Abstract

The Cloud Ibox II is a cheap affordable satellite receiver running Linux. It is priced between 90 and 130€. It features:

• 2 x USB (although the case shows otherwise, it seems this is 1x USB 1.0 and 1 x USB 2.0)
• Ethernet connection
• DVB-S2 tuner
• 1 x card reader
• linux based
• dreambox plugin compatible
• price tag is between 90 and 130€ (often including a USB Wi-Fi Antenna)

It mostly comes pre-installed with a special version of the OpenPli 4.0 frontend. This is due to the situation that OpenPLI at this moment not yet supports the Cloud Ibox II. But I strongly hope this will come soon.

After tinkering with this device the whole weekend, we have some tips and tricks for the other users of this device.

Tiny hints

1. Updates

• don’t update the operating system, the updated kernel does not work at the moment
• you may update your plugins, though

2. Re-Install Operating System

2.1. Which Operating System Image?

• there are a cpl of images that work, we prefer the OpenPli image  – but all the others seem to work aswell, so this is personal taste only

2.2. Prepping the USB pendrive

• FAT32 format with Master-Boot-Record (standard old-school Windows)
• copy the entire xp1000 folder to the USB pendrive (should be 60 -100 MBytes in size)
• it seems issues may occur when using USB pendrives with capacities of more than 8GB (!)

2.3. Re-install the operating system

• plug you USB pendrive to the USB port right beside the DVB-antenna port – this seems to be the USB 2.0 port
• turn the Cloud Ibox 2 off (on-off button on the back !!)
• turn it on an keep holding the “channel +” button on the front of the device for about 10secs
• the two lamps will be red during these 10secs
• after 10 secs release the “channel +” button and the left lamp will turn purple
• the installation now takes about 4-10mins, depending on the speed of the flash memory of your USB pendrive
• after installation: the device will start
• you may remove the USB pendrive then

3. Install a harddrive for recording

• plug it to the USB 2.0 port (the port right beside the DVB-antenna)
• the other one (above the HDMI port) seems to USB 1.0 and it simply too slow for playback (at least in our case)

4. Install a WiFi-Antenna

• use the USB-port above the HDMI connector (it seems this is a USB 1.0 port, at least with our device)
• attach the USB Wi-Fi antenna and reboot the device (deep reboot)
• when adding a Wi-Fi network:
  add all your details, but during the automatic network addition, DON’T allow the script to auto-disable your Ethernet connector, do that manually afterwards, the system may hang forever otherwise.

5. Backups of the system

• it seems that backups cannot be written to the USB-port above the HDMI connector, the system just hangs
• use a USB-pendrive or USB-harddrive only on the USB-port beside the DVB-antenna.