Installing Android 8.1 firmware on Muses

[ilyats]

I wanted to try to install new firmware using Linux tools. (For impatient readers, I failed, like everyone else.)

Similarily to Windows tools, you must put device in flashing mode to get Linux tools (either tools from Rockchip or open source ones).
In the normal mode device is described in the output of 'lsusb' as

ID 2207:0011 Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Company SmartTab

and in flashing mode as [CODE]
You can put device in this mode either the way described in the installation guide (powering device off and plugging USB cable while holding 'Back' button) or via ADB by command

adb reboot bootloader

and IIRC (I tried it a while ago) through the recovery menu by 'reboot to bootloader' option. The last two methods don't work after installing the new firmware, rather they put device into mode which is described as

 ID 2207:0006 Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Company rk30xx

).
(Obviously, for the adb method to work, you need to have adb installed and the device running, connected to computer have debugging over USB enabled in developer options and allow USB debugging from your computer)

Having put the device in flashing mode, I tried various versions of Linux upgrade tool from Rockchip found in Internet, but was getting either 'Test Device Fail' or 'Check Chip Fail' error. . I found log leaved by these tools which contained error messages like

RKU_Write failed,err=-7

and suspected it the problem was faulty USB connection between computer and device. At one point as I was trying the old tool version 1.21 all tests passed and message like 'downloading firmware' and counters showing progress appeared. After it was finished or nearly finished, an error "downloading firmware fail" appeared. I tried to reboot the device and got what other users who had tried updating with linux tool had reported: Likebook start screen showing for a moment, then Android icon with message 'erasing', then blank screen occasionally flashing white. When connected to computer, it showed up, but not in flashing mode. I was able to get into recovery menu but "reboot to bootloader" option did not put it in flashing mode. Luckily, I discovered that device could be put in flashing mode by holding 'Back' and 'Power' buttons when attached to USB. I tried various versions of Rockchip tool again, only to get test error each time. I did some experiments with the open source tool as well to no avail.

At this point I gave up updating using linux, found a bootable Windows disk and got Windows and Windows update tool running. It recognized device instantly. At first I clicked 'Erase' by mistake and it went on erasing device without warning and finished erasing smoothly, I started update properly and it went smoothly again and then started into the shiny new system.

Oddly, I discovered that somewhere in between the device serial number had been changed.

[jsiebenbaum]

The only thing I had to differently than the pdf instructions was to continue to hold the home button (one on the front of device) while I pressed upgrade in the tool; if I let go the pressure before I pressed upgrade the tool immediately closed. Upgrade went smoothly without any other hitch...