Los Fire TV Stick They have become the great alternative to make any television smart. Amazon's alternative today is as popular as the Chromecast was at the time. Many people buy them for their versatility and for their price, since they are dongles quite affordable. However, the Fire TV Stick system does not convince everyone. If you would like to change it to an Android TV system more conventional, stay and we will explain how to do it.
Can Fire TV OS be removed?
Fire TVs come standard with a system FireTVOS, which is still a version of Android TV customized by Amazon. For most users, Fire TV OS offers a great experience for enjoying content and apps on any TV. However, there are people who do not see the system of this popular dongle.
There are users who consider that the interface of the Fire TV is quite intrusive. And they are right. If there's a reason Amazon sells these devices so cheaply, it's because they're going to then have a huge storefront of their customers' TVs perfect for advertising or promoting their own services.
There are users who are satisfied with change the default launcher Fire TV Stick and use a custom one. However, there are others who prefer to go a little further and swap the system for a bare version of Android TV.
Is it a simple process?
Unfortunately, it is not. For now, it is quite complicated to install Android TV on a Fire TV Stick. In the first place, there are few models that allow the process to be carried out. On the other hand, the operation is intended for users who have enough experience in the noble art of tinkering and sufficient computer knowledge.
To follow the tutorial certain Knowledge of using Linux terminalsas well as a bit of experience installing ROMs and packages on Android terminals.
If you do not have that knowledge, the process itself is not impossible, but we warn you before you start that it is an operation that is not easy. On the contrary, if you have rooted a mobile or even experimented with custom ROMs and kernels on Android, the steps will seem like a piece of cake.
How to install LineageOS on your Fire TV Stick
As usual, if we want Android TV in our system, we will have to use LineageOS, an unofficial system, but it gives us all the features of Android TV -practically, without modifications-, at the same time that we are going to get rid of all the limitations of Fire OS. Thus, you will be the one who decides what to install on the device and you will also have access to the Google Play Store.
At this point, it should be noted that proceeding with the steps is a risk to your Amazon Fire TV Stick that you must assume yourself. All the tools that we are going to show you below do not have a guarantee of success. Therefore, an error could render your device useless. Once you have psyched yourself up, you can proceed.
What Fire TVs are supported?
At the moment, this tutorial only supports the Fire TV Stick Lite and XNUMXrd Generation Fire TV Stick. They are the only models in which the community has managed to open the bootloader.
Download Firmware
First, we will download the Unofficial 'LineageOS 18.1 for Fire TV Stick' ROM on GitHub. Immediately afterwards, we will also download open gaps, which are the Google apps for that version of LineageOS.
We also leave you the tutorial of the ROM developers themselves on GitHub in case you have any problems, so that you can follow the thread of the users who have carried out the process. You got it here.
Unlock the Bootloader
It's time to get into the mud. The Fire TV is locked by default so that we can load our own firmware. This limitation has been bypassed by user k4y0z, and has a tutorial on XDA Developers explaining step by step how to do it.
Los requirements to unlock the compatible Fire TV boot launcher are as follows:
- Have a Fire TV Stick with firmware 7.2.7.3 the bottom.
- An installing linux on a computer (a Live CD is more than enough).
- Un Micro USB cable
El proceedings to follow is the following:
- Download 'kamakiri-sheldon-1.0', which is the k4y0z exploit for Fire TV.
- Connect your Linux computer to the Internet and install python3, PySerial, PyUSB, adb, fastboot. We recommend that you use a Debian-based Linux (Ubuntu, Debian...), which are the most common and easy to use. In this case, use these commands:
- sudo apt update
- sudo add-apt-repository universe
- sudo apt install python3 python3-serial python3-usb adb fastboot dos2unix
- sudo systemctl stop ModemManager
- sudo systemctl disable ModemManager
- Unzip 'kamakiri-sheldon-1.0.zip' and open a terminal in that directory.
- Run the script:
- sudo ./bootrom-step.sh
- At some point, the terminal will show the message 'Waiting for Device'. At that moment, we place the Fire TV Stick (must be off) using the microUSB cable.
- The device will reboot and you will already have unlocked the fastboot mode.
- End the process with this command:
- ./fastboot-step.sh
- That last step will install TWRP on your device. With this, you will have the bootloader open to be able to follow the tutorial.
Install LineageOS and the GApps
To finish, touch install the system and Google applications on the Fire TV. We will place the files downloaded in the first step inside the Fire TV memory. To do this, we can do it from Linux itself in which we have done the bootloader opening process.
Once the files are entered, do the following:
- Sign in TWRP.
- make a Wipe to Data, System (and System Root) and Cache.
- Find the ROM file and flash it.
- Repeat the same process with the .zip containing the GApps.
- Reboot and you're done. You will only have to configure the system to your liking, start your accounts and enjoy your modified Fire TV.
Is it worth the change?
It depends on the type of user you are. If you absolutely hate customizing Fire TV OS, first of all, we recommend you to change the launcher and enable developer options to install your own apps from outside of the Amazon store. For most users, this process is enough.
On the other hand, having Android 11 directly on your Fire TV Stick is quite tempting. The developers of the dongle-compatible version of LineageOS claim that it is not as stable a system as the one that comes by default on the device, but it will give you a lot of freedom when it comes to customizing your device. You just have to keep in mind that the process is tedious and that you can load the dongle in one of the steps of the tutorial. Therefore, proceed only if you know the risks.