The Amazon Fire TV 2 has been rooted for several months now, but the procedure has been difficult and risky for some to follow. Now that rbox has released custom recovery and a pre-rooted ROM for the Fire TV 2, rooting the device is much easier and safer. Here is my guide on how to root the Fire TV 2 using a Windows PC.
If you’ve already rooted using the old method, it is safe to fully follow this guide in order to install custom recovery. There are other quicker ways, discussed here, to install custom recovery on an already rooted Fire TV, but those won’t be in this guide.
Update
If you are on software version 5.0.5 or older, there is an alternate method to root the Fire TV 2 without needing an A-to-A USB cable. I suggest using the alternate method instead of this one. You can find the guide for the alternate rooting method in my Rooting Starter’s Guide.
Video Guide
Requirements
- A Fire TV 2 running stock software version 5.0.5.1 or older. (It is okay to follow this guide with an already rooted Fire TV 2 that was rooted using the older method, if you’re looking to install TWRP and an updated ROM.)
- A USB Keyboard. The Logitech K400 or K400 Plus is suggested because it includes a touchpad while only needing 1 USB port.
- A 1GB or greater USB drive or MicroSD card formatted with FAT32. If you decide to use a USB drive, it will be much easier if you also have a USB Hub so that you can connect both the USB Drive and USB Keyboard simultaneously to the Fire TV. If you don’t have a USB hub, you can still follow this guide, but first read the footnote titled “If you don’t have a USB hub and are using a USB drive” at the bottom of this page. Using a MicroSD card leaves the Fire TV’s USB port open for the USB Keyboard and therefore will not require a USB Hub.
- An A-to-A USB Cable. Any length or version/speed will do. This is used to connect the Fire TV to a PC. It does not need to be long enough to reach your TV from your PC since the Fire TV 2 does not need to be connected to a TV when this cable is used.
Step 1: Prepare Files
- Download the latest version of the FireTV 2 Recovery file
firetv2_recovery_v#.zip from here.
- Download the latest version of the FireTV 2 Recovery Installer file
install_firetv2_recovery_v#.zip from here.
- Download the latest Pre-Rooted Fire TV 2 ROM
sloane-5.#.#-rooted_r#.zip from here.
- Unzip the
firetv2_recovery_v#.zip andinstall_firetv2_recovery_v#.zip files and place all the files in the same directory.
- Copy the
ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma file and the Pre-Rooted ROMsloane-5.#.#-rooted_r#.zip file to your FAT32 USB Drive or FAT32 MicroSD card. Be sure the files are in the top most root directory and do not unzip the ROM file.
- OPTIONAL: Add a
.md5 hash file to your FAT32 USB Drive or FAT32 MicroSD card by following this guide. This helps detect a corrupt ROM file.
Step 2: Prepare Computer and Fire TV
- If you haven’t done so yet, setup ADB and Fastboot on your computer by following this guide.
- Install MTK65XX Preloader USB VCom drivers on your computer by following this guide. (Windows 8.1 & 10 users may need to first disable driver verification)
- Enable ADB debugging and USB debugging on your Fire TV by following this guide.
- Power off the Fire TV, then connect the A-to-A USB cable to the Fire TV and your computer, and then power the Fire TV on. It’s important to always connect the USB cable first and THEN power on the Fire TV whenever you’re asked to do so in this guide. Wait for Windows to detect the Fire TV and install drivers. It will probably do this twice: once when it first powers up and again when it reaches the HOME screen. It’s fine and expected for Windows to report that not all drivers were installed correctly.
- After Windows is done detecting the Fire TV, disconnect the A-to-A USB cable and power off your Fire TV. It’s important to always also disconnect the USB cable when asked to power off the Fire TV in this guide because the Fire TV can pull power through the USB cable and actually remain on without the power cable connected.
Step 3: Prepare Fire TV for TWRP Custom Recovery
- Run the
install_firetv2_recovery.bat file by double clicking it. - While it says “Waiting for preloader…” connect the A-to-A USB cable to the Fire TV and then power up the Fire TV. The Fire TV does not need to be connected to a TV.
- The script should automatically detect the Fire TV and immediately begin transferring data to it. If it does not, try closing the script, disconnecting the USB cable, powering off the Fire TV, and repeating the process.
- The script will continue transferring files to the Fire TV for about 5 minutes. Be sure the computer does not turn off or go to sleep during this time. If anything goes wrong, it’s perfectly safe to repeat this process from the beginning no matter where things failed.
- Once the script finishes, disconnect the USB cable and power off the Fire TV.
Step 4: Install a Pre-Rooted ROM (which includes TWRP Custom Recovery)
- Connect the Fire TV to a TV but leave it powered off.
- If you’re using a MicroSD card:
Insert the MicroSD card (that you prepared in step 1) into the Fire TV, connect your USB keyboard to the Fire TV, and then power on the Fire TV.If you’re using a USB Drive:
Connect the USB Drive (that you prepared in step 1) and your USB keyboard to a USB hub, connect the USB hub to your Fire TV, and then power on the Fire TV. - When you see the boot menu, press the RIGHT arrow on the USB keyboard to boot into recovery.
- If you see a message asking you to allow modifications, go ahead and click the bottom right arrows to allow modifications.
- Once you are in Team Win Recovery Project (TWRP), if you don’t have a mouse/touchpad connected to the Fire TV, use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the cursor. Press enter to select buttons under the cursor.
- Select the
Install button in TWRP.
- Select the
Select Storage button.
- Select either
USB orMicro SDCard depending on which one has the Pre-Rooted ROM on it, and select OK.
- Select the Pre-Rooted ROM you want to install.
- Select the
Swipe to confirm Flash button to start installing the Pre-Rooted ROM. You don’t actually have to drag the button. Just clicking it will work.
- Wait for the Pre-Rooted ROM to install.
- Once the Pre-Rooted ROM is finished installing, select the
Reboot System button to restart the Fire TV.
Step 5: Verify Root & Block Updates
- To verify that your Fire TV is rooted, connect to it via ADB.
- Run the command:
adb shell
- Run the command:
su
- On the Fire TV, select the
Grant button on the popup that appears. You only have a few seconds before the popup disappears. If you miss it, repeat step 5-3.
- If you see
root@sloane:/ # in your command window, then you know you have successfully rooted.
- While you’re here, you should block software updates by running the command:
pm disable com.amazon.device.software.ota
- Lastly, you probably want to disable USB debugging if you plan to use your USB port for something like external storage or peripherals.
Step 6: Show some love
If you appreciate the effort that has gone into rooting the Fire TV 2, you should consider donating to those that made it all possible
- Donate to rbox for creating TWRP recovery, the installer, and the pre-rooted ROM.
- Donate to zeroepoch for discovering the rooting method.
- Donate to me for writing this guide.
Footnote
• If you don’t have a USB hub and are using a USB drive:
It’s possible to follow this guide, with a few modifications, if you do not have a USB hub or MicroSD card. First, at step 4-2, you need to connect the USB Drive, power on the Fire TV, then quickly switch to a USB keyboard when you see the Fire TV logo in order to select the recovery option when the boot menu appears. Then, while in TWRP, you need to remotely transfer the pre-rooted ROM to the Fire TV using ADB. Alternatively, you can transfer the pre-rooted ROM to the Fire TV’s internal /sdcard directory before following this guide and just install it from there when you’re in TWRP.
Troubleshooting
• If you get stuck in a loop and can’t boot normally:
- Enter TWRP using the boot menu
- Select the
Wipe button in the upper right. - Select the
Advanced Wipe button in the lower left. - Check the
Cache checkbox. - Select the
Swipe to Wipe button. The wipe can take anywhere from a few seconds to 10+ minutes, so be patient.
• If TWRP recovery is hung/frozen, do not reboot. Instead, restart TWRP recovery by:
- Connect via ADB. (The IP is on the TWRP home screen)
- Run the command:
adb shell - Run the command:
killall recovery
• If TWRP recovery has a blurry/double interface, try connecting the Fire TV to a different TV to complete the guide. Some TVs are having issues displaying TWRP correctly. Once you finish the guide on a compatible TV, the Fire TV will work with your incompatible TV just fine. There are also reports that TWRP is not compatible with interlace 1080i TVs. Try using a 1080p or 720p TV.
• If you don’t see a boot menu after Step 3, you can:
- Be sure you’re using a FAT 32 drive or microsd card. Also be sure there are no hidden partitions on the drive/card. Try a different drive/card.
- Check the MD5 hash of the ZIP files you downloaded to ensure your files are intact.
- Lastly, try repeating the guide from the beginning.
@AFTVnews
AFTVnews
Question: If I am on 5.0.5, could downgrading to 5.0.4 prerooted be possible using this method? Or I´ll have to wait for 5.0.5 pre rooted? Thanks.
Have you already received 5.0.5 on your Fire TV 2? I ask because we’re still not sure if 5.0.5 blocks rooting.
That said, it’s safe to downgrade a 5.0.4 Fire TV 2 to 5.0.3.1 using this method, so assuming 5.0.5 is rootable, it should be safe to downgrade it as well, but I’m not 100% sure yet because it’s very early days and we don’t know everything about 5.0.5 yet.
No, I received it on 5.0.3.1.
I was on 5.0.4 until couple of days ago, didn´t block updates.
Maybe I´ll give a shot later anyways.
Didn´t make it clear, yes I received the 5.0.5 update.
i think 5.0.5 is blocking the root…i tried (twice) to do through step 3 but when reboot. it’s not rooted..
For everyone – do not download the source files, click on the wee link ( v2 for FireTV 2 Recovery [v2]) under changelog and downloads
:)
Thanks for pointing this out. I’ve added screenshots with huge arrows pointing at the download links to help.
Since my ftv2 is rooted n up to date . I just follow step 1 &3?
No. You should follow all steps. Obviously, you can skip most of step 2 since you’ve already prepared your Fire TV and computer to communicate since you’ve already rooted with the old method.
Step 3 does not fully install recovery. It just preps the Fire TV to boot recovery off of external storage. (I’ve changed the step titles to be a more accurate description.)
After step 3, you can only boot into recovery if you have the USB Drive or MicroSD card inserted into the Fire TV. The ROM you install in step 4 includes TWRP custom recovery and is when it gets fully installed onto the Fire TV.
Thank u!!
Every rooting & unlocking solution I have found requires USB connection to a PC. If I had a PC, I wouldn’t be using this $30 doorstop of a computer to begin with. I call massive fail on the entire rooting and modding community for failing to find a one-click solution. It’s very much possible, you just haven’t found it yet.
Well instead of griping about other people doing something for “you”, just go figure it out yourself then if it is that easy….
In step 2 of Prepare Computer and Fire TV, is it normal for the MTK65XX Preloader USB VCom drivers install process to report that it “installed, but may not work correctly” and show a yellow exclamation point in the device manager?
Yes. That is exactly what happened to me and everything worked perfectly.
When I’m trying to install the VCom drivers on Windows 10 following these instructions (https://thebroodle.com/microsoft/windows/how-to-install-mtk65xx-preloader-usb-vcom-drivers-in-windows/) I get to step 4 that says “Now select the any inf file from where you extracted the downloaded drivers.” but this file doesn’t exist in my unrared directory. I only see folders for Windows 7, Xp, Vista. Any tips for doing this on Windows 10?
It looks like there suggesting it’s the same as the Windows 7 process (after the “disable digital driver signature verification” process), so that leads me to a follow up question. Do I have to install all the drivers in the list or just the top one “MediaTek DA USB VCOM Port”? When you download the RAR file it looks like there are 5 or so different device model numbers, but I don’t see those in the installation process (device manager, my computer, install legacy hardware, etc).
Correct, select the Windows 7 folder if you’re running Windows 10. The steps in that guide are basically just telling Windows that this folder (the one you unzipped) has drivers. So that when you connect the Fire TV for the first time, Windows will check that folder for drivers. This is why it doesn’t matter which exact driver you “install” in that step.
The step of installing drivers is a bit sloppy and results in errors, but it’s not a concern. All that’s important is that Windows is aware of the unzipped driver folder. There’s no risk of bricking the Fire TV if you somehow mess up the driver installation,.
This only for PC, what about Mac or Linux ?
The process is very similar for Mac. I plan to update the guide with Mac specific instructions at some point, but until then, you just need to get your drivers squared away and use install_firetv2_recovery.sh instead of install_firetv2_recovery.bat
I would also like to see a Mac guide. I’d like to know more about what it means to get my “drivers squared away”. Thanks!
Got a question for AFTVnews. I was rooted on 5.0.4, installed recovery and then flashed pre-rooted file from recovery screen. Should I still follow this guide or this is good enough? Thank you.
Nope, you’re good. This guide does exactly what you’ve already done and nothing extra. Jut be sure to block updates.
after doing all steps and installing TWRP. I clicked on reboot and ft keeps rebooting to the boot menu. if I click on normal it reboot and goes back to the boot menu and if I click TWRP Im able to go into it. but it will not boot to the regular amazon dashboard. can someone please help.
You could try to unplug the micro sd card or usb card that has the recovery installed on it. Disconnect the power supply and then reconnect.
I added a troubleshooting section to the bottom of the guide that you should follow. Basically, you need to wipe your device’s cache from within TWRP.
Does anyone know why my boot menu isn’t displayed properly? It looks like there is a double image and is unusable.
I got the same thing. Did you sort it out?
Did you ever resolve this? I have the same problem.
Just Installed Xposed xposed-v80-sd22-arm64.zip
Am stuck in Copying system image for 30 mins n counting. I copied the zip file to my sdcard as i didn’t have a usb hub before running the install. So any advice on what to do ?
Thanks !
I re-did the whole thing from starting.. And I get stuck at this Copying System Image part (3/4th copied) again. Not sure what’s wrong. Can someone help ?
How long does this step take.. couple of mins ? Thanks.
Let it keep working for an hour or so. It could just be really slow due to a poor microsd card. If you decide to give up, just restart the Fire TV, enter TWRP recovery with the boot menu, and start installing the ROM again. Every time you install a ROM it wipes out what is currently on the device, so if the previous attempt corrupted the OS, it will be completely formatted and freshly installed.
Thanks for the quick response, I ve had it running for over 2 hrs now still the same result on my third try.
4th try – I ve got hold of a usb hub but when i power on the fire tv in Step 4 it goes to home screen instead of the boot menu. What is going on.. am lost.
Looks like i bricked my device !!! I get stuck at the Amazon Fire TV screen. Oh well so much for rooting. Is there a way to restore, cant get to the TWRP screen either.
Post in the XDA thread here http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/firetv-2-recovery-t3309780
Rbox bricked his FIre TV while developing this method and was able to recover. He may be able to help.
If “Every time you install a ROM it wipes out what is currently on the device” does that mean when I Root and install the Pre-Rooted ROM that I will lose apps, data, etc?
No. I should have been more specific. The Fire TV has a “system” partition and a “user” partition. When installing a ROM, the “system” partition is only wiped. The “user” partition is where all of your apps and data are located. This does not get touched when installing a ROM. The “user” partition is what gets wiped when you do a factory reset.
whats the path of the factory reset image.
files\adb.exe wait-for-device && files\adb.exe remount
files\adb.exe reboot bootloader
files\fastboot.exe boot apps\Recovery.img
Why does everything have to be so complicated?
hi Elias
I have question for you,
my friend fire tv was defective (it worked before, then all of a sudden he does not get any screen (no signal) just blank like its not powered on but i get a white blinking light i had amazon replace it!
so that was first step today got the fire tv,
and funny enough amazon sent me another defective unit! that is stuck on white amazon logo (so i think this was a bricked unit? maybe one of the customers bricked it and returned it as working thats why i got this bad one. but anyway i followed this tutorial i got to the part where
i was able to transfer the files at Step 3…
so hoping im able to fix this bad unit (that is stuck in white amazon logo)
after 5 minutes the process complete
i loaded usb with pre rooted firmware with ramdisk-recovery.cpio
then sadly nothing changes still the same amazon white logo…
i just gave it a shot since im going to request fora nother replacement just in case wouldn’t work..
but seeing that im able to follow step 3 (handshake with pc and able to transfer the files, is there anyway to re install fire tv OS? with current rooted method.
if not i guess i will just wait for replacement…
thanks
If you can’t get past the white Amazon logo then something is failing very early in the boot process. That’s why the boot menu isn’t appearing for you. If you could get to the boot menu and into recovery, then there would be hope of fixing it, but sounds like you’ve just got a dud like you said. Hopefully you’re replacement works out.
so i thought it wouldn’t get pass the frozen “white amazon logo”
at first it didn’t so i did it one more time, (i didn’t know that u need to reboot fire tv couple of times for recovery to kick in, usually, unplugg, then if it doesn’t unplugg one more time it should go… then i was able to see TWRP logo,so i got so happy and went ahead with rooting method, (i thought it would fix the frozen white amazon logo) then after ive applied the rooted firmware, the problem was even worse, now i dont see any screen! not even a frozen white amazon logo, and it seems like no hdmi cable connected to it, just powered white light blinking thats it..
do u think at this point its hopeless?
because i think i dont have to return this bad replacement back because amazon already sent me another refurbished unit…
daffung. I got my device into the same state (blinking white light, no hdmi image). Did you ever get yours fixed?
I have been working with the unbrick image, trying combinations of things. So far nothing has worked.
files\adb.exe wait-for-device && files\adb.exe remount
files\adb.exe reboot bootloader
files\fastboot.exe boot apps\Recovery.img
sorry install usb drivers from fastboot and adb, connect USB.
enter the directory that you installed adb
from the command prompt type
files\adb.exe wait-for-device && files\adb.exe remount
files\adb.exe reboot bootloader
If you know the location of the recovery image on your device type:
files\fastboot.exe boot (RecoverImageyPath)\Recovery.img
and your recovery image should then start to restore your device!
Guys, good news.
Successfully achieved root while on 5.0.5 (downgraded to 5.0.3.1).
Recovery works as expected.
So the tutorial is also valid for 5.0.5
Awesome! Thanks for the update!
Really cool, thanks for testing and sharing!
I’m on a Gen 1 Fire TV with OS 5.0.3. Am I boned? Or is there a way and there’s just no news coverage because I have an old device?
This guide is for gen 2 FireTv only, will not work on gen 1.
Thank you for your assistance Tech Support Bot.
The 1st-gen is only rootable with software version 51.1.1.0 or older. The 1st-gen rooting guide is at AFTVnews.com/start
Will there be a guide to updating 1st gen fire tv’s to newest OS. I rooted mine months ago, but would like to update the most recent Fire OS.
Yes Steve. I’ll put up a guide once TWRP and 5.0.5 ROM is released for the 1st-gen.
Is there a guide or article outlining the pros and cons about rooting my AFTV2?
I’m a heavy user of Netflix, Youtube and Kodi. Will there be any negative impact on my experience with any of those apps if I root my AFTV?
Thanks.
An article about the benefits of rooting would quickly become outdated because new things that require a rooted device are discovered and created on a regular basis.
Most people root because there is one or two things they want to do/change with their Fire TV but can’t with an unrooted device. Others root and do nothing with their device that requires root, just so that they stay open to the option of doing future modifications that may come out.
Netflix, YouTube, and Kodi work fine on rooted devices.
So has anybody else got this odd blurry double image when booting into the recovery option menu. Kinda like like it’s the wrong resolution? I can’t use this at all? Crying……
Same problem with the double blurry screen. You cant get to any of the menus because you cant see what you are doing. Is there any way to revert back to before step 3 to get the box back to normal boot into Fire tv os?
Am wondering the same thing. Rbox told me that he needs a recovery log from me to check the issue. I had a similar issue on my ouya in recovery boot menu.
Oh I forgot. With the fouble blurry screen. Is the usb keyboard working? What does it do if you press the right arrow key? That should boot into twrp recovery. Is that blurry too?
The usb keyboard works. When you use the right arrow key, it gets to twrp recovery, but you cannot maneuver correctly because it is a blurry double screen.
Did you figure out anything with the blurry double screen image? I tried everything, but have had no luck. I tried a different tv, different hdmi port, different HDMI cord, etc. nothing works!
I don’t have USB Hub or SD Card. Can I use place pre-rooted rom on FireTV Storage and install it via TWRP?
Yes, but you will still need a USB drive to get into TWRP. Push the ROM to the Fire TVs /sdcard internal storage directory before you do anything. Then put only the ramdisk-recovery.cpio file on the USB drive. As soon as you see the Fire TV logo during boot at step 4-3, you need to unplug the USB Drive and plug in a USB keyboard. If you do it in time, you should be able to use the keyboard to enter TWRP. Once in TWRP, navigate to /sdcard and install the ROM from there. Then you’re all set.
Thanks. That worked perfectly
I keep getting an error in step 3:
Waiting for preloader…
Found port = COM7
Handshake complete!
Injecting 2ndinit…
Mediatek Inject, git version fa8d8f
error: mediatek_inject.exe
Injecting 2ndinitstub…
Mediatek Inject, git version fa8d8f
error: mediatek_inject.exe
Press any key to continue . . .
Any ideas what is causing this?
The arror is actually this below but it stripped the extra stuff in my original post.
[error: mediatek_inject.exe ]
No matter what i try it strips the extra info. I will change the for ]
error: mediatek_inject.exe [device] [comport] [source file] [target file] [selinux context]
Same error here!
There is a typo in the v2 installer that causes it to fail. Just use v1 until a v3 is released. I’ve added a note to the guide which I’ll remove once a v3 installer is released.
UPDATE: v3 is now up, so use that and you should be fine.
It’s a line return issue on the batch file during extraction of the Zip file.
Edit the .bat file (with something better than regular Notepad) (NotePad++, Atom, etc).
Save it with Dos/Windows line returns.
And same error here. I was thinking that the error could be coming for my german ui windows 10, so I switched to us ui. However the error is still the same….
I have a workaround. Simply use the previous download Package of the file and replace the batch and the .sh and the mediathek..Exe file…
Did anyone figure out the problem with the blurry screen?
Thanks Elias for such a great guide!
Thank you Eric for expoiting the FTV2!
Thank you rbox for the recovery menu & custom tons!
Thank you Elias for the great guide & bringing us all together!
Nope. Still got blurry screen. Sad face.
I also went to the newest tv in my house and was able to see the menu’s properly. Both tv’s I tried were older and didn’t support the image properly. The directions worked like a charm. Borrow somebody’s newer tv if you need to. Once the process is complete, it works great on the old tvs.
Kev — I figured it out, all I did was changed TV and it show correctly it must have something to do with the screen resolution or poor HDMI cable.
I tried on 2 tvs. I will try again on a third!
I’m stuck at the end of step 3, the script runs successfully to prepare for boot menu. When I power off and connect my usb hub (the one linked in the guide) the boot menu does not launch.
I’ve tried it with the usb stuck directly, it still doesn’t launch.
1) how do i know if the script was successfully run in the previous step?
2) also is there anything in particular that stops the boot menu from launching?
I added a new item to the troubleshooting section of the guide that might help you.
I mean the recovery menu, basically I’m still launching into stock menu atm
1) Did you remember to copy the cpio file over?
2) Is it FAT32?
3) Can you try a micro sd card or at least a different stick?
First of all, I’d like to give a massive thank you to aftvnews and rbox for their work.
Not sure if this is worth posting but I just thought I’d give a heads up.
When rooting my aftv2 I thought mine was semi-bricked because on reboot after flashing it would stay on the white amazon logo but I could still access recovery.
I tried various things including wiping cache, factory reset, different ROM, restoring to my stock backup, reflashing rooted rom, etc.
Eventually I left the thing alone for a while on the white logo and suddenly the thing went back to the home screen.
So if in doubt, give it a while to see whether it’s just setting up.
Also, wiping cache does take a long time which may be unusual for some who are not use to it.
I’m curious … how long was a “while”? I have the same problem. Waiting doesn’t seem to help but maybe I’m not patient enough.
I’m on v2 of TWRP should I upgrade to v3? If so is there an easy way of installing it or do I have to go through steps 1 – 3 again?
It’s not terribly important to be update to the latest TWRP every time rbox releases a new version. The easiest way to update TWRP is to install the latest ROM. See here for more info: How to update TWRP custom recovery on the Amazon Fire TV
Confirmed. Double image situation is related to tv not being 1080i resolution. I am now instants and very happy!
i was a able to install the driver on my pc, with errors like everyone is reporting…however not getting a connection from pc to ftv thru a-a usb cable. am i suposed to get a notification? i tried running the recovery installer also and it just says waiting for preloader….
anything else i can check?
I am also stuck at waiting for preloader but when I connect the Fire TV to my laptop running windows 10, the Fire TV (it just calls it Fire) shows up and is recognized. But I’m still stuck waiting for preloader even after several reboot/reconnect attempts.
A reboot of my PC solved the issue in my case.
Excellent I will try that out tonight when I get home from work!
Fingers Crossed
Thanks
And Thanks to Elias for this great guide and the other guys for creating this method of rooting!
Cheers.
Hmmm, just tried this, but unfortunately still no luck.
cdlenfert
May I ask you which driver did you exactly install for windows 10 back at step 2.2?
I installed the first one along the line- MTK6582 ?
I seem to recall reading earlier that it didn’t really matter which one?
What OS are you running? Is it a retail install or a custom install. Meaning…did you edit your windows installation at all? I’ve been diagnosing custom windows 7 x64 professional for about 2 weeks. A fresh untouched win 7 install WILL allow the drivers to be installed correctly. You know their installed correctly if you see “MediaTek DA USB VCOM Port” in device manager. As shown at 3:56 in the YouTube video tutorial. Keep in mind, all of that can/should be done WITHOUT the FireTV2 plugged into the computer.
I still have yet to figure out what component/driver being removed from my windows install that causes the driver to not install correctly. By correctly, I mean shows that COM Port in device manager.
I am also stuck at Step 3.3!
Just like cdlenfert i have tried several reboot/ reconnect attempts ‘waiting for the preloader’ to automatically find the Fire TV.
I am also running windows 10.
I did note that at when i initially connected the Fire TV to my laptop, the laptop found the Fire TV and pre-empted to install the required drivers (step 2.4) windows 10 installed some sort of mobile phone driver? Not sure this has anything to do with the problem, but just thought it maybe useful.
Hope someone can help?
cdlenfert- Did you resolve your issue which appears to be the same as my experience?
Yes. I rebooted my PC (I had rebooted the Fire TV several times with no luck) and after the PC reboot, I connected ran the .bat file, connected USB, then powered on the Fire TV and it worked.
please see my earlier post above
another one here with issues on sstep 3.3
win 10
just doesnt do anything at all once the USB & Power is plugged in
right guys sussed it out, what you need to do if using win 8 & win 10 is disable driver signature verification
then re attempt to install the drivers from device manager, works successfully
Hi Chatelle
Thanks for your suggestion, however I’m pretty sure I did that in step 2.2
when installing USB VCOM drivers on the broodle.com website?
i done it manually using this guide, its the only way i could get the drivers to install, they failed every other way i attempted. http://www.howtogeek.com/167723/how-to-disable-driver-signature-verification-on-64-bit-windows-8.1-so-that-you-can-install-unsigned-drivers/
Yes, I have also followed that guide.
Thanks for trying to help me out
but still no luck :(
Hello ArcticMonkey,
We all seem to be stuck in the same situation. I have also tried it on Win7 with no luck. I have read all the great information provided here but with no resolution. I just wanted to see if you have tried anything new that has worked.
Hello Elias,
I have a question regarding connecting A to A cable from fire tv to computer. I understand
that when connecting I should receive a message that states installing drivers. I never
receive that message. I am running windows 10 and instead it asks me what I want to do with
this device. Does that mean that drivers are already installed and recognized if no driver
installation is prompted? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I also tried it a second time
to recheck if it would be prompted to install drivers and it did not.
The step to plug in the Fire TV ahead of time to setup drivers isn’t technically required. It’s just so that you’re not sitting and waiting for Windows to perform new hardware setup at step 3-2 while the script is looking for the Fire TV.
Go ahead a proceed with the guide if Windows doesn’t detect new hardware to see if the script finds the Fire TV at step 3-2. If the Fire TV isn’t detected by the script, I suggest going into device manager and deleting the Fire TV AND deleting it’s drivers from Windows. Then repeat the driver setup.
Great guide! And great work on the root everyone involved!
Just rooted my FTV2 from 5.0.4 original to 5.0.5 r3. Followed the guide and no problems whatsoever!
Only the last command to disable auto updates has a typo, the last slash should not be there.
> While you’re here, you should block software updates by running the command:
> pm disable com.amazon.device.software.ota
Thanks again!
Thanks for catching the typo!
Thanks Elias, really good guide this one.
I´ve suffered a problem, would be great if someone could help me. I´ve rooted the Amazon TV2 but sudently the resolution has gone lower, this is, let see if I can explain it: I´ve got connected the amazon tv to a Benq projector and if before I root the AMTV I could see my screen in a 100″ size know I only can see it on a maximun of 25″. I´ve tried every type of resolutions that the settings offer, and no way, the imagen has got reduce, do you know what can be the problem?? Thanks for your help!!
That’s a tough issue to diagnose. It sounds like either the projector is not detecting the Fire TV’s capabilities correctly, or the Fire TV is not detecting the projector’s capabilities correctly. This is possibly caused by the extra boot step of displaying the boot menu.
My suggestion is to fully power on the projector, then with the Fire TV powered off plug in the HDMI cable, then power on the Fire TV. If that doesn’t work, try powering on the Fire TV while it’s not connected to the projector, wait a few minutes to give it time to get to the HOME screen, then connect it to the projector.
I was stuck on the waiting for preloader part. i fixed it by going in to device manager(with fire tv on and usb lead connected to fire tv and laptop),uninstalling the fire tv driver listed at the bottom under usb. then switched off fire tv,unplugged usb lead. plugged the usb lead in,switched on fire tv and let it reinstall the driver. Then ran the bat file and it worked first time
Great guide as always! If I may add, if using USB drive to flash, make sure USB debugging is turned off. Also before step #5, make sure the A-to-A USB cable is connected and USB debugging is still turned on. I spent a lot of time troubleshooting why I couldn’t do adb shell (showing device offline) until I realized adb over the network doesn’t work on Fire 2 even though I can connect to its IP.
I’m able to connect via adb but when I run su it just sits there and I get no prompt on screen. Is that what u got our we u not even able to connect to adb over the network? I tried enabling USB debugging and connected to the serial # instead of the IP but got no further. See the last post for more info on my situation. Any h help would be great!
I was able to connect adb to the fire tv’s IP but couldn’t get pass adb shell until I connect the cables and turn on adb debugging. Seems like you are able to get one step further than I did, so our issues should be different. Once I got into the shell, su command wasn’t a problem, I was able to see the prompt on my tv right away. Like the other said, it might have to do with FireStarter launcher for my issue. I didn’t have to uninstall it though.
Do you have firestarter installed? If so, you need to uninstall firestarter. I think its blocking ADB connection.
Uninstall firestarter. IT should work.
Will give it a try. Thanks.
Bummer. Uninstalled it and i still cant get past the su command. adb shell works fine, but then i cant get past su. I have TWRP 3.0.0-4 installed and get into recovery. Then i try and install the 5.0.5_r4 rom, it installs just fine and i see its installing SuperSu but cannot get su command to fire which means that at some point in the install, im not rooted. Does anyone know which directory supersu is installed so i can validate that its on my firetv2? i could use teh file explorer in TWRP to try and get there. the ‘su’ command seems to just freeze up. Does it matter that i used a windows box to run the install, but then am connecting via usb from my macbook? i cant imagine it would but maybe it does. I dont have a tv monitor near my windows box to verify that the su prompt happens so i am kinda stuck. Any other ideas?
Is there any concern with my trying to install an older version of the 5.0.5 (or even 5.0.4) after already installing the latest r4 version of 505? Just curious if that would help at all or not. TWRP would tell me if things failed correct? It’s telling me everything is just fine. Very frustrating. Great guide, I just wish i knew more about how come my install isnt working as expected. The roms are pre-rooted, so it just doesnt seem like its getting fully installed if su isnt allow to run even if TWRP says it installed supersu just fine.
I get unknown package when i copy and paste the command to disable updates. It returns an error saying unknown package? any advice. Thanks
Sorry, there was a typo in the command. It is now fixed. You should:
I don’t have an usb keyboard, can i use an usb mouse instead of keyboard in TWRP bootloader?
A mouse will work in TWRP, but you need a USB keyboard to select TWRP on the boot menu. That’s why a USB keyboard is required.
Does anyone know what the format and name is of the md5 sum file that TWRP is expecting?
I get “Skipping MD5 check: no MD5 file found” when installing a pre-rooted ROM
I would prefer to have TWRP check for me since it seems to have that ability. Sad to see this option is being ignored in this guide after all the problems people have had in the past with corrupt files.
I’m planning to put up a quick guide for this. Create a text file where the filename is exactly the same as the ROM file, including the .zip part, and give it a .md5 extension.
Example: sloane-5.0.5-rooted_r4.zip.md5
The contents of the file should be the md5 hash value (in lowercase) and nothing else. Place the file in the same directory as the ROM file you’re flashing.
I tried that before I posted and it didn’t work. I guess I will just wait for your guide.
Thank you Elias, for the reply and for all you do for the FireTV community.
I cant get past step 3. The script completes but the firetv just reboots to the default amazon desktop?
The firetv has version 5.0.5, and I’ve used v3 installer and v5 recovery files.
Any help would be appreciated thanks, Jon.
And yes I checked your trouble shooting guide and everything there is fine, it just wont boot to recovery?!
Turns out my problem was using the ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma from v5, I dont know why, but the v4 and v5 recovery files wern’t working for me and I’m guessing v3 didn’t seem to like the lzma compression. Using v3 recovery files and putting ramdisk-recovery.cpio on the sdcard fixed my problem, and allowed me to flash.
Thanks jon.
First off thank you Elias for an amazing and newbie-proof (like me) guide. My only question is: Does the Micro SD need to stay connected or can I remove it after everything is done?
You’re welcome. Yes, you can remove the microSD card once you’re done with the guide.
Loaded the latest rooted recovery and TWRP on there successfully (i see it output Installing SuperSu) and can connect via adb but when i try and connect as su, i dont get the prompt on the screen to grant access. I had 5.0.5 on there and put the rooted 5.0.5. Tried over wifi. Will try hardwired to see if that makes any difference. Any other ideas as to why i wouldnt get the supersu prompt? su just sits there and doesnt output anything in the terminal.
Loaded 5.0.4 v2 rom but still no su. This is so weird. In order to get a custom recovery like twrp on an android unit you need to unlock the bootloader right? so that tells me that since i have twrp on the box the bootloader is unlocked. I still dont have root access though. I tried installing supersu from twrp as well without any luck. Does this root use superuser or something else? would those libs clash or something? supersu or superuser for some reason? I’ll try the clockworkmod superuser one here: download.clockworkmod.com/superuser/superuser.zip
superuser definitely did not work:
error: only position independent executables (PIE) are supported.
back to the drawing board. Thoughts on just doing the entire thing over again or is it a waste of time to run the installer again and do the entire tutorial all over?
Sounds like everything worked out except SuperSU (the app) can’t launch for some reason. The first thing I would do is perform a factory reset to eliminate your own changes as the cause. Then I would re-flash the latest ROM.
If that doesn’t work, I would try booting into TWRP and connecting via ADB. You’ll have to use ethernet and the IP on the TWRP main menu. With ADB connected in TWRP, you should be able to enter “adb shell” and then “su” without having to deal with SuperSU. From there you’ll have root access and can try disabling or replacing “/system/app/SuperSU.apk”
We’re in business! I did a full factory reset, and then reinstalled latest rom. The wireless remote didnt work right away and had to unplug my ethernet cable so it chose wifi first and then everything works. Thanks again @AFTVNews for the help and the prompt responses!
Hey, i just rootet my fire tv. But i become this message : “cannot link executable dependencies libc.so is 32-bit instead of 64-bit”.
My system is not rootet otherwise i could use my ps3 controller on my fire tv.
Do you have any idea how i can solve the problem?
Thanks
Vincent
hi there
After installing rom, I used adb to connect to fire tv 2. The connection was good. When I input: adb shell, I got “error device offline”. I user command: adb devices, I saw that the device was offline. I don’t know how to fix this. Please help.
Thank you,
Uninstall Firestarter.
This worked, thanks!
Can i use ubuntu to follow this method or does it ave to be windows
Ubuntu should work but you’ll be running the install_firetv2_recovery.sh file instead of the .bat file. And you’re on your own for drivers, but you probably already knew that.
I got to the step where I flashed the rom in TWRP and it said flash failed or something similar. On reboot, I’m stuck at the white Amazon logo. I tried starting over from Step 3: Prepare Fire TV for TWRP Custom Recovery. This process now ends with an error unable to find target file. Any ideas?
I got back into TWRP by using unbricking guide here http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/firetv-2-recovery-t3309780
Okay I have been having trouble installing the VCOM driver for a couple weeks. I’ve FINALLY figured out what was holding me back. Now this should only pertain to power users since the issue I encounter was from me removing a necessary system driver that this VCOM driver relies on. That being said, the name of the original system driver that must be intact is “usbser.sys” but thats kinda obvious since that same file is included in the VCOM driver download. The harder part was figuring out which .inf file was linked to that .sys file; which is called “mdmcpq.inf”. That info was found in the “usb2ser_Vista64_Win7.inf”
So in short the Microsoft mdmcpq.inf CANNOT be removed from you system. Which usually can only be done by customizing your windows install. So it’s unlikely that many people will have this particular issue.
Here’s the Microsoft article about “usbser.sys” dependency!
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/837637
Interesting. Nice work figuring that out. Thanks for reporting back.
Hi, my Fire TV 1Gen is on 5.0.5, can I root it with this method? If not, Highly appreciate for any other method for rooting FTV 1st Gen running on 5.0.5.
Finally successfully rooted my fire tv, thanks to all and a coffee bought to one and all to show my appreciation.
Cheers
Arctic Monkey
just one question
After rooting my fire tv box is displaying software v 5.04
is this correct as i was on v 5.05 before rooting?
Hello Arkticmonkey,
I was wondering how you where able to resolve your issue of being stuck on 3.3.
I just ordered a AFTV2 and I plan on rooting it. Should I allow it to start up normally once first, or can I go straight to this guide? thx
having a hard time here, I followed all the prerequisites, but on Windows 10 (stupid). When I first hook up the A-A usb to have Winows install drivers, I get a message saying the device must have malfunctioned, it doesn’t install any drivers. I proceed to the next step, I start the script and plug in, nothing happens. I assume this is because of a lack of drivers…any ideas?
The only reason I rooted my AFTV2 with rbox (thanks for that) was to get the ability of downloading movies and tv episodes from kodi for later viewing. Currently, my unrooted AFTV1 can do this but my rooted AFTV2 can not. So I am stuck with downloading to the thumb drive on my AFT1 and walking the thumb drive to my AFTV2. This works but!!?? How can I get Kodi on my AFTV2 to use the thumb drive like my AFTV1?
Ok I wrote a Mac guide. In my case my Fire Tv is a 2nd gen, it is stock (other than side loaded apps) and it’s on 5.0.4 firmware. This is how I rooted it. It’s nothing like the tutorial posted on this site. This is the tutorial mine is based on: http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/general/root-amazon-fire-tv-2-updated-t3277556
Here’s my guide with plenty of pictures and needed links:
http://hackthatphone.com/Fire%20TV/Rooting-the-Fire-TV-with-a-Mac.html
Thanks for this, after using the guide posted on this site which of course was a major fail, I followed your guide except i adapted it for windows. It finally seems to be working now. (patching for the last hour..) :)
I have rooted my Aftv 4K following zeroepoch guide for Mac but I can’t or haven’t seen any recovery menu? How can I access or install it??
I received the update 5.05 on my FTV ver.1.Will this guide help in rooting the first gen ftv?
When I got stuck and couldn’t boot from USB into recovery all I had to do was remove my SD card. Once I did that popped right up. If anyone is stuck you can try this as well.
FYI if formatting usb or sdcard on a mac with Disk Utility be sure to format as “MS-DOS” not ExFAT otherwise it won’t boot into recovery. Once I reformatted as MS-DOS (aka FAT) then it worked fine.
I can’t seem to get past “zip signature verification failed” although
I can run # md5sum sloane-5.0.5-rooted_r4.zip on a Linux system
and get the same value I have in sloane-5.0.5-rooted_r4.zip.md5
I tried this first with a 4GB MicroSD that I formatted and built on a Linux system [fat32 format] the second a 1GB MicroSD built on a Window 7 system.
If I can verify the file under Linux, why does it fail with TWRP? I fear the Fire TV is having trouble reading the MicroSDs. Any suggestions or should I just ignore the TWRP md5 verdict and “full speed ahead?” I don’t want to hit a brick.
Nevermind. I figured it out. Just don’t check “check zip signature verification” whatever that is. It still does the md5sum check.
Got her rooted!
Thanks, this helped me!
Anyone know where Install MTK65XX Preloader USB VCom drivers are for OS X? I’ve done a bit of digging around and can’t find anything even at the Mediatek site.
I don’t think you needed any special usb drivers for OS X. From everything I’ve read only Windows requires usb drivers.
Thanks!
I am having some trouble getting it to work. I have a Mac and it gets hung up at the following step:
Locating the partition…
Reading 000000200: 0%
After some research, I found that I had to add a “wait 10” command after the handshake.py command in the .sh file. This allowed me to unplug the USB cable and then replug it in. For whatever reason after doing this and waiting the 10 seconds it would read/write like it should.
Step 3
Stuck at:
Locating the partition…
Reading 000000200: 0%
This is on OS X El Capitan by the way.
Open the install_firetv2_recovery.sh file with TextEdit. Copy and paste all the text with the below code. Basically it has two lines added that tell you to unplug the USB cable, plug it back in and then press enter. There seems to be an issue with OS X El Capitan but this seems to allow it to work.
#!/bin/bash
cd $(dirname $0)
[[ $(uname -s) = “Darwin” ]] && INJECT=mediatek_inject.osx || INJECT=mediatek_inject.linux
if [ ! -f 2ndinit -o ! -f 2ndinitstub ]; then
echo “2ndinit and/or 2ndinitstub is missing.”
echo “Did you extract all the zip files?”
exit -1
fi
./handshake.py
echo “Unplug the USB cable, then plug it back in. Press [Enter] to continue”
read -n 1 -s
echo “Injecting 2ndinit…”
./$INJECT firetv2 $(cat comport.txt) 2ndinit /system/bin/pppd u:object_r:system_file:s0
echo “Unplug the USB cable, then plug it back in. Press [Enter] to continue”
read -n 1 -s
echo “Injecting 2ndinitstub…”
./$INJECT firetv2 $(cat comport.txt) 2ndinitstub /system/bin/ext4_resize –
Eric you are the man!
I’ll be writing up a Mac guide for this. I was screen shotting the whole way through. Hats off to Elias for this awesome guide. It’s just a couple more hoops for us OS X people to jump through.
Elias how did you get those recovery mode screen shots?
I’m having the same problem but on win 10. I just can’t get it to work and it is hanging at the same spot. Any ideas?
Here’s that Mac guide I promised. It’s the same procedure as what is written here.
http://hackthatphone.com/Fire%20TV/Installing-Custom-Recovery-and-Rooting-the-Fire-TV-with-a-Mac.html
I welcome any input. Thanks Elias!
bang on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey, i already rooted my Fire Tv 2 right after it was rootable. So i didn’t install custum recovery.
Can i just install custom recovery without deleting my Root.
Antoher Questions:
Do you think there will be a Prerooted Rom at some point that includes the Play Store
FWIW, I had to keep trying over and over again to root an AFTV. Things would go as they should but when the AFTV booted up for the first time, I couldn’t get to the TWRP menu. This was driving me crazy and I was becoming very frustrated.
After the 4th attempt, I did some troubleshooting and realized that the AFTV was not recognizing my USB drive. So if you have the same problem, just use a different thumb drive or better yet, a microSD.
I got to the part before connecting USB keyboard.. And for whatever reason it’s not connecting. The Fire TV is not recognizing it. I know the USB keyboard works because it works on my laptop.
Any suggestions? Thanks.
Tried another keyboard and it worked great. Very good guide. Thanks.
everything works for me except I get this on su
Michaels-MacBook-Pro:~ micks70$ adb shell
shell@sloane:/ $ su
k_shell/2000:8241: /system/etc/mkshrc[9]: getprop: not found
k_shell/2000:8241: /system/etc/mkshrc[10]: id: not found
@android:/ # su
any help tried this on windows and mack
I get stuck waiting for preloaded and it won’t recognize the FTV. Also following the Mac guide I’m missing comport.txt file. FTV boots up normally.
The comport.txt file doesn’t show up until you begin the patching process using the USB cable.
I just simplified my Mac tutorial using the adbfire program now. No more messing with rootless.
Followed the guide several times, my Mac is not recognizing the FTV, FTV goes straight to booting up normally. I’m on Yosemite, using the The A-A USB you have linked in the tortorial.
OK finally rooted to 5.0.5 from 5.0.5.1 using the Mac tutorial Mark provided. Issue i was running into was the kext signing and firetv not being recognized on 10.10 Yosemite. Had to pull up console to figure this out
4/22/16 8:58:28.000 AM kernel[0]: USB (XHCI Root Hub USB 2.0 Simulation):Port 2 on bus 0xa connected or disconnected: portSC(0xe0206e1)
4/22/16 8:58:29.000 AM kernel[0]: 0 0 AppleUSBCDCACMData: start – createSerialStream failed
4/22/16 8:58:29.000 AM kernel[0]: 0 0 AppleUSBCDCECMData: start – Find
CDC driver for ECM data interface failed
4/22/16 8:58:29.000 AM kernel[0]: AppleUSBCDC: Version number – 4.3.2b1
Patcher had to be downloaded. Download for the patcher can be found here
http://www.mytracks4mac.info/download/USBCDCACMPatcher.zip
I’ve read the very first question in this post (07/02/2016) but am still unsure about the answer. In this guide to rooting using A-to-A USB Elias recommends ‘downloading the latest Pre-Rooted Fire TV 2 ROM’ (http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/firetv-2-sloane-prerooted-stock-images-t3309783) which is currently 5.0.5.1_r1. However, I’d rather put my AFTV2 back to 5.0.5 so that FireStarter will work as it did before Amazon rolled out 5.0.5.1.
My question is, even though my AFTV2 is now on 5.0.5.1 is it OK to use pre-root 5.0.5_r4 straight away or do I need to first root with 5.0.5.1_r1 before going back to 5.0.5_r4?
Thanks for any help.
Using the USB cable just flash 5.0.5 pre rooted. Don’t even mess with 5.0.5.1 pre rooted it’s a waste of time to just flash that and then just downgrade it by flashing 5.0.5 pre rooted..
Thanks Mark, that’s what I did and AFTV2 is now on 5.0.5_r4 and running well with Firestarter functionality back.
hello guys,please help me with this Step 4: Install a Pre-Rooted ROM (which includes TWRP Custom Recovery)must do other thing then go to step 4?
Windows 7 Pro 32x / AFTV2 5.0.5.1 I am stuck on Waiting for preloader. In device manager, I see, under other devices, 4 Android and 1 fastboot devices. Not matter what I try, I cannot get past the Waiting for preloader.
Same here. Win 10 x64 5.0.5.1. Stuck on waiting for preloader.
Thank you for writing this guide and posting the files! While I use Linux, I did find this guide to be most helpful. For those few folks that I have seen asking about Linux instructions, I found some on the xdadevelopers forums at the following url:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/orig-development/firetv-2-recovery-installer-t3309785
There were a few ‘gotchas’ that I ran into. I am posting my steps and problems I ran into below.
1. Start here on this url. Follow all the steps to prepare your files and your FireTV. Make sure you format your usb or sdcard drive correctly. I ran into trouble there. Couldn’t get my fireTV to boot to the TWRP recovery.
2. Open a separate tab to the following url:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/orig-development/firetv-2-recovery-installer-t3309785
– I just used this as a reference for when I got stuck. There is a lot of good information on this thread. But mostly I just followed this guide here.
3. Connect the usb cable and run the following script from the firetv recovery files you downloaded in step 1 of this guide.
sudo ./install_firetv2_recovery.sh
Hint:
If you get stuck at 0% on Linux, stop the ModemManager service.
Then just follow the rest of the steps in this guide.
Problems I ran into:
1. When running install_firetv2_recovery.sh, the handshake kept failing and the script would fail. Here is what I saw when I ran just the handshake.py:
——
./handshake.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “./handshake.py”, line 5, in
import serial
ImportError: No module named ‘serial’
———-
To Fix:
sudo yum install python3-pip
sudo pip3 install pyserial
2. After I figured out the handshake issue, I immediately encountered an issue where the recovery installer script got stuck at 0%. I saw this in my terminal:
——–
./install_firetv2_recovery.sh
Waiting for preloader…
Found port = /dev/ttyACM0
Handshake complete!
Injecting 2ndinit…
Mediatek Inject, git version fa8d8f
Locating the partition…
Reading 000000200: 0%
———
To fix:
$ sudo service ModemManager stop
3. I could not get my firetv to boot off the USB drive. Maybe the drive wasn’t formatted correctly. Maybe the fact that the FireTV was still in USB debug mode was causing trouble. I eventually gave up and used a 16GB microSD that I had lying around. Worked on the first try.
I hope this helps some people!
Well, after a bit of messing around getting the drivers to work and locating a TV that TWRP dispayed on OK I finished this guide.
rooted 5.0.5.1 r1 is installed, but the box seems to be semi-bricked.
I can access recovery, so I’ve tried wiping cache etc. I’ve reflashed the latest version (with md5 checking) and it all says it completes correctly.
WHen it tries to boot though it gets stuck at the white amazon logo, which then sort of fades, and eventually the box turns itself off (or perhaps the TV stops recognising that it’s plugged in, since nothing’s happening – either way I get a “no signal” on the TV).
I can use adb to connect while it’s in recovery, but not while it’s stuck at the amazon logo).
Any suggestions? Pretty please??
First, thanks for this guide and all the comments/replies. Like some others, I am stuck at “Waiting for preloader…” When I connect the AFTV2 to my PC, win7 recognizes it as “Easy Suite USB Device” under DVD/CD-ROM drives in Device Manager. For those who have gotten this root method to work, it seems like their PCs have recognized their AFTV devices as an AFTV device under USB.
tl;dr – How do I get my PC to recognize AFTV2 as a USB device rather than a DVD/CD-Rom drive?
Thanks in advance!
First, thanks for this guide and all the comments/replies. Like some others, I am stuck at “Waiting for preloader…”
When I connect the AFTV2 to my PC, win7 recognizes it in Device Manager>DVD/CD-ROM drives as “Easy Suite USB Device” under. For those who have gotten this root method to work, it seems like their PCs have recognized their AFTV devices as an AFTV device in Device Manager>Universal Seral Bus controllers. I suspect my problem is that my PC is not properly recognizing my AFTV2. Does anyone know how to resolve this?
tl;dr – How do I get my PC to correctly recognize AFTV2 as a AFTV2 USB device rather than a Easy Suite DVD/CD-Rom drive?
Thanks in advance!
Hey I’m having the same issue as well. I tried on 2 different laptops running Windows 10 and none of them will read that the fire tv is connected therefore not letting me download drivers onto it to even begin the process of rooting. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys
Great tutorial. Can you tell me how you recorded your Fire TV screen as you show in the video? Thanks,
Tom
I use an Elgato HD60 combined with an Etekcity HDMI Splitter, which strips out the copy protection.
You can find all my gear at http://www.aftvnews.com/mygear/
i am running version 5.0.4, i rooted my last box but this time, after done step 3, when reboot. it didnt boot twrp menu…can some1 tell me why?
Can you attach the MTK drivers? The download link in the linked guide no longer works.
Sorry, but i do until step 3. When i start AFTV no boot menu to see. The box is starting normaly. What can i do? my version is 5.0.5.1.
Could I use a Bluetooth Keyboard (like this http://www.amazon.com/Rii-Wireless-Keyboard-mini-X1/dp/B00I5SW8MC/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1465114594&sr=1-8&keywords=Mini+Bluetooth+Keyboard)
instead the Logitech K400 (Plus) ?
I haven’t both of them, but I prefer to buy the Bluetooth version.
Thanks Elias for the guides and Rbox for all the hard work.
I successfully rooted a mid-June purchased FTV2 that came directly from Amazon.com with 5.0.4. I carefully did each & every step of the guides down to the dot. In the above guide I used a Win7 64bit pc to install MTK USB drivers & upload the TWRP recovery and finally rooted with rbox rom 5.0.5 using a microSD card.
I later installed xposed, hdx module, and firestarter 3.2.2, root checker,google playstore, and blocked updates.
Does anyone else have a problem with downloading the MTK65XX Preloader USB VCom drivers onto a mac? I can’t open the drivers because it says the program can’t be run through apple. Any help would be appreciated
I’m having an issue on step 3:
Waiting for preloader…
Found port = COM7
Handshake complete!
Injecting 2ndinit…
Mediatek Inject, git version fa8d8f
Locating the partition…
Reading 000000200: 0%
I’m running Windows 10 and can’t for the life of me figure this one out.
Hi,
I have successfully rooted a fire tv 2nd gen using rbox’s method, but I haven’t been able to boot normally for about 3 days. On reboot of the device I get the prompt to go into recovery or boot normally. I used the micro SD and remove it after the rooting process. Does anyone know of anything I can do other than continue to wipe the cache.
thanks
Hey, finally got this done on my fire tv2 bought on prime day. My issue was the same as others, stuck at waiting for preloader, Even after several installs of drivers referenced here, no luck had to load driver from amazon developers site, and it seemed to make a big difference along with unplugging the power cable/replugging at the waiting for preloader prompt. I suspect this installer can’t do its work when the fire tv is fully booted up, as when firetv was fully booted at home screen the waiting for preloader stayed forever without progress. Hope this helps someone.
Thanks for all your work.
I just got a new Amazon Fire TV (Version 2) and its running 5.0.5.1.
In your guide you mention to download the latest sloane (pre-rooted stock images), which would be sloane-5.2.1.0-rooted_r2.rar file. I was wondering do I download this file or do I download the latest 5.0.5.1 file for my AFTV?
The link is here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/development/firetv-2-sloane-prerooted-stock-images-t3309783
Download the latest version available, which is currently 5.2.1.0. You don’t need to watch the current version that your Fire TV is running.
Did everything work out ok for you in this guide? Im 5.0.5.1 also.
I have all the files ready and when I connect the Fire TV 2 to my Windows 7 (64-bit) machine the Fire TV doesnt get installed or detected by Windows 7. Im stuck on the waiting for preloader screen. I have checked Device Manager and the device isnt listed despite having the MediaTek drivers installed as per the instructions above. I have uninstalled the drivers, tried the 64bit and other drivers under the Win7 folder but nothing works.
I have ADB and USB debugging turned ON on the Fire TV.
All steps have been followed properly. I have also tried to different USB A cables, same results. This has been tested and tried on multiple USB ports on the machine and two different Windows 7 computers.
I also have this issue with Windows 10×64- Tried several computers, several cables, Both the Win7 and Win10 x64 drivers and followed all steps as outlined in the guide. When I connect the Fire TV (v2, 5.0.5.1) It shows up *briefly* in the device manager as “Mediatek Preloader USB VCOM port” and then disappears. I though maybe I needed to install the Preloader USB VCOM drivers instead of “MTK USB port”, but that didn’t work either. Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks
Hi – I have a brand-new FireTV 2 that I bought last week.
I have blocked Amazon updates on my network connection.
I am stuck right now. I don’t know what the O/S version is, because my FireTV is preventing me from doing anything until it successfully checks for updates from Amazon. I can’t get to any menus, or find out what my O/S version is, or put the FireTV into USB debugging mode.
Is there anything I can do? If I let the FireTV update, I’m sure I’ll get updated to v5.2.5.1, which can’t be rooted or allow loading a custom bootloader.
Well, I got past my problem above, but maybe in a worse situation now.
The Recovery Mode seemed to install OK, and maybe the sloan rooted 5.2.1.1 ROM.
However, I can’t boot into normal mode anymore. I always boot back into TWRP.
I tried reinstalling the sloan rooted 5.2.1.1 ROM, and it looked like it went in OK up until the very end where it said:
Failed to mount “/cache” (invalid argument)
Do I now have a small brick?
Update #2: My FTV2 is booting OK now after I wiped the cache partition in TWRP.
Now, I am back to the problem I mentioned earlier. When I boot up my FTV2, the FTV2 won’t allow me to do anything until it connects to Amazon for updates.
So, as far as I know, I can’t enable USB debugging before an update occurs, so I can’t disable the FTV updates. And, if I let the FTV connect to Amazon updater, it may wipe out my rooted install, or worse: brick my FTV.
Is there anything I can do to get my FTV operational without getting an update from Amazon?
Solved – For some reason, I was always stuck when using my wireless connection. When I connected via a wired LAN, I got through the blocked update process built into the new FTV2 v6 TWRP recovery.
Followed your guide, Fire 2 5.0.5.1. It worked perfect. Had the SD card issue as you clearly stated. I just let the FTV format it an then just replaced the 2 files. Thanks for your work.
I got a brand new FTV2 and updated instantly to 5.2.1.1 – before I read the thing with the not rootable note…
What can I do to root it? I guess a downgrade is not possible.
*argh* … :)
Ready to root fresh FTV2! Tanks for the horses!
USB VCOM Drivers link returns: Server not found – ruh roh!
Found this file: MT65xx USB VCOM DRIVERS.zip at http://www.teamandroid.com/2016/02/09/download-mediatek-mt65xx-usb-vcom-drivers-installation/ md5: 4c5f918077d05bc1bac55db56772da2a
Is this a suitable sub? Thanks!
I followed the guide exactly and i’m stuck on bootloop. I went into recovery and reinstalled the sloane 5.2.1.1 rooted r1.zip. and rebbot will work. then after being powered off it will get stuck in bootloop again. The only way I can get it to work is to reinstall the rom. And yes I have tried wiping cache. Any help PLEASE!
I followed the guide and now my box keeps rebooting and will not go back to amazon home screen
hey guys i am stuck in reading 000000200 0% what am i doing wrong?
same here . fire tv 2 stuck at amazon logo. i am able to use remote keys to reset it but it comes back to the same amazon white logo. using this method the win10 1809 loads the drivers automatically. hanshake is fine , but gets stuck in reading 000000200 0%
Please consider updating the top of this post (and others where necessary) to reflect that users should avoid updating and how. Also that later versions cannot be rooted.
One of the first things you’re doing here is asking the user to determine what version they’re on, which means getting to the home screen… Which means it’s EXTREMELY likely you’re causing people to update and block root.
I’m pretty sure this is what happened in my case. I even purchased a cable only to find out I can’t root anyway.
I’d like to root my FireTV2, currently reporting OS: 5.2.4.1, and wish to clarify my perception that I should NOT follow this listed procedure on my current device (e.g. these instructions may prove fatal to my device).
1: According your text cited here, this software root scenario is NOT an option for my current device (moreover, attempting to follow these procedures would probably “Brick” my device) — Is this correct?
a: Initial requirements, near this page top, cites “A Fire TV 2 running stock software version 5.0.5.1 or older”
b: ~elsewhere I see reference of the recovery installer working only “if you are on a software version BEFORE 5.2.1.0”
2: If the answer to question 1, above, is actually No (meaning I’m NOT correct and that my device is still actually software rootable),
then what is the target solution space?
Is the actual goal to collect and apply the 5.0.5.1 version scripts, binaries, and recovery re-loader files (hence reverting the device load to a rooted 5.0.5.1 instance)
Thoughts and comments?
Aside: ADB reveals my current device properties include:
[ro.build.version.fireos]: [5.2.4.1]
[ro.build.version.name]: [Fire OS 5.2.4.1 (573210520)]
[ro.build.version.number]: [573210520]
[ro.build.version.release]: [5.1.1]
[ro.build.version.security_patch]: [2016-10-05]
Finally able to do it…Thanks
Is there still no way of rooting fire tv 2 with newer software versions mine is currently on 5240
Does this work on a fireTVstick 2nd gen too?
hie..i am stuck on stage 3 after running batch file “install_firetv2_recovery”.bat the system stuck at reading 0000000200: 0%.
kindly suggest what to do next.
Hi, for all interested in Sloane Firetv 2.
The device has now been fully unlocked thanks to K4y0z, retyre, Rortiz2, Sus_i, xyz and the rest of the firetv developers at xda.
Head over to the forum unlock, root, unbrick twrp firetv 2 Sloane @xda for instructions
hi there, is it actually possible with installed software 5.2.8.0 to root the box and install the twrp in order to flash an prerooted rom as the 5.2.7.6 ?
Hi Michael,
Yes its possible and easy if you follow the instructions here to the letter:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/unlock-root-twrp-unbrick-firetv-2-sloane.4222331/
I am using unlocked twrp and magisk 23 on Fireos version 5.2.8.1
Best using a firmware “update.bin” 5.2.7.6 for example which you’ll find a couple of posts down, rename it to “update.zip” so it can be recognized by twrp and flash then flash magisk after it.
If you need any more help leave a post here on xda and someone will guide you. I have telegram also and just helped a couple of guys sort theirs via there so you won’t be stuck.
Good luck
Regards