Hopefully with the debug tool we can get some sort of development going. I do believe the last pdf, also has a section that talks about making apps for this software in particular. Hope this helps..
[General Questions and Answers] mforce2:
I'm not sure if it's on any interest but I dug through the firmware of the Powkiddy X16 that o-marshmallow () posted. Still not sure how he unpacked it but I used this tool : https://github.com/Rockbox/rockbox/tree/master/utils/atj2137/atjboottool

It can decrypt the firmware which results in an .afi file. It wasn't able to unpack this .afi but Actions was quite clever and it's just an SQLite file.

Using a tool like this : https://sqlitebrowser.org you can go the table called : FileTable and you see the files, the file itself being stored as a blob ( the SQLite browser allows you to export the blob to a file ).

I was curious so I started digging and found the library for the PS1 emulation: "libp1.so". It's based on the PCSX-Reloaded , most likely an old version of it.

It's based on PCSX-Reloaded , probably and older version of it (and not the one from here: https://github.com/iCatButler/pcsxr ) but with some Actions modifications around it.

Also in the database there's a table called "VER" which for this Q700 Firmware.fw is "1.1.10.120301". Interesting with this is that my Powkiddy J6 has firmware version ( according to Advanced Settings ) "1.1.10.200605". This means these 2 could be quite similar and I plan to investigate more to see if I find the ADFU commands to dump the firmware.

If anyone knows how to use ADFU to dump the firmware from the device please let me know.
[General Questions and Answers] mforce2:
I'm back with more useful (or useless to some) information from looking at the Q700 Firmware.fw files.

I was very curious what types of emulators are used, it's unlikely that actions developed their own emulators , right ? well as it turns out it's all open source stuff so here's what they use.

libp1.so - Playstation 1 emulator - based on PCSX-Reloaded - github search for "Failed to initialise cpu68k module"

libm1.so - Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) emulator - based on Generator - github: https://github.com/mirror/pcsxr/network ("Error Opening CDR Plugin")

libf1.so - NES emulator - based on fakeNES - github search for "Konami VRC6V + ExSound" (old version) , newer here: https://github.com/d4ddi0/fakenes

libgb1.so - GameBoyColor emulator - gnuboy based - github search for "bind esc quit"

libsfc.so - SNES ( or SFC ) emulator - Snes9X based - SDL version: https://github.com/domaemon/snes9x-sdl ( also libretro seems to have it)

libsg1.so - Capcom CPS1 emulator - NJEMU based - https://github.com/phoe-nix/NJEMU

libsg2.so - NeoGeo emulator - probably MAME based - https://github.com/crazii/mame4allds

libsg3.so - MAME emulator - MAME based - https://github.com/mamedev/historic-mame/blob/master/src/mame/machine/cps2crpt.c

libg1.so - GBA emulator - some custom job, has Chinglish text ( my favorite "open gba rom is error!\n" )

Good news is that it should be quite clear where the open source code is integrated with the Actions stuff and how so it's possible to update the emulators based on newer open source versions ( either of these or other emulators ). That's not to say it will necessarily be easy but it's doable.
[General Questions and Answers] ThegreatHAMbino:
I actually wondered about this myself. As the x series went on there were small improvements made to the emulation (mainly Snes and Gen/Md) all while the same chipsets/hardware were being used despite the model. That being said with how locked down the UI/software was, I thought they had to be using closed source emulators. The one thing that still makes me wonder thou is that any rom can be launched in any section. .NES files launched under the gba section and so forth. Why would this be based off your findings?..
[General Questions and Answers] mforce2:
The emulators are all in common. There's an emulator app called ... emulator.app which uses some emulator lib that doesn't actually do much and then also these different libs that I mentioned above.

In the emulator.app of the Powkiddy X6 at least there's this function:

judge_gametype_byname(char *name)

which looks at the file extension I assume and based on this decides what type of game it is. For the .bin extension though it seems to look at something else also.

Once it determines this it assigns the gametype global variable a value ( 1 is NES , 6 is PS1 and there's like 7 numbers all till 10 ). There's some other variables I think to detect if it supports this emulator and what type of library it needs.

Then still in the emulator.app there's the function that loads the right emulator based on gametype and it loads one of the libs I mentioned above.

All of these libs have a common interface from what I can tell , probably something like save game, pause game, exit game and the emulator app transfers control to the appropriate lib ( based on gametype ) which then does its thing as it needs to.

I'm not sure what improvements are made to these emulation libraries, most seem to rely on quite old code even on the X16 which is quite a new device. In theory they could synchronize with the upstream emulator code but sometimes upstream is abandoned or semi-abandoned. Also depending on how much the needed to modify the emulator to fit into their framework it might not be trivial to pick up the newer changes especially if it diverged quite a bit.

There's also the question of the license , most of these emulators are licensed under GPL or LGPL so there's the obligation to publish the source code but I'm not sure there's any way to enforce this, especially in China. We could try though. Getting the source code to the emulators could allow either to synchronize them with upstream or to completely replace the emulation core while keeping only the interfaces.

Hope that answers your question :)
[General Questions and Answers] mforce2:
Also in the .app file I've found these strings

Powkiddy X16: /cygdrive/h/Mr_huang_work/ATJ2279B/ch7968_v1/usdk227c/case_tp/apps/desktop/emulator

Powkiddy J6:/cygdrive/e/Mr_hunag_work/ATS3603_UCOS/CD3670_nor_card_st/usdk227c/case_tp/apps/desktop/

Whoever this Mr is it seems he's very productive but sometimes misspells his name :) . We need to find him. As can be seen the SDKs used are very similar. Unfortunately I cannot locate this SDK , usdk227c.
[General Questions and Answers] ThegreatHAMbino:
Thanks for the breakdown, that completely makes sense based on how the system works. I agree, using commercially available open source emulators should give us the right to make changes and keep them updated. Can you see any advantage as to why they chose a software/UI like this considering how much different it is compared to any other emulation handheld?..