Nvidia SHIELD TV 2015 / 2015 Pro / 2017 Pro (nvidia-foster)

Features
Flashing It is possible to flash the device with pmbootstrap flasher.	Broken
USB Networking After connecting the device with USB to your PC, you can connect to it via telnet (initramfs) or SSH (booted system).	Works
Internal storage eMMC, SD cards, UFS, ...	Works
SD card Also includes other external storage cards	Works
Multimedia
3D Acceleration	Works
Audio Audio playback, microphone, headset and buttons.	Works
IR RX	Works
Connectivity
WiFi	Works
Bluetooth	Works
Ethernet	Works
Miscellaneous
FDE Full disk encryption and unlocking with unl0kr.	Untested
USB-A Full-sized USB-A port works (Usually applicable to SBCs and laptops).	Works
USB OTG USB On-The-Go or USB-C Role switching	Untested
HDMI/DP Video and audio output with HDMI or Display Port works.	Works

Nvidia SHIELD TV
	; Nvidia SHIELD TV
Manufacturer	Nvidia
Name	SHIELD TV
Codename	nvidia-foster
Released	2015
Type	set-top box
Hardware
Chipset	Nvidia Tegra X1 (T210)
CPU	4x 1.0-2.2 GHz Cortex-A57; 4x 1.3 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU	Tegra X1 (GM20B)
Display	HDMI
Storage	16/500 GB
Memory	3 GB
Architecture	aarch64
Software
Original software The software and version the device was shipped with.	Android (TV) 5.1
FOSS bootloader	partial
postmarketOS
Category	testing
Mainline Instead of a Linux kernel fork, it is possible to run (Close to) Mainline.	yes

U-Boot
Primary Bootloader It is possible to replace stock bootloader with U-Boot.	Broken
Secondary Bootloader It is possible to chainload U-Boot from stock bootloader.	Partial
Mainline Latest versions of U-Boot are not broken and it is possible to use them.	Works
Internal Storage It is possible to boot from internal storage (e.g. eMMC or UFS).	Broken
SD card It is possible to boot from SD card.	Works
USB Host It is possible to boot from a USB storage or connect a keyboard.	Broken
USB Peripheral It is possible to use device as a peripheral in U-Boot, e.g. for fastboot mode.	Broken
Buttons It is possible to navigate in boot menu or grub with volume and power buttons.	Works

This page is for P2571 board based (foster) SHIELD TV variants.

Contributors

Users owning this device

Illen (Notes: 16 GB variant, runs mainline)

How to enter flash mode

Connect the device to host (using microUSB port), power it on and after 2 seconds hold the power button until bootloader menu shows up.

Installation

Booting mainline kernel

The vendor bootloader (CBoot) passes the device tree blob from DTB partition. Flashing this partition is proven to be unsafe, which makes it not feasible to boot non-vendor kernel. Fortunately U-Boot supports the P2571 board and it works good enough to be used as a secondary loader.

Mainline kernel status

Most of features are working except:

Hardware video decoding/encoding
Cooling fan (therefore I don't recommend overloading it too much).
eMMC/SATA are disabled because there's no TegraPT support included in the fork.

GPU reclocking

You can put this GPU into higher power state for better performance (like older NVidia GPUs running with nouveau).

cat /sys/kernel/debug/dri/1/pstate
01: core 76 MHz AC DC *
02: core 153 MHz
03: core 230 MHz
04: core 307 MHz
05: core 384 MHz
06: core 460 MHz
07: core 537 MHz
08: core 614 MHz
09: core 691 MHz
0a: core 768 MHz
0b: core 844 MHz
0c: core 921 MHz
0d: core 998 MHz
DC: core 76 MHz

Seems like currently 0a state is the highest stable.

echo 0a > /sys/kernel/debug/dri/1/pstate

Lightbar

Mainline fork includes the Lightbar LED driver brought from vendor kernel.

This lightbar support 3 modes; normal (default), breathing and blinking

echo breathing > /sys/class/leds/nvidia:green:lightbar/effects

Or to just shut it off: echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/nvidia:green:lightbar/birghtness

Mainline U-Boot status

Can boot from SD cards, USB/eMMC doesn't work. Uses simple framebuffer for video output because there is no HDMI video out support for Tegra 210 in U-Boot.