Pixel Magic Systems HD MediaBox MB100/MB200

[Jarrod Gray]

Several sites on the web refer to the Pixel Magic Systems MB100/MB200 as
being Linux based [1] [2]. There were also several posts to the Pixel Magic
Systems Forum [3] that discussed the internal hard drive being formatted
with EXT2. I emailed Nelson Choi <nelson at pixelmagicsystems.com> who
confirmed that the system is indeed Linux based. I then attempted to begin a
discussion about the GPL'd software being used in the system but all of
those emails have been ignored. I have also been banned from their forum for
asking questions about the GPL software used in the system. I previously
worked with Philips to release software for the RC9800i remote control [4]
but Pixel Magic Systems is making things much more challenging.

In an attempt to gain more evidence that the device is based on Linux I've
been looking at their firmware images [5]. This is unlike any other Linux
firmware image that I have seen in the past. The first 0x200 bytes look
like:

00000000  56 45 52 5f 30 30 31 00  00 00 00 0b 00 00 82
00  |VER_001.........|
00000010  14 1c 8c ee 74 01 00 00  22 00 00 00 10 00 00
00  |....t...".......|
00000020  00 00 00 00 6d 74 64 35  2f 76 65 72 73 69 6f
6e  |....mtd5/version|
00000030  00 00 00 02 96 01 00 00  01 02 00 00 ec 01 00
00  |................|
00000040  00 00 00 00 6d 74 64 35  2f 61 75 74 6f 72 75
6e  |....mtd5/autorun|
00000050  2e 73 00 02 97 03 00 00  c6 37 02 00 ae 37 02
00  |.s.......7...7..|
00000060  00 00 00 00 6d 74 64 35  2f 63 75 72 61 63 61
6f  |....mtd5/curacao|
00000070  5f 54 00 02 5d 3b 02 00  d6 2b 01 00 c0 2b 01
00  |_T..];...+...+..|
00000080  00 00 00 00 6d 74 64 35  2f 63 61 73 79 5f 65
61  |....mtd5/casy_ea|
00000090  2e 74 00 02 33 67 03 00  fa da 38 00 e8 da 38
00  |.t..3g....8...8.|
000000a0  00 00 00 00 6d 74 64 35  2f 63 75 72 61 63 61
6f  |....mtd5/curacao|
000000b0  00 00 00 02 2d 42 3c 00  c6 37 02 00 ae 37 02
00  |....-B<..7...7..|
000000c0  00 00 00 00 6d 74 64 35  2f 63 75 72 61 63 61
6f  |....mtd5/curacao|
000000d0  5f 53 00 02 f3 79 3e 00  b9 d8 05 00 a4 d8 05
00  |_S...y>.........|
000000e0  00 00 00 00 6d 74 64 35  2f 6d 79 66 6f 6e 74
2e  |....mtd5/myfont.|
000000f0  74 74 00 02 ac 52 44 00  bd 06 00 00 a8 06 00
00  |tt...RD.........|
00000100  00 00 00 00 6d 74 64 35  2f 70 68 72 61 73 65
2e  |....mtd5/phrase.|
00000110  74 78 00 02 69 59 44 00  6c 40 02 00 56 40 02
00  |tx..iYD.l at ..V@..|
00000120  00 00 00 00 6d 74 64 35  2f 63 75 72 61 63 61
6f  |....mtd5/curacao|
00000130  2e 78 00 02 d5 99 46 00  00 34 63 00 00 34 63
00  |.x....F..4c..4c.|
00000140  0a 00 03 00 4e 6f 72 6d  61 6c 2d 72 6f 6d 66
73  |....Normal-romfs|
00000150  2e 62 00 00 d5 cd a9 00  00 00 60 00 00 00 60
00  |.b........`...`.|
00000160  01 00 00 00 6a 66 66 73  32 2e 70 61 72 74 00
00  |....jffs2.part..|
00000170  00 00 00 01 2f 74 6d 70  2f 6d 74 64 35 2f 76
65  |..../tmp/mtd5/ve|
00000180  72 73 69 6f 6e 00 71 67  e5 98 33 56 81 d7 e5
27  |rsion.qg..3V...'|
00000190  cd 22 ac 84 76 1c 2f 74  6d 70 2f 6d 74 64 35
2f  |."..v./tmp/mtd5/|
000001a0  61 75 74 6f 72 75 6e 2e  73 68 00 58 46 c6 b7
50  |autorun.sh.XF..P|
000001b0  3f ef f8 97 4f c7 4b cb  e7 19 72 72 10 6e 96
8d  |?...O.K...rr.n..|
000001c0  5d 70 e1 40 8d 04 3d 2d  37 3b 2c d2 94 59 1e
cc  |]p. at ..=-7;,..Y..|
000001d0  be 15 ff 20 5e e8 c0 13  c9 92 1d ce f2 a3 b4 80  |...
^...........|
000001e0  ee 91 73 49 9d 68 87 41  c3 a2 e6 54 13 8b e8
1d  |..sI.h.A...T....|
000001f0  1e c5 93 c6 2d a0 49 c9  ed 04 3c 36 56 7d db
98  |....-.I...<6V}..|

The strings that stand out: mtd, romfs, jffs2, and autorun.sh. Does anyone
recognize this firmware layout?  This header type is similar to that used in
the firmware for their Crystalio II video processor product.

Any assistance in extracting the components of this firmware would be
appreciated. Thanks,

Jarrod


1.
http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Reviews/Home_Cinema?Article=/Reviews/Home%20Cinema/R6D6N9P9
2. http://www.pixelmagicforum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6535&postcount=69
3. http://www.pixelmagicforum.com/
4. http://magick.org/rc9800i/
5. ftp://ftp.crystalio.com/Public/download/MediaBox.zip
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