[Fire TV General] bnevets27:
EDIT (12/08/22): Parts of this guide may be out of date, it hasn't been updated since December 2019.

TL; DR Version in the second post, it's also a short overall summary. Might be best to have a look so you don't get overwhelmed by this first post.

Just thought I would share my experience with the 4K. Just as an FYI this is my first firestick and I've only had it for about a week but I've been playing with it quite a bit.

Personally I'm interested in removing all amazon related products/apps/services etc. With the exception of the store as I would like to get some of my apps through it.

Making it as lean and fast as possible.

Getting as close to AndroidTV as possible without losing any functionally and keeping stability.

I'm primarily interested in Plex and/or Kodi (with no addon apps, just vanilla kodi).

Having root. I like to have the ability to do anything, and I personally found rooting the stick easy so I found no reason not to do it. With that in mind everything I did I had root. I have no idea if any of these steps work without root.

Pre info

I chose to not flash the Prerooted Stock Image due to the comment Sus_i made here. I updated, then rooted.

EDIT (12/08/22): Updating before rooting is no longer recommended.

Step1

Plug it in, run through the setup and let it update. Go to settings -> My Fire TV -> Developer Options and enable ADB Debugging and Apps from Unknown Sources.

Step 2

Root it!

Guide here

This guide/post was helpful also. There is a good video of them opening up the firestick to access the necessary point to short/ground to allow the root script to work. Just be careful with what you use. I just used a small copper wire.

After getting root. Put it back in the case. and plug it in to your tv.

Step 3

Running commands with adb

Get and install adblink, link here

Information on how to use it is on the site. You will need to get the IP address of the firestick. Go to setting -> device -> network -> about

open adblink

click adb shell

type

reboot recovery

then enter

You'll now be in TWRP

Step 4

Install Magisk

Get the latest stable magisk zip from here

No need for the Magisk Manager apk, that will get installed with the above zip.

Put the zip in the same folder that the adblink.exe is in. (you can find that by clicking adb shell in adb link and then typing exit, then enter. It will show you where you should put the zip file)

Open adblink if you closed it (just leave it open)

click adb shell

which should show the bellow on screen

mantis:/$

type exit

then paste the following (replace the "Magisk-v20.1.zip" with the correct name of the magisk zip you downloaded)

adb push Magisk-v20.1.zip /sdcard/

then type

adb shell
echo "--update_package=/sdcard/Magisk-v20.1.zip" > /cache/recovery/command
echo "--wipe_cache" >> /cache/recovery/command
reboot recovery

It will reboot and install magisk, then reboot to the launcher.

You can now check if you like if magisk is installed correctly and if you have root (you should)

Step 5

Install [Magisk][Module] FireTV 4K Stick Add-Ons

This gets rid of the amazon launcher and does a few other things, including installing xposed framework.

Follow the instructions in that thread. But here's some additional info. Which is just a copy of how we installed magisk.

Download and put the zip in the same folder that the adblink.exe is in.

Open adblink if you closed it (just leave it open)

click adb shell

which should show the bellow on screen

mantis:/$

type exit

then paste the following (replace the "AFTV-MM-1.9.zip" with the correct name of the AFTV-MM .zip you downloaded)

adb push AFTV-MM-1.9.zipp /sdcard/

then type

adb shell
echo "--update_package=/sdcard/AFTV-MM-1.9.zip" > /cache/recovery/command
echo "--wipe_cache" >> /cache/recovery/command
reboot recovery

It will reboot and install AFTV-MM, then reboot to the launcher. It does some things automatically on first boot and may reboot on it's own just let it do it's thing. Some additional commands need to be run via ADB, go to the thread and follow the instructions there: [Magisk][Module] FireTV 4K Stick Add-Ons

Step 6

Remove amazon bloat. *More info below*

Now I've seen a few lists here and there and tried to guess which things to disable on my own until I found these scripts.

Now these scripts weren't made for the 4k (mantis) firestick as you can see from the compatibility list. But I assumed the packages installed would be close so I'm guessing this isn't a bad starting point. But just remember this clearly wasn't meant for this device.

Download the script from here All credit for the original script goes to esc0rtd3w.

and put it in your adblink folder.

Open adblink if you closed it (just leave it open)

click adb shell

which should show the bellow on screen

mantis:/$

type exit

adb push bloat-disable.sh /sdcard/

then type

adb shell
su
cp /sdcard/bloat-disable.sh /data/local/tmp/
chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/bloat-disable.sh
sh /data/local/tmp/bloat-disable.sh

The script will then disable all the bloat. If you would like to enable all the bloat then use this script, download it and follow the same instruction from above. If you just need to enable a single app/service then you can run:

adb shell
su
pm enable com.amazon.dcp

replacing "com.amazon.dcp" with the app you want to enable.

Step 7

If you want Kodi as the launcher

You can get a modified apk here The thread where this came from originally is here Discussion of an update here

Side load the apk with adblink. Should be self explanatory, click install apk. Once installed open LauncherHijack and select Kodi as the launcher.

Step 8

Setting Kodi (or any other launcher) as the launcher

Install Launcher Hijack (Clone Mod), get the apk here

Follow the instructions here to install it and get it working. By now you should be getting comfortable with abdlink, use it to install the apks and run the adb shell commands.

Other apps to install

Smart Youtube TV (no ads)

OpenVPN install if you want or need it. In my case I need to slightly deviate from the guide. I simply didn't need to create the login.conf file. I Just copied opvn config over and then in settings chose "Certificates" for type and insert the password in "private key password".

That's it for now. I'm curious what other modifications can be done on the 4K (mantis). I'm thinking about/planning on trying a few I've seen around. I think as long as I can get back to TWRP then worse case I should be able to flash the stock ROM to recover. Would be interested to hear what other people may have pulled off.

*Step 6 more info*

This script will remove all packages that esc0rtd3w deemed safe to remove as of Fire OS 5.2.7.2 on the FireStick2. It will leave the amazon launcher enabled and allow use of the amazon app store. The amazon app store can also be disabled but disabling the amazon launcher breaks access to the settings.

My slightly edited version of his script

esc0rtd3w firestick-loader github. All credit for the script goes to him.

List of services/packages that are new for Fire OS 6.2.6.8

If anyone can inform me of the packages/services that can be safely disabled, please let me know and I can include them in the script. For now they are left untouched/enabled.

Info I found and used for this post

[UNLOCK][ROOT][TWRP][UNBRICK] Fire TV Stick 4K (mantis)

[Magisk][Module] FireTV 4K Stick Add-Ons

[FireTVStick4k] Updated Info November 2019

[NEWBIE GUIDE] How to Unlock Bootloader/Root and install Addons FireStick 4k

FireTV4k Stick: Achieving Root With Magisk

[LAUNCHER] XBMC/Kodi for Fire TV (Root)

Updated Kodi 18.5 version by the developer elmerohuesoWhich is posted here

Install OpenVPN on fireTV (no root required)

Running scripts on the Firestick, in this case the disable-bloat.sh script