Here is a custom firmware for the Arnova 8 tablet, it brings an Android 2.2 Froyo along with Android Market and root access to the Arnova 8 tablet.










Firmware download: kasty-arn8-22-01b1.zip

This firmware is specific to the Arnova 8 and should not be installed on other devices.

WE WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR DEVICE.

THIS FIRMWARE UPDATE IS USED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

WE RECOMMEND TO FLASH THIS FIRMWARE ONLY IF YOU ARE ABLE TO RESCUE A BRICKED DEVICE USING ROCKCHIP FLASHING TOOLS.


Important release notes:

  • this firmware is an unofficial custom firmware not supported by Archos/Arnova
  • this firmware is assembled with binaries from various devices, it is not built from source code, which leaves limited possibilities to fix important problems and full compatibility with the Arnova 8 is not garanteed.
  • Android Market support is partial and not all Market applications can currently be currently found
  • We are testing our custom firmwares before making them public, and we are only releasing it when it is stable enough (unless noted otherwise)
  • In case the firmware does not suit your expectations, you should always be able to
    restore another firmware. Use Rockchip flashing tools in case things have really gone wrong and your device appears “bricked“.


Firmware update procedure:

Step 1 – Install firmware


The first part of the procedure is similar to the one on the Arnova 10

  • Connect your device to the electricity socket, fully charge it and leave the socket connected
  • Unzip the update.img file out of the zip archive
  • Copy the img file to the root of your device
  • Unmount USB on your device, it should give a prompt similar to this one:

  • Push the Install button and follow the update procedure

    • You can also refer to our flashing procedure page for more details.

  • The first boot after flashing may take some time (few minutes), please be patient.

    • This first part of the procedure is similar to the one on the Arnova 10, that you can see on this video:

    Step 2 – Install Market


    When your Arnova 8 has started on the new Android 2.2 operating system, please configure the WIFI network to access the Internet. The tablet comes loaded with latest ArcTools release, please follow the Market installation procedure for the Android Market.:
    – Start ArcTools
    – Make sure “Default Apps & Market v2.2.7 (Android 2.2 Froyo)” is selected in the list
    – Press Download button, wait for the download to finish
    – Press Install Apps button
    – Reboot the device
    – Configure your Android Market
    (this procedure is detailled on the Market installation with ArcTools page, please starting at Step 3.)

    Mounting your Arnova 8 tablet on your PC / turning ON USB Storage


    This Android 2.2 Froyo firmware does not automatically mount your tablet to your computer when connected on USB. You need to manually turn ON USB storage thru 3 simple steps:

  • Plug your Arnova 8 to the USB device you want to connect to

  • Grab the notification area from the top of the screen, click on the USB connected line


  • Click on the Turn on USB Storage button to mount your device to your computer


  • You should get the following screen.


    • Click Turn off USB Storage button to unmount your Tablet on your computer.


    Restoring Arnova 8 default firmware


    If case you don’t like this firmware or if you just want to go back to the default stock firmware:



    Changelog:
    0.1 (2011/09/15) Initial beta test release – Root access not working.

    Please report any bug in the comments below.

    Edit 10/17/2011: Please note that the final release for this firmware is currently delayed. We currently have a lot of work with custom firmwares for other Archos and Arnova machines as well. If anyone want to jump in and help on custom firmwares, don’t hesitate to give us a hand.

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    68 COMMENTS

    2. I put my tablet down for about 15 minutes and when I returned it wouldn’t respond. As far as I know it was fully charged, or almost anyway. I’ve tried resetting it using the instructions on the site. I can’t reconnect it to the PC as the USB isn’t enabled yeg. Any ideas please?

          • It was working but it went into power saving mode I guess. I’ve tried plugging the power with no response, no response from reset. It doesn’t show when it is plugged in via usb so I can’t use the flashing tools. At the moment I’m letting the power run down, if it’s on that is. Any help is appreciated.

            • Ok, finally got it working again. After letting the battery drain I plugged it back in and restore mode worked. I just rebooted and, after some issues with touchpad calibration, changed the display settings to never go off when charging and to never in screen timeout. Hopefully this will prevent this happening again.

              • I think that the problem is that it hasn’t found my devices internal 8GB and is only showing the 2GB microSD card and 182MB of available space for internal device storage. When I had 2.1 on there was 6GB free of internal storage. If I browse the file system the data is still there from 2.1. I wasn’t able to connect using the rockchip tool so this might be down to the method of installation. Though this didn’t make a difference when I re-installed 2.1 this way. I’ve tried two different windows 7 computers and an XP computer and finally managed to use the rockchip tool to flash it but it still only has 1.84GB total memory. I think I’m going to have to either revert to stock or try the custom 2.1.

    6. It was missing some Google apps (like youtube and google calendar) from market.
      I completed steps from the Arctablet article “Google Android Market missing apps fix”.
      And now it’s missing most of the apps including all google apps.
      Why did this happen?

      //sorry if my english is very bad

    8. I installed the firmware with RKAndroidBatchUpgrade like someone had mentioned early on and what a differance. First i noticed the file structure has changed when viewed with my computer. The books I manualy load in to my kindle folder now show in the kindle app :-) . Auto rotate works. The Market has updated it self to 3.1.5 and works great .
      I now I feel my frist reaction was a bit rushed and this firmware should be made downloadable
      Thankyou for the great work
      Ian

    11. Although I really liked this beta and I’ve become very excited of the upcoming version 2.2 It’s time to return to the stock firmware. It isn’t just as stable as I hoped to but nevertheless, I hope you guysall the luck when it comes to trying to fix this firmware!

      And most important of all will there be a second beta? I really hope so and I’m looking forward to hear something from you guys in the future about this release!

      Greets Kevin

      • Hi Admin,

        Is it a joke ?
        imho it would be quiet “criminal” to release it as it is now !!! Far too many serious bugs (freezes, lost calibration, lost rotation, lost internal memory, lost sd card, poor video playback or even no playback at all, and so on, and so on……..).
        You made a hard job, but it is far from beeing usable……..

        You would have a lot of people complaining and threatening on your website !
        Imagine the disaster for people not being able to flash the stock firmware back in case of unusable tablet, like it happened for some of the beta testers !!

        I encourage you to continue, but there is still much work to do before everything functions…….

        Personall I switch back to the stock firmware. Wait and see……

        Please don’t be upset because of my criticism. ;-)

        Best Regards
        satki

      • Despite the fact that a lot of software now runs under this new firmware, like kindle and adobe pdf reader, I am going back to the previous firmware…
        The 2.2 is just to buggy and unreliable to use in daily life and will become frustrating…
        So if you release this version put a big warning sign and a link to all this converstations overhere because people will complain…

    16. Has anyone tested the videoplayer. My h.264 files (handbrake) do stutter a lot. Jerky video makes them unwatchable…
      Anyone with this problem (they worked before) I tried other videoplayers (moboplayer etc..) None of them work as they should
      I used the movieplayer a lot… Any suggestions…

    18. Ian I can confirm your findings. Restart only occurs after power down if plugged into mains. This is similar behaviour to another tablet I had, which, powered on when plugged in.

      Files app now works, no idea why it would not before, probable cause was I had it plugged in.

      Commendable update by the Admins here, and I thank you for your work.

      Mark

    19. Just another question, a little bit offtopic, but anyway……..

      Does somebody have problems with keeping the wifi connection active ?

      Whatever I do, I loose the connection after 30 seconds or a minute, and I have to restart the tablet, or restart the wifi.

      I’ve tried to change the channel on the access point, and disable the encryption protection, but the problem remains……..

      • No I don’t have that issue, I have a speedtouch 789vn.

        What might be interesseting, on our school we have “eduroam”. That’s a wireless network with peap settings. With the original firmware I wasn’t able to login, next monday I will test it, if it will work on android 2.2

    20. SD – Card issue

      The SD card often gets lost. When coming back from sleep I am often unable to access the SD-Card. A complete restart is necessary to bring it back. I use this tablet while teaching to follow my courses in pdf format. This is no longer possible because files on the sd card disappear…

      When coming from sleep, wifi access take a lot of time or does not happen at all. Enabling and disabling WIFI solves the problem…

      All in all a lot of improvements in this firmware so a big thank you but the improvements get lost in all the negative side-issues… Will keep testing…

    22. Hi

      After using it last night, I would like to report a fault with the Files Manager “Files” When I press it, it brings up a blank black screen, and does not bring up the menu. I did shut it down completely, so this may be a power up from cold fault.

      Wifi does not automatically connect, when powered up from shut down, but whether this is a bad thing as its conserves battery is debatable.

      On the plus side battery life seems to be better (probably due to the Wifi non auto connect issue)

    24. I’m sorry, but this beta version is too buggy, impossible tu test it without having BIG problems.

      Now I have reinstalled the stock firmware, but I still get problems, for example the auto rotation no more works !!

      Please tell me how to recover a complete stock firmware !

    26. AUTOROTATE…

      My tablet does autorotate but the rotation made adobe pdf reader for example crash.
      When my old pdf reader (Vudroid) rotates, the screen only uses half the of the available screen, seems like the screen thinks it is from an arnova 10 size table… Black unused space at the sides…

    30. ….another BIG bug:

      I was trying to connect to my desktop computer when suddenly the touchscreen lost the calibration. I couldn’t do anything with the screen.
      So I wanted to shutdown the tablet, but it was impossible of course, when I pressed the on/off button I wasn’t able to press on the “shutdown button” on the screen…..
      The only way was to use the pinhole reset button.
      Now the tablet has started again, and I had to make a new calibration, and it seems to work as before…..

      I’ve had really chance this time !!!

      You’ll have to do a lot of work to fix all these bugs ! ;-)

      Good luck !

    32. Before i can answer that question I will start a test because it seemed I’m one of the few that have this problem (a friend of mine, also participating in this beta had te problem once in android 2.1 but not in this firmware)

      So what will I do?

      Test 1 Lock the screen with the powerbutton

      5x = wait 2 min, turn on
      5x = wait 5 min, turn on
      3x = wait 10 min, turn on
      1x = wait 30 min, turn on
      1x = wait 1 hour, turn on
      1x = wait for 2 hours, turn on

      Test 2 don’t lock the screen, let it lock itself

      5x = wait 2 min, turn on
      5x = wait 5 min, turn on
      3x = wait 10 min, turn on
      1x = wait 30 min, turn on
      1x = wait 1 hour, turn on
      1x = wait for 2 hours, turn on

      Measure method, stop-watch

      You will hear tomorrow what my findings are.

      Greetings,

      • I’m having trouble to reproduce the error.

        It seems that it’s just random and when it does, it happens a few times on a small period of time. Let me explain.

        I started the test last night and all my findings were positive so no errors etc. When I woke up that morning I tested it, and still the tablet went on, then I went away for a couple for hours and dang the tablet wouldn’t start, so reset button and he started up, 10 minutes later, same problem, screen wouldn’t open.

        So my conclusion for now is:

        – There’s relation between the way the tablet is locked (manually or automatic)
        – The black screen appears on random base so there’s no real predection when the next black screen appears.

        What to do next?
        I hope you could help me with that, it seemes that something else is creating this problem, could it be cpu or ram issues like it has to few ram or that the processor is to heavy loaded so it shuts down itself?

        I hope you can help me with this one,

        Greets

        Kevin

    33. Hi

      Ok kickoff is not too bad.

      However as reported by others no auto rotate.

      Slightly more lag, when moving an app icon onto the main screen from the apps selection screen.

      Same shutdown error as reported by Kevin, I echo his urgency that this is a major problem and needs to be addressed.

    34. Hi Kevin,

      How long did you put down the tablet before it shuts itself down ? Mine was “on” for about two hours without having this problem.
      But when I shut it down manually, it takes much much more time than before, but I don’t have the reboot problem.
      Strange to have different behavior with the same hardware and the same firmware !!

      The devil hides in these tablets !! ;-)

      Cheers !

    35. Sorry posted in the original forum so…

      Just flashed my arnova 8. Went straight to videoplayer. Some remarks here…
      used the same h.264 encoder videos as before.
      Video starts black, only sound…
      Changing aspect ratio brings up video. But only one aspect ratio is available…. changing, stretching does not work
      The bar on top does not disappear… calling menu give double bar!
      Video framerate is choppy, not fluent. This was also the case in previous firmware but only after fast forward, now the video plays jerky all the time
      Typing this message feels more sluggish than before, virtual pad seems a little of, like bad calibrated
      This is exciting will try the market now
      Ps video was encoded in handbrake normal profile

      Just installed market. No problem. Downloaded adobe pdf reader… Seems to work now. You can select pdfs on your device ! Never worked before in 2.1
      Installed KINDLE works now. Home bar goes away in this firmware so the first lines of text are readeable…
      This looks promising !

    36. Hi there,

      I’m very happy to be one of the beta testers and down below you will find my first test result. Before you start reading I must admit that the system has become much smoother and the animations of the tablet are much better. Unfortunately I found some bugs that really shouldn’t be there in the final product, I hope my finds will help you improve the firmware. If you have any questions, your welcome to send me a mail!

      1. (MAJOR) When i put down the tablet and come back later the tablet has shut it self down and doesn’t respond to any button anymore , only by pressing reset will make the tablet to restart the os (had same bug in android 2.1 custom firmware)

      2. when I want to shut down my arnova 8, it automatically reboots

      3. Multitasking doesn’t work, when i press the main butten for a long time, there used be a screen where i could select the open applications, this screen doesn´t appear anymore.

      4. market 3.xx doesn’t show many apps, in my case only 2. After that i installed version 2.xx everything worked and I did have all the apps.

      5. When playing video the main toolbar is still visible when playing video, and when touching the screen a second main toolbar appears, just under the first one, (and this one is just as functional as the first, so i can make the volume louder on the second but also on the first toolbar)(the second toolbar disappears when you don’t touch the screen

      6. There’s no full-screen video scaling in de video player (this function was available in the latest official firmware and in the custom firmware android 2.1)

      7. Where is the stock calendar that´s build in android? Is there a possibiltiy to add this program? (I ask this because most 3thrd party applications are build upon the calendar of android).

      8. Skype for android doesn’t work, when it has been installed and you try to login, it asks to install the application again.

      This are my findings for now and I hope you can concentrate on the first bug in the list!

      Greets,

      Kevin

    37. Hi folks !

      The firmware update was troublefree. I like the bootsplash, it has a nice design.
      But there are still some bugs:
      – as celineseb says, the 8GB of internal memory aren’t available.(available space: 177 MO). I haven’t got any microSD card, so I can’t test this (I orderd one of them….will test later on)
      – no automatic rotation, the screen remains horizontal, except for the clock which rotates in all angles. Very stange !
      – I can tune all the parameters without any problems.

      But my biggest problem has nothing to do with the firmware. From the beginning when I bought the device, I am unable to keep the wifi connection more than a few seconds.
      Everytime I have to reboot and start again the connection.
      So I was unable to test the market. I was just able to load the apps for the installation, but I can’t login in my Google account.
      I don’t know where exactly the problem lies, but it sucks !!!!
      I have an old Netgear WG602 access point, and I never had problems to connect with notebooks or other devices. Only the Arnova won’t keep the connection !!
      I’ve read in some forums that the internal antenna is crappy.
      What the hell could I do ? Do you think it would be possible to use an external USB wifi dongle ?
      If I can’t fix the problem the device will finish in the garbage !

      Anyway, you made an awesome job with the custon firmware. Try to fix the bugs and it will be a great tablet (except for the antenna quality…..)

      Cheers,
      staki

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