Latest instructions for X player firmware DIYing

[Joe Bloggs]

Dear all,

I see that the DIY community needs some updates from us, especially seeing as the X3 2nd gen has come out. I have some material for this, it's not production-quality but I think you DIYers would want to take anything I have presently and I believe you smart people can piece things together too

Firstly, here's the download link to the firmware tools:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sux7z68cq7nnlrq/X3%20theme%20DIY%20tools.zip?dl=0

Secondly, here's a nice and friendly graphical guide to DIYing your own theme:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/olcjlz0lkngy74j/%E5%9B%BA%E4%BB%B6DIY%E6%95%99%E7%A8%8B.jpg?dl=0

Did I mention that it's all in Chinese?

FINALLY, here's an English translation of all the words in the graphical guide, and basically the instruction guide you want (while referring to the Chinese pictorial guide via the matching numbers on the picture and the English translation):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o4entyes2bv0bfi/theme%20DIY%20tutorial.doc?dl=0

So basically, to get started--you need an existing stock firmware file, and to get the unpacking tool to recognize the stock firmware file and the packing tool to create repacked firmware that can be recognized by your particular player, you need to do some editing of unpack.bat and pack.bat (as detailed in the English translation).

Hope that helps--and looking forward to everyone's creative work!

Best regards,
Joe

 

[Podster]

Dear all,

I see that the DIY community needs some updates from us, especially seeing as the X3 2nd gen has come out. I have some material for this, it's not production-quality but I think you DIYers would want to take anything I have presently and I believe you smart people can piece things together too

Firstly, here's the download link to the firmware tools:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sux7z68cq7nnlrq/X3%20theme%20DIY%20tools.zip?dl=0

Secondly, here's a nice and friendly graphical guide to DIYing your own theme:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/olcjlz0lkngy74j/%E5%9B%BA%E4%BB%B6DIY%E6%95%99%E7%A8%8B.jpg?dl=0

Did I mention that it's all in Chinese

FINALLY, here's an English translation of all the words in the graphical guide, and basically the instruction guide you want:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o4entyes2bv0bfi/theme%20DIY%20tutorial.doc?dl=0

So basically, to get started--you need an existing stock firmware file, and to get the unpacking tool to recognize the stock firmware file and the packing tool to create repacked firmware that can be recognized by your particular player, you need to do some editing of unpack.bat and pack.bat (as detailed in the English translation).

Hope that helps--and looking forward to everyone's creative work!

Best regards,
Joe

Top notch Joe, awesome info

 

 

[Joe Bloggs]

BTW, the red line in Chinese in the English doc is just me trying to tell the other FiiO guys that there's some apparent mixups in the pictures in the pictorial guide... doesn't matter much for you guys does it

 

[Mild Milder]

Dear all,

I see that the DIY community needs some updates from us, especially seeing as the X3 2nd gen has come out. I have some material for this, it's not production-quality but I think you DIYers would want to take anything I have presently and I believe you smart people can piece things together too

Firstly, here's the download link to the firmware tools:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sux7z68cq7nnlrq/X3%20theme%20DIY%20tools.zip?dl=0

Secondly, here's a nice and friendly graphical guide to DIYing your own theme:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/olcjlz0lkngy74j/%E5%9B%BA%E4%BB%B6DIY%E6%95%99%E7%A8%8B.jpg?dl=0

Did I mention that it's all in Chinese?

FINALLY, here's an English translation of all the words in the graphical guide, and basically the instruction guide you want:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o4entyes2bv0bfi/theme%20DIY%20tutorial.doc?dl=0

So basically, to get started--you need an existing stock firmware file, and to get the unpacking tool to recognize the stock firmware file and the packing tool to create repacked firmware that can be recognized by your particular player, you need to do some editing of unpack.bat and pack.bat (as detailed in the English translation).

Hope that helps--and looking forward to everyone's creative work!

Best regards,
Joe

Hi Joe! I do not know the reason, but the firmware X3-2 utility does not work correctly. After unpacking /packing  firmware (whithout changing inside). When trying install in the player, i see the message "model error" 

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Hi Joe! I do not know the reason, but the firmware X3-2 utility does not work correctly. After unpacking /packing  firmware (whithout changing inside). When trying install in the player, i see the message "model error" 

Did you change the .bat files as detailed in the English instructions?

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I see that the exact editing is not shown in the English instructions...

The default unpack.bat is
packtools --unpack -i x3.fw -o x3

Can you try changing it to
packtools --unpack -i X3II.fw -o X3II ?

The default pack.bat is
packtools --pack -i x3 -o x3.fw -m x3

Can you try changing it to
packtools --pack -i X3II -o X3II.fw -m x3ii ? (edit: with the capitalized X and II in front and the small x and ii at the back. Just did some digging into the firmware and found that this is what should work (at least, it worked for me!)

 

[Mild Milder]

Did you change the .bat files as detailed in the English instructions?

Yes, Sir! I have modified many times firmware X1, X3 without problems. But firmware X3-2 after modification not accepted by player. Apparently the problem is packtools.exe.

 

[Mild Milder]

I see that the exact editing is not shown in the English instructions...

The default unpack.bat is
packtools --unpack -i x3.fw -o x3

Can you try changing it to
packtools --unpack -i X3II.fw -o X3II ?

The default pack.bat is
packtools --pack -i x3 -o x3.fw -m x3

Can you try changing it to
packtools --pack -i X3II -o X3II.fw -m X3II ?

That's what I did.Exactly. 

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Check out my modified instruction--caps X and II throughout, EXCEPT the -m at the end should be x3ii rather than X3II.

 

[Mild Milder]

Check out my modified instruction--caps X and II throughout, EXCEPT the -m at the end should be x3ii rather than X3II.

Thanks a lot! Works!

 

[balancedlegachure]

Dear all,

I see that the DIY community needs some updates from us, especially seeing as the X3 2nd gen has come out. I have some material for this, it's not production-quality but I think you DIYers would want to take anything I have presently and I believe you smart people can piece things together too

Firstly, here's the download link to the firmware tools:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sux7z68cq7nnlrq/X3 theme DIY tools.zip?dl=0

Secondly, here's a nice and friendly graphical guide to DIYing your own theme:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/olcjlz0lkngy74j/固件DIY教程.jpg?dl=0

Did I mention that it's all in Chinese?

FINALLY, here's an English translation of all the words in the graphical guide, and basically the instruction guide you want (while referring to the Chinese pictorial guide via the matching numbers on the picture and the English translation):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o4entyes2bv0bfi/theme DIY tutorial.doc?dl=0

So basically, to get started--you need an existing stock firmware file, and to get the unpacking tool to recognize the stock firmware file and the packing tool to create repacked firmware that can be recognized by your particular player, you need to do some editing of unpack.bat and pack.bat (as detailed in the English translation).

Hope that helps--and looking forward to everyone's creative work!

Best regards,
Joe

Would these tools work on newer players like the R2 II? I want to change the fonts and a few gui icons around

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Would these tools work on newer players like the R2 II? I want to change the fonts and a few gui icons around

Do email hello@hiby.com for the latest in regards to theme DIYing

 

[balancedlegachure]

Do email hello@hiby.com for the latest in regards to theme DIYing

No need! I just found out that HiBy provides the firmware for Shanling and other players as well. AND shanling already has a published unpacking and re-packing tool with instructions. I just unpacked the R2 ii firmware and everything seems identical/logical to Shanling theme editing steps. Here's the official link: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/shanling-daps-user-theme.866314/ I still have to try repacking and flashing the player tho... that is what is making me nervous lol

 

[Joe Bloggs]

No need! I just found out that HiBy provides the firmware for Shanling and other players as well. AND shanling already has a published unpacking and re-packing tool with instructions. I just unpacked the R2 ii firmware and everything seems identical/logical to Shanling theme editing steps. Here's the official link: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/shanling-daps-user-theme.866314/ I still have to try repacking and flashing the player tho... that is what is making me nervous lol

Well if all is lost it should still be able to boot into recovery and flash factory default firmware from there

 

[balancedlegachure]

Well if all is lost it should still be able to boot into recovery and flash factory default firmware from there

that is great!
I should just flash the modded upt file, right? not the entire zip?