MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Two different lines of firmware for Onyx products. Onyx evades, censors discussion.

sunbum · 06-27-2019, 09:40 AM

This story unfolded on the Onyx bulletin boards over the past few weeks, and has left many of us who purchased Onyx e-readers scratching our heads and concerned about the security/authenticity of our devices. I'm sharing it here in order to bring those affected together, as well as to get insight from many of you more familiar with the e-reader community and business.

When you google "onyx boox", or any number of related search words, the top hit in the US and many countries around the world is onyxboox.com. This website presents itself as the official onyx store, and markets the products effectively to an international audience. I, like many others, did not question this, and bought my Onyx Boox Max 2 pro from that website. What those of us who bought our devices from onyxboox.com eventually realized, however, is that these devices can not be upgraded using the firmware released by Onyx at boox.com, which apparently is the "true" official home of Onyx boox.

Several discussions ensued about this matter at the Onyx bulletin board, located at bbs.onyx-international.com. Moreover, many users who bought their devices from onyxboox.com had private conversations with represenatitves from Onyx. The following facts came to light after significant digging:

- Onyxboox.com is not the official store of Onyx. In fact, they are a third party distributer headquartered in Russia. This was not made clear on onyxboox.com at the time, nor as of this date.

- Devices sold at Onyxboox.com have been "customized", and are therefore not serviced directly by Onyx. In fact, Onyx redirects all service requests regarding these devices to onyxboox.com.

- Specifically, devices sold at Onyxboox.com have been loaded with what the onyx represenative referred to as "customized firmware". This customized firmware follows the same version numbering as that released by Onyx, but effectively locks the device so that it can only be upgraded to the next version of the customized firmware. For example, if your device is loaded with the version 1.9.1 of the customized firmware, then you can not upgrade to version 2.0.1 of the original (uncustomized) firmware, nor can you reflash with any version of the original firmware; instead, you have to wait for onyxboox.com to release the customized version of firmware 2.0.1.

- Despite much questioning, neither Onyx nor their distributer onyxboox.com have provided a clear answer as to the differences between the original firmware and the customized firmware. The only "official statement" we were able to get from onyx is the following boilerplate: "The customized version is made to better meet the local customers’ needs in areas where our distributor are based in." These areas, presumably, are Russia and surrounding countries. The Russian distributer onyxboox.com, on the other hand, refuses to acknowledge that there is a difference between the firmwares, and evades direct questioning about the matter.

- Also despite much questioning, Onyx insists that those of us with the customized firmware can not switch over to the original (uncustomized) firmware. They claim that this can not be allowed since it would introduce bugs. This is despite claims by Onyx that the hardware sold by onyxboox.com is identical to that sold anywhere else.

Naturally, many of us who purchased our devices at onyxboox.com were not satisfied by the above outcomes. We continued to question the onyx represenative at the bulletin board bbs.onyx-international.com. After evading our questions or responding with biolerplate for a little while, it became clear that a number of users were not going to settle for these evasive responses, and Onyx eventually deleted those discussions in an apparent attempt to "bury" the topic. This is why a number of us decided to create this thread. Hopefully, the mobileread community is not censorial and will allow this discussion to be had. We are hoping for those of us with this problem to come forward and share our concerns, and those of you who know the business and technology in depth to weigh in with your thoughts on what might be going on here, and suggestions on how we should proceed.

06-27-2019, 09:40 AM	#1
sunbum Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 12640 Join Date: Jun 2019 Device: Onyx Boox Max 2 Pro	Two different lines of firmware for Onyx products. Onyx evades, censors discussion. This story unfolded on the Onyx bulletin boards over the past few weeks, and has left many of us who purchased Onyx e-readers scratching our heads and concerned about the security/authenticity of our devices. I'm sharing it here in order to bring those affected together, as well as to get insight from many of you more familiar with the e-reader community and business. When you google "onyx boox", or any number of related search words, the top hit in the US and many countries around the world is onyxboox.com. This website presents itself as the official onyx store, and markets the products effectively to an international audience. I, like many others, did not question this, and bought my Onyx Boox Max 2 pro from that website. What those of us who bought our devices from onyxboox.com eventually realized, however, is that these devices can not be upgraded using the firmware released by Onyx at boox.com, which apparently is the "true" official home of Onyx boox. Several discussions ensued about this matter at the Onyx bulletin board, located at bbs.onyx-international.com. Moreover, many users who bought their devices from onyxboox.com had private conversations with represenatitves from Onyx. The following facts came to light after significant digging: - Onyxboox.com is not the official store of Onyx. In fact, they are a third party distributer headquartered in Russia. This was not made clear on onyxboox.com at the time, nor as of this date. - Devices sold at Onyxboox.com have been "customized", and are therefore not serviced directly by Onyx. In fact, Onyx redirects all service requests regarding these devices to onyxboox.com. - Specifically, devices sold at Onyxboox.com have been loaded with what the onyx represenative referred to as "customized firmware". This customized firmware follows the same version numbering as that released by Onyx, but effectively locks the device so that it can only be upgraded to the next version of the customized firmware. For example, if your device is loaded with the version 1.9.1 of the customized firmware, then you can not upgrade to version 2.0.1 of the original (uncustomized) firmware, nor can you reflash with any version of the original firmware; instead, you have to wait for onyxboox.com to release the customized version of firmware 2.0.1. - Despite much questioning, neither Onyx nor their distributer onyxboox.com have provided a clear answer as to the differences between the original firmware and the customized firmware. The only "official statement" we were able to get from onyx is the following boilerplate: "The customized version is made to better meet the local customers’ needs in areas where our distributor are based in." These areas, presumably, are Russia and surrounding countries. The Russian distributer onyxboox.com, on the other hand, refuses to acknowledge that there is a difference between the firmwares, and evades direct questioning about the matter. - Also despite much questioning, Onyx insists that those of us with the customized firmware can not switch over to the original (uncustomized) firmware. They claim that this can not be allowed since it would introduce bugs. This is despite claims by Onyx that the hardware sold by onyxboox.com is identical to that sold anywhere else. Naturally, many of us who purchased our devices at onyxboox.com were not satisfied by the above outcomes. We continued to question the onyx represenative at the bulletin board bbs.onyx-international.com. After evading our questions or responding with biolerplate for a little while, it became clear that a number of users were not going to settle for these evasive responses, and Onyx eventually deleted those discussions in an apparent attempt to "bury" the topic. This is why a number of us decided to create this thread. Hopefully, the mobileread community is not censorial and will allow this discussion to be had. We are hoping for those of us with this problem to come forward and share our concerns, and those of you who know the business and technology in depth to weigh in with your thoughts on what might be going on here, and suggestions on how we should proceed.