azbox firmware (0.9.1314) on pirelli

porting the azbox firmware has some problems:
1. the IR handling is different
2. the pirelli box uses the builtin hdmi chip of the SMP8634, while the azbox uses an external one.
3. the pirelli box has 192mb ram while the azbox has 256mb


fix for the first problem:

ir-convert.c
this contains the code to convert the event based IR handling into socket communication that
remote-controls the ir_control application.

the key mapping is not complete and might need some rearrangement ... check the "mapping" array

in the usb-root-archive this binary is located at /bin/a.out


fix for the 2. and 3. problem:

the SDecoderServer application is the most important one. it handles the HDMI and the audio/video playback.

http://hy100wiki.algasystems.net/fil..._by_vertex.pdf
with the original application, no video will play because the HDMI init will fail.
the patched application has modified the I2C communication so that it will talk to the builtin SiI9002.
however as I found out, the video playback on HDMI does not work. maybe I missed some other place that needs
to be patched as well.

the 3. problem is not really critical, however it affects the playback of MKV files with at least 720p resolution.
the SDecoderServer reserves two video buffers for playback in this case... with 64mb for decoding memory this is not
possible and the playback fails.
Interestingly if the MKV file is converted into a MP4 then it will play without problems, so I patched
the MKV playback to always use only one video buffer for playback.



ok, now we get to the point of setting up the box

we need two things, a new linux kernel that is able to boot from USB drive and of course a USB drive
with all the system files.

it might be possible to strip down the system so that it fits into flash, but it is easier for developement
to have it on a USB drive.

in this distribution you will find the file "lzma.bin" this is a linux kernel compressed with lzma and a small loader
that decompresses the kernel into RAM, enables the USB ports and starts the kernel.

the lzma.bin needs to be written to flash so that the yamon can load and start it.

I chose to put the lzma.bin at the end of the flash at 0xade00000
the usb drive needs to be formatted with ext2 filesystem, so it is best to do this with Linux.
after it is formatted, unpack the usb-root-1314.tar.gz to the usb drive.

finally add the following lines to xenv:

a.linux_cmd "console=ttyS0 root=/dev/sda1 rw rootdelay=5 mem=108m"
y.startdelay "2"
y.start "copy 0xade00000 0x91400000 0x120000; go 0x91400000"


the rootdelay depends a bit on your usb drive. about 5seconds seems to be the minimum. some usb drives need 6 - 7 seconds to initialise.


now you should be able to restart the box.
the LED will turn off during start and after some seconds you should see the azbox logo on screen.


the original and patched version of SDecoderServer is included for reference.