Firestick 2nd gen Lineage OS (ROOT, Wipe Fireos, Install 5.1 Lollipop) anyone succeeded?

HI guys and gals, hope you are all well and starting to get back to normal now (y)
Slightly different topic of conversation drifting off from usual app posts.
Thought i would share this as i know how much a pain in the ass the firestick can be with their crappy UI and basic operation. I am not really advanced with Linux or the mod scene and was able to do this upgrade, so i thought maybe other users of the forum may want to try it out on older sticks they have lying around the house (works on any 2nd generation (tank) manufactured before Dec 2019) and see if it benefits them.

There are of course (as with all modifications) some risks involved.

I succeeded in modifying several of these amazon firestick 2nd generation (Tank) devices.
Just wanting to know if anyone else had attempted this mod and succeeded with this cool upgrade?

The modification is not for the faint hearted and involves opening one's stick, taking off the metal shield inside the device and shorting a resistor (clk) to ground on the board which in turn puts the device into download mode, thus enabling a the exploit (amonet) which then unlocks the bootloader giving the user the option to install custom recovery software and a custom rom.

I have some screen shots of the faster, debloated lineage OS tank stick if anyone likes a looksee (y)

A detailed guide to the modification can be found here (ALWAYS READ THE OP FULLY-ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR FIRMWARE BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO MODIFY) :
As this is a hardware root method it cannot be undone by amazon OTA updates.
CHECK IT OUT HERE:sunglasses:

[UNLOCK][ROOT][TWRP][UNBRICK] Fire TV Stick 2nd gen (tank)

Basically the firestick 2nd gen is locked down to Amazon's own adapted version of android called fireos , as this firmware belongs to Amazon it is not very friendly when it comes to user control. These devices and their other brands such as the firehd tablet range are more or less just advertisement machines dedicated to displaying what THEY want you to see on YOUR homescreen (not the other way around)

So, What can be done about this? Basically not very much without a device that can be unlocked/rooted to accept commands through adb/linux terminal. The more simple commands such as the adb shell commands seem to be blocked each time amazon do an OTA update( amazon devs are on techdoctoruk' case just now taking apart all of his custom launcher settings).

Enter Lineage Os Firestick 2nd gen (Tank):

The modification unlocks the firestick (with a program called amonet which is a mediatek injection method) to make it ready to be modified and accept a new firmware (in this case TWRP custom recovery and the Lineage OS custom rom )

The installation of TWRP custom recovery enables the user to backup their current system before flashing the lineage OS and rooting the device. All in all it prepares the system to be written to via a linux installation (don't worry if you don't have a Linux machine, you can do this through a live USB) and once complete enables the user Full controll over the firestick.

Amazons junk is removed from the stick and replaced (flashed) with an Android TV Rom. This ATV rom is customised and adapted for the firestick and frees up a LOT of space on the stick that was otherwise taken up by the factory made fireos.

The Cmtank(cyanogen) version of Lineage is still beta(under development) however, once id flashed the custom rom I noticed major improvements with this adaptation when using lineage along with with a custom launcher written to system settings

There is also the option that once you have tried out lineage OS but want to return to stock(original fireos) you are able to do this through the custom recovery software TWRP that is present on the stick throughout. This let's you flash either your backup of the original stick or a rooted version of fireos

I was fed up one day and had a few of these firesticks lying around the house, decided to give it a shot and managed to modify 2/3 of them. One of the sticks was made after December 2019 and the exploit has been shutdown on these via a kernel/mediatek adjustment courtesy of amazon.

Long story short I thought this mod was well worth the effort on a couple of old sticks. they werent my daily driver anyway so had nothing to lose really.

i hope this does someone a wee turn like it did me

Thanks to the guys over at XDA who made it all possible

Enjoy guys (y)
 

Attachments

  • Snapchat-730055060.jpg
    Snapchat-730055060.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 40
  • Snapchat-915181940.jpg
    Snapchat-915181940.jpg
    923.8 KB · Views: 43
  • Snapchat-971031844.jpg
    Snapchat-971031844.jpg
    239.9 KB · Views: 41
  • Snapchat-1058552824.jpg
    Snapchat-1058552824.jpg
    281.3 KB · Views: 42
  • Snapchat-1616347556.jpg
    Snapchat-1616347556.jpg
    450.2 KB · Views: 36
Last edited:
Back
Top