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<\/a>Here’s the deal. The Minix Neo X7 “mini” is based on the Rockchip RK3188 chipset. As far as I understand, you cannot possibly “brick” (or “depth meter”, as I’m used to saying – you can still build a depth meter with it: drop it off a cliff and count the seconds until it touches the ground<\/em>) these. The Rockchip processor has a trimmed down USB protocol on board, so you can always, always – even if there’s no NAND ROM left – flash it back. You won’t need special cables, JTAG stuff or soldering.<\/p>\nYou only need the USB cable that’s included with the Neo X7 Mini, a screw driver, and a bit of wire (maybe a paper clip).<\/p>\n
Dead? Or resting?<\/h3>\n
First, let’s check if your box is really, really dead. Start your Linux-computer. To see the list of connected USB-devices, open a terminal, type Disconnect all cables from your X7 Mini. Then connect the USB cable to port 1 (the left port). Insert a pin or a paper clip in the small hole in the bottom of the X7 Mini to press the switch below. Still pressing the reset button, insert the power cable. Wait 5 seconds. If something like If nothing shows up, proceed below.<\/p>\n 2) lift out the print board. Detach the antenna if you like.<\/p>\n 3) locate the pads marked T4 and T5, next to the Hynix Flash chip.<\/p>\n Reattach the USB cable to USB port 1 (the leftmost). You may attach your HDMI cable, but it won’t help as there won’t be anything to display.<\/p>\n Now comes the hard part.<\/p>\n You need to connect T4 and T5. Please note, that it doesn’t matter if you connect T4 and T5 or the soldered pads marked ED13 – they’re connected so both should work. But theyre TINY little bastards and I found it all too easy to press a wire but not connect them.<\/p>\n Anyway, you connect T4 and T5 and while connecting, you connect the power cable. After about 4 seconds, ID 2207:310b will show up. If not, something went wrong (most likely, you did not really connect T4 and T5).<\/p>\n If you don’t see 2207:310b, then detach power cable; detach USB cable (because otherwise the X7 Mini can be powered by USB); count to 5; attach the USB cable again; connect T4 and T5 and connect the power cable again. Rinse, repeat, until you see ID 2207:310b in your device list.<\/p>\n Ready to rock!<\/p>\n Download http:\/\/dl.radxa.com\/rock\/tools\/linux\/Linux_Upgrade_Tool_v1.16.zip<\/a> and unpack it. In a terminal, run It will show: Hey, it’s working! Enter q<\/em> to quit upgrade_tool again.<\/p>\n Now download the latest X7mini ROM from Minix. You can find it in the list here<\/a>. At the time of writing, it’s here: http:\/\/www.minix.com.hk\/firmware\/NEO_X7mini_20140211.rar<\/a> Type: In my case, this wasn’t enough the first time – I had to run this command a second time from within “loader” mode – where you press the reset button while powering up and upgrade_tool finds But after that: it worked!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lately I bought a Minix Neo X7 Mini. Next thing you know: I brick the box. Here’s how to unbrick the thing – with Linux. It’s rather easy, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,22],"tags":[98,99,79,9,101,95,80,96,97,100],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happy-hacking","category-vrije-software","tag-brick","tag-bricked","tag-flash","tag-linux","tag-maskrom-mode","tag-minix","tag-nand","tag-neo-x7","tag-neo-x7-mini","tag-unbrick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valentijn.sessink.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valentijn.sessink.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valentijn.sessink.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valentijn.sessink.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valentijn.sessink.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/valentijn.sessink.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":543,"href":"https:\/\/valentijn.sessink.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions\/543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valentijn.sessink.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valentijn.sessink.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valentijn.sessink.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}lsusb<\/code>. Or, better, type watch -n 1 lsusb<\/code> to see the list of USB-devices refresh every second.<\/p>\nBus 002 Device 005: ID 2207:310b<\/code> (Bus<\/em> and Device<\/em> will differ, it’s the ID 2207:310b that we’re after) shows up in your list of USB devices, your Neo is not a brick – and you can proceed to flash a new image.<\/p>\nUnbricking<\/h3>\n
<\/a>1) unscrew the box. There’s 4 screws below the rubber feet of the Minix Neo X7 Mini. Lift the bottom of the box – there are no plastic clamps, you should be able to get the box open really easily.<\/p>\n<\/a>Flashing<\/h3>\n
sudo .\/upgrade_tool<\/code>.<\/p>\n
\nDevNo=1 Vid=0x2207,Pid=0x310b,LocationID=205 Maskrom<\/code><\/p>\n
\nUnpack it with “unrar” (or with file-roller or anything else).<\/p>\n
\nsudo .\/upgrade_tool uf images\/X7mini_20140211_OTA.img<\/code><\/p>\n
\nDevNo=1 Vid=0x2207,Pid=0x310b,LocationID=208 Loader<\/p>\n