AIGO EROS Q / EROS K
Also sold as:
- AGPTek H3
- HIFI WALKER H2
- Surfans F20
NOTE: The EROS Qii uses a very different internal platform internally, and is *not supported.*
These models are identical except for the case, and except for the AGPTek model, can use each other's firmware updates.
NOTE: Although the hardware appears to be identical, newer Hifiwalker H2 units ship with v1.3 firmware which is not compatible with v1.0-v1.2 firmware (and vice versa).
EROS Q: 90x55x15mm, 152g
EROS K: 94x57x15mm, 111g
Hardware summary
| Component |
Model |
Notes |
| SoC |
X1000 |
1.0GHz MIPS XBurst with 32MB of SIP LPDDR RAM |
| PMU |
AXP192 |
I2C PMU |
| DAC |
TI PCM 5102A |
I2S |
| NAND |
ATO25D1GA 1Gb |
|
| Display |
320x240 2" |
|
| Battery |
Li-Ion 3.7v 1300mAh |
|
Other hardware notes:
- Headphone amp: MAX97220
- Stereo switch: ISL54405IRUZ-T
- Bluetooth module: unknown
Hardware disassembly was not necessary to complete this hosted port. Other than Bluetooth, all hardware functionality appears to work.
Installation
Rockbox functions very well on these target, and nightly builds are considered stable for day-to-day use.
The
RockboxUtility fully supports these players (note that the current 1.4.1 release is from 2019 and will not work). However, if you wish to install the bootloader manually, follow these instructions:
- Build or download the bootloader
- Obtain a stock firmware image
- Patch the firmware image with the bootloader
- Rename the patched firmware file to update.upt and place it into the root directory of the SD card
- Grab the latest daily build for the player and unzip it into the root directory of the SD card
- Go into the settings menu and select firmware update.
- Upon reboot, select rockbox from the initial menu
Here you can download the current bootloader builds, along with "binary patches" that can be easily applied to stock firmware update images using the 'bspatch' utility:
For convenience, here are pre-patched images:
--
SolomonPeachy - 11 Oct 2020
Native Port
Note: At the moment, the Native Port is fairly experimental, so if you aren't prepared for that, you probably want the hosted port above!
If installing the Native port, be sure to back up the preexisting bootloader and save it somewhere safe, in case you should want to go back to the hosted port or the original firmware!
There is a native port in addition to the hosted port. This is installed and run without using the linux-based original firmware. So far, it has only been tested on the Hifi Walker H2 variant. Our understanding is that all of the other devices are identical internally, so it
should work on all, but it has not been tested. For all variants, use the "erosq" option for jztool.
This native port functions well, but currently has the following issues:
- Does not support dual booting with the original firmware
- No Rockbox Utility support - manual installation is required
- No pre-compiled versions are yet available - Bootloader and Rockbox will both need to be compiled
The following are more minor things that could be tidied up or are "someday" projects:
- Has a (very rare) lockup, suspect it's due to LCD (may be common with m3k?)
- USB HID keys are not yet defined
- LCD could potentially work at a higher bit depth
- Bluetooth support
- USB DAC functionality
Installation
These instructions are, for the most part, a poor paraphrasing of the M3K instructions as found
here. The process is almost the same, the only real differences being which button to hold to enter "usbboot" mode, and that we will substitute
erosq in for
fiiom3k when using jztool.
Prerequisites
To install Rockbox, you will need a micro SD card formatted with FAT32 (FAT16 works on small cards as well).
exFAT is different, and is not supported (yet). You will also need the
jztool executable, the
bootloader.erosq bootloader, and a zip file of Rockbox.
Prepare SD Card
Rockbox will live on the SD card, so unzip the rockbox archive onto the SD card. You should end up with a ".rockbox" folder on the root of the SD card - depending on your computer, it may be hidden by default.
We also need the "bootloader.erosq" file on the root of the SD card in order to install it onto the device. Once you have successfully installed it, you can delete it from the card.
If the SD card isn't in the device, you can go ahead and insert it now.
Connect in USB Boot mode
We will now load the bootloader via "usbboot" using jztool. Place the jztool executable and bootloader.erosq in the same folder and open a command prompt or terminal into that same folder.
Now, with the device off, hold the Menu button on the device while plugging in the USB cable. The blue light next to the Menu button should light up, but the screen should remain off.
Windows Driver installation
Windows will need a special step to install the correct drivers using Zadig, as detailed under
Windows USB driver installation on the M3K instructions.
jztool
Open a command prompt or terminal in the same location as
jztool and
bootloader.erosq. Then issue the following command - linux users will need to put "sudo" in front of it:
jztool erosq load bootloader.erosq
(linux users:
sudo jztool erosq load bootloader.erosq)
If everything went well, the bootloader screen should come up on the device.
Before choosing "Install", the very first thing you should do is choose "Backup", which will read the contents of the internal memory that we are about to overwrite and create a backup file
erosq-boot.bin. When we are done, this file should be saved somewhere safe! It is what you will need if you ever wish to return your device to the original firmware (or the hosted Rockbox, if that was installed already).
Now, having taken a backup, choose "install". If all goes well, you can now choose "Reboot", and Rockbox should start! Don't forget to get your backup bootloader off of the SD card. If you ever need to, you can access the bootloader screen again by holding "Vol+" while booting the device up.
--
DanaConrad - 16 Aug 2021
Copyright © by the contributing authors.
