Archos 5/7 Internet Media Tablet SDE Firmware

Please note that these Special Developer Edition (SDE) firmwares provided in this section consists of a proof-of-concept software intended for experienced software developers only.
It is not to be considered a commercial grade release.

The goal of these releases is to open up :

• the ARCHOS Generation 9 tablets,
• the ARCHOS Generation 8 internet tablets,
• the ARCHOS 5 Generation 7 internet tablet,
• the ARCHOS 5 and ARCHOS 7 Generation 6 Internet Media Tablets

and provide a starting point for people interested in building native applications on a standard Linux base.

Remarks:

These SDE firmwares do not contain any of the legacy ARCHOS multimedia software.

Generations 6, 7, 8 SDE firmwares are based on the Ångström distribution (http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/) generated from a customized open embedded build (http://wiki.openembedded.net/index.php/Main_Page).

Generation 9 SDE firmware consists only in an enabler for being able to flash a kernel or install a new system image through Archos recovery. Note that no real system image (e.g. Ångström distribution) is provided in this SDE firmware, there is only a small Linux kernel that display a logo on the screen and then reboots. (see http://gitorious.org/archos/archos-gpl-gen9/blobs/master/Readme_SDE.txt)

ARCHOS 5/7 IMT (Generation 6) only:

Important notices to be acknowledged before downloading and installing the SDE firmware:

• Be aware that after installation, your device will loose the capability of playing DRM (digital rights management) protected content (e.g. videos that are present on the Archos Media Club).
  It is possible to restore the ARCHOS back to a traditional firmware, but it will not be able to play DRM protected content anymore. This functionality will be lost forever when applying the SDE firmware.
• Once the SDE firmware is installed on a device, this device will be watermarked and ARCHOS will be able to detect that this firmware has been installed once.
• Installing the SDE firmware is considered by ARCHOS as a voiding of the warranty and ARCHOS declines all liability and responsibility for any issues resulting from the installation of this SDE firmware.
• ARCHOS strongly advises that only experts in embedded software development should install this firmware.
• This firmware is provided "as is" and is not supported by ARCHOS.

The process for restoring the legacy ARCHOS firmware is done by accessing the recovery menu. The recovery is triggered by powering on the device while pressing the 'volume down' button. In order to install the new firmware, the "repair disk" option needs to be selected by navigating up and down the items with the 'volume up' and 'volume down' buttons and then executing the selection with a short press on the power button. Once in this mode, the device can be connected to a PC and will act as a mass storage device where the legacy .aos firmware file can be uploaded. Once this step is done, press on the power button again to launch the installation process.

Note: Before proceeding with your driver installation we suggest you make sure you are installing the latest version available and for the appropriate model/revision and Operating System. We strongly suggest following 'readme' instructions for installing drivers when available. Often restarting your system will be necessary for the new driver to become active and start functioning properly.

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