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How-To: Xiaomi Vacuum robot Gen 1 root update

Big thanks to @dgiese, @JackGruber, @Hypfer and everybody who contributed.

Please note that this guide is not compatible with latest Valetudo 0.3 version. But still the process is quire similar.

Follow official Valetudo guide: https://github.com/Hypfer/Valetudo/wiki/Installation-Instructions

Introducton

This guide provides information how to root Xiaomi Vacuum robot, install software on the robot and also how to connect robot to Home Assistant (see part below)

This guide is made on top of existing guides (see list below). These guides are a bit confusing, that is the reason why this guide was created.

Explanation of used components

What you need

  • Linux system, preferably virtual instance. Tested on Debian 9
  • Xiaomi Vacuum robot Gen 1 (should also work on Gen 2)
  • If you want connection to Home Assistant, you need to have it installed somewhere - I used Raspberry Pi 3

Steps

There are two main setups how this procedure can be made:

These steps are copied from https://github.com/dgiese/dustcloud/wiki/Cloud-Free-Firmware-Image-With-Valetudo

You can find my notes in following sections as bold

Suggested firmware versions

  • Gen1: v11_003468
  • Gen2: v11_001738

Note: For Gen1 I used v11_003600

Intro

You will want to use a Linux based system. It doesn't matter if it is your base OS on your PC/Laptop, a VM on your PC, a Server or any other device like a Raspi. Chose the Distro you like (I'm more the Debian guy). Make sure it has access to your LAN/Internet. It does NOT NEED WIFI!

Note: I have used Debian 9 Linux running on VMWare. This virtual machine is set to Bridged networking to my Wi-Fi

Building the firmware

Install required dependencides

You should make sure that the following packages are installed in your system:

  • bash
  • openssh (for ssh-keygen)
  • ccrypt
  • sed
  • dos2unix

Prerequisites

You need to have a public / private ssh-key pair to connect to the robot. If you do not have a keypair yet, you can generate one with the following command

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]"

Per default, the generated keys will be created under ~/.ssh. If you choose to create the keys in another location, remember your chosen location for later.

Note:This key is later used as authentication method for SSH running on the Vacuum

Preparations for building the image

  1. Create a new directory for your work

    mkdir rockrobo
    cd rockrobo
    
  2. Clone the dustcloud repository (until imagebuilder > 0.1 is available)

    git clone https://github.com/dgiese/dustcloud.git
    
  3. Create a directory for dummycloud

    mkdir dummycloud
    pushd dummycloud
    
  4. Download dummycloud from https://github.com/dgiese/dustcloud/releases

    wget https://github.com/dgiese/dustcloud/releases/download/0.1/dummycloud_0.1.zip
    unzip -a dummycloud*.zip
    popd
    
  5. Create a valetudo directory

    mkdir valetudo
    pushd valetudo
    
  6. Download the latest valetudo binary from https://github.com/Hypfer/Valetudo/releases

    wget https://github ...
    mkdir deployment
    pushd deployment
    wget https://github.com/Hypfer/Valetudo/raw/master/deployment/valetudo.conf
    popd
    popd
    
  7. Create rrlogd-patcher directory

    mkdir rrlogd-patcher
    pushd rrlogd-patcher
    
  8. Download the latest patcher.py

    wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JohnRev/rrlogd-patcher/master/patcher.py
    popd
    
  9. Create firmware directory

    mkdir firmware
    pushd firmware
    
  10. Download the latest firmware (e.g. v001792)

    wget URL
    

URL:

Gen1

https://cdn.awsbj0.fds.api.mi-img.com/updpkg/[package name] https://cdn.awsde0.fds.api.mi-img.com/updpkg/[package name] Example: https://cdn.awsbj0.fds.api.mi-img.com/updpkg/v11_003468.fullos.pkg

Gen2

https://cdn.awsbj0.fds.api.mi-img.com/rubys/updpkg/[package name] https://cdn.cnbj2.fds.api.mi-img.com/rubys/updpkg/[package name] https://cdn.cnbj0.fds.api.mi-img.com/rubys/updpkg/[package name] https://cdn.awsde0.fds.api.mi-img.com/rubys/updpkg/[package name] Example: https://cdn.awsbj0.fds.api.mi-img.com/rubys/updpkg/v11_001720.fullos.pkg

Note: server cdn.awsbj.fds.api-mi-img is official Xiaomi server. I have downloaded the firmware from there. For more information about firmware, check following page: https://github.com/dgiese/dustcloud/wiki/Xiaomi-Vacuum-Firmware For example I have used 3.3.9_003600 v11_003600.pkg for Gen 1

  1. Download sound package

    wget https://github.com/dgiese/dustcloud/raw/master/devices/xiaomi.vacuum/original-soundpackages/encrypted/english.pkg
    popd
    

If you followed the above commands, your rockrobo directory structure should now look like this:

tree -L 2 rockrobo/
rockrobo/
├── dummycloud
│   ├── doc
│   ├── dummycloud
│   ├── dummycloud_0.1.zip
│   └── README.md
├── dustcloud
│   ├── cloudprotocol.pdf
│   ├── devices
│   ├── docker
│   ├── dummycloud
│   ├── dustcloud
│   ├── LICENSE
│   ├── Pipfile
│   ├── Pipfile.lock
│   ├── presentations
│   └── README.md
├── firmware
│   ├── english.pkg
│   └── v11_001712.pkg
├── rrlogd-patcher
│   └── patcher.py
└── valetudo
    ├── deployment
    └── valetudo

Next, we can create the firmware image.

Creating the firmware image

To create the firmware image you should run the following commands:

mkdir image
cd image     
sudo ../dustcloud/devices/xiaomi.vacuum/firmwarebuilder/imagebuilder.sh \
     --firmware=../firmware/v11_001712.pkg \
     --soundfile=../firmware/english.pkg \
     --public-key=$HOME/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub \
     --dummycloud-path=../dummycloud \
     --valetudo-path=../valetudo \
     --disable-firmware-updates \
     --ntpserver=fritz.box \
     --rrlogd-patcher=../rrlogd-patcher/patcher.py \
     --replace-adbd

Note: Change package name (--firmware) and ssh key (--public-key) according to your setup. Use all parameters as shown Note2: There might be a problem with UTF encoding. See following page for more informaton how to fix it: https://webkul.com/blog/setup-locale-python3/

Here you need now to remember the location of your generated public ssh-key, id_ed25519.pub. If you don't have a public key yet, take a look at the Prerequisites section.

Note that not all options are required. However if your router runs a ntp server you should use it. Also I would recommend to replace adbd so in case something goes really wrong you can still access it via USB.

Make sure that rrlogd gets patched, (see Appendix for supported versions). You should see something like:

Creating backup of rrlogd
Trying to patch rrlogd
Successfully patched rrlogd

WARNING: If you patch rrlogd you should use dummycloud or your data will be sent unencrypted to Xiaomi servers!

Note: Ignore this warning. When you are using all parameters, you will automatically install dummy cloud on the Vacuum

Flashing the firmware image

After the successful build of the firmware image, we can tell the robot to download and flash it. First, we need to create a virtual environment for it in python. For this the following packages need to be installed:

cd ..
mkdir flasher
cd flasher
python3 -m venv venv

and install the required miio python packages:

source venv/bin/activate
pip3 install wheel
pip3 install python-miio
cd ..

Note: I have found out, that more reliable way to flash the vacuum is to reset the Wi-Fi and use second method (see below). Also you do not need to look for vacuum token

First method

You do NOT NEED to reset your robo or change to a device with WIFI. The following command just requires you to know the internaal IP of your robot (get it from your router, you may even set the IP to never refresh) and the already existing token (use google for the russian Mi Home app - it was the quickest and easiest way I was able to achieve it):

Note: Russian app for Android can be found here: http://www.kapiba.ru/2017/11/mi-home.html

python3 dustcloud/devices/xiaomi.vacuum/firmwarebuilder/flasher.py -a X.X.X.X -t XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX -f image/output/v11_001792.pkg

In this case you do not need to setup your WIFI on the robot again, like described at the bottom of this page.

After the successful transfer of the image to the robot, the robot will start flashing the image. This will take about 5~10 minutes. After the process is done, the robot will state that the update was successful.

Eventually, we can log in to our robot via ssh:

If everything works out, you can now log in to your robot - enjoy.

You're done now using this method. You can proceed to: "Check if dummycloud is correctly set up"

If you face any trouble, check: "Flashing doesn't work"

Second method

Note: My vacuum has pretty bad wifi modem inside. Make sure that the vacuum and your computer is close as possible

Next, turn your vacuum on and place it in the charger docking station. Connect yourself via WLAN to your robot, the SSID should be sth. like

roborock-vacuum-s5_miap_****

Now we are finally ready to flash the firmware.

Note: Your current IP adress should be 192.168.8.* Vacuum is on 192.168.8.1 . If your IP address is not as mentioned, you may need to renew DHCP address (https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001078.htm)

IMPORTANT: The flasher scripts will create a web server where the robot will download the firmware image. This means it needs to be able to connect to port 80 on this box. Make sure that the firewall will not block the network access.

Note: Flasher script creates web server using Python. I had troubles with this approach because it crashed several times, like this: dgiese/dustcloud#151 I recommend installing webserver on virtual machine - like nginx (https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-install-setup-nginx-on-debian-linux-9/). After nginx is set up, copy the firmware package there. Copy it to following path (you may need to create missing subfolders): /var/www/html/image/output/. You will also need to change flasher.py (see Note3)

Note2: You may encounter Python error on line 52 in flasher.py. This is due to incorrect encoding settings of python. You can fix it or simply comment line 52 in flasher.py. It is only print statement of current status.


Note3: If you choose to use nginx as webserver, you need to changed flasher.py as following. First make a copy of flasher.py like flasher-nginx.py. Then comment following lines: 168,169,170,172,173,174,175,200 Example of lines 166-203 in flasher-nginx.py:

#    request_handler = http.server.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler
#    httpd = ThreadedHTTPServer(('', 0), request_handler)
#    http_port = httpd.server_address[1]
    http_port = 80
#    print('Starting local http server...')
#    thread = threading.Thread(target=httpd.handle_request, daemon=True)
#    thread.start()
#    print('Serving http server at {}:{}'.format(local_ip, http_port))

    ota_params = {
        'mode': 'normal',
        'install': '1',
        'app_url': 'http://{ip}:{port}/{fw}'.format(ip=local_ip, port=http_port, fw=firmware),
        'file_md5': md5(firmware),
        'proc': 'dnld install'
    }
    print('Sending ota command with parameters:', json.dumps(ota_params))
    r = vacuum.send('miIO.ota', ota_params)
    if r[0] == 'ok':
        print('Ota started!')
    else:
        print('Got error response for ota command:', r)
        exit()

    ota_progress = 0
    while ota_progress < 100:
        ota_state = vacuum.send('miIO.get_ota_state')[0]
        ota_progress = vacuum.send('miIO.get_ota_progress')[0]
        printProgressBar(ota_progress, 100, prefix = 'Progress:', length = 50)
        sleep(2)
    print('Firmware downloaded successfully.')

#    httpd.server_close()

    print('Exiting.')
    exit()

Flash the firmware using:

python3 dustcloud/devices/xiaomi.vacuum/firmwarebuilder/flasher.py -f image/output/v11_001712.pkg

Note: Transfer may take several minutes. After executing the previous command, vacuum will start blinking. Wait until vacuum says: "Updating firmware...."

Note2: If you interrupt the connection or the connection drops, nothing really happens. You can reinit the transfer by executing the previous command. Just make sure, that you do not power off the vaccum after vacuum says: "Updating firmware..."

Note3: There might be a problem with UTF encoding. See following page for more informaton how to fix it: https://webkul.com/blog/setup-locale-python3/

After the successful transfer of the image to the robot, the robot will start flashing the image. This will take about 5~10 minutes. After the process is done, the robot will state that the update was successful.

Eventually, we can log in to our robot via ssh:

If everything works out, you can now log in to your robot - enjoy.

If you face any trouble, check: "Flashing doesn't work"

Check if dummycloud is correctly set up

Assuming you are logged into your robot, we can check if the dummycloud is correctly set up. First, we need to examine if the dummycloud executable is running via

pgrep dummycloud

The result should be a process id number, e.g. 397. Next, we have to check the firewall rules, the port 8053 needs to be redirected to127.0.0.1, so that the robot is communicating with the dummycloud. Execute

iptables -t nat -L

The result should contain the following:

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination         
DNAT       udp  --  anywhere             ot.io.mi.com         udp dpt:8053 to:127.0.0.1:8053

Furthermore, one can verify if the dummycloud is working directly on the robot. If the WiFi LED is constantly on (~30 s after startup), everything is working as expected.

Appendix

Flashing doesn't work

Make sure your firewall is turned off that the robot can connect to your machine for downloading the firmware.

If you know your firewall can't be the reason for it, you may just try it again in the first place.

Get robot token

Execute the following on your host PC (not on the robot) to obtain the robot's token:

cd rockrobo
source flasher/venv/bin/activate
mirobo --debug discover --handshake true

The token will be sth. like 456b567549786e6e73754374323*****.

Connect robot to your WiFi

Make sure you have active DHCP on your router!

There are two ways. If you have installed Valetudo on the vacuum, you can use the UI to setup the WiFi. Simply navigate to Settings -> WiFi and change Wifi Settings and click on Save new Wifi configuration. When robot is connected to the Wifi, use your router DHCP to obtain new IP address.

Second way is to use mirobo command: To integrate the unprovisionised robot to your local WiFi, you need to execute the following on your host PC (not on the robot) to obtain the robot's token:

cd rockrobo
source flasher/venv/bin/activate
mirobo --debug discover --handshake true

The token will be sth. like 456b567549786e6e73754374323*****. With this token we can set up the WiFi to which the robot will connect.

mirobo --ip=192.168.8.1 --token=456b567549786e6e73754374323***** configure-wifi YOUR_SSID YOUR_WIFI_PASSWORD     

Now the robot will be in your local WiFi and you can give it for example a static ip via your router.

Blocking traffic to the outside of your WiFi

To make sure that no traffic from the robot can escape your local WiFi, you can add the following rules to the firewall of your robot (to make it permanent put in in /etc/rc.local before exit0):

iptables -A OUTPUT -d 192.168.0.0/16 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A OUTPUT -d 127.0.0.0/8 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A OUTPUT -j DROP

Backup files

Based on: https://github.com/dgiese/dustcloud/wiki/Files-to-be-backed-up

These information should be backed up for later use and in case something goes wrong:

/mnt/default/device.conf
/mnt/default/vinda
/mnt/default/rockrobo.conf (if existing)
/run/shm/sn

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Just for fun stuff

Editor

If you're familiar with bash and want to play a bit more around, I can give you some advices.

Let's start getting an editor you can at least work with:

apt update && apt install vim

Then let's fix the apt sources:

echo "deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/ trusty main universe restricted multiverse
deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/ trusty-security main universe restricted multiverse
deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/ trusty-updates main universe restricted multiverse
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-toolchain-r/test/ubuntu trusty main" > /etc/apt/sources.list

Let's then clean the apt lists and update again:

rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists && apt update

Now looking at "df -h" will most likely release to you that there is almost no storage. So making some storage "the dirty way": (in this case I decided to free some space to install docker and try my setup from my dedicated host)

mkdir -p /mnt/data/relocated/var/cache && mkdir /mnt/data/relocated/var/lib

mv /var/cache/apt /mnt/data/relocated/var/cache && ln -s /mnt/data/relocated/var/cache/apt /var/cache/apt

mv /var/lib/apt /mnt/data/relocated/var/lib && ln -s /mnt/data/relocated/var/lib/apt /var/lib/apt

mv /usr/local/bin/valetudo /mnt/data/valetudo/ && ln -s /mnt/data/valetudo/valetudo /usr/local/bin/valetudo

mv /usr /mnt/data/relocated && ln -s /mnt/data/relocated/usr /usr

Upgrading

You may want to do an upgrade and have some tools which could be useful, at least for the update process of valetudo itself which I just did yesterday:

apt upgrade; apt install locate wget; updatedb

Changing port of valetudo:

echo "env VAC_WEBPORT=8080" >> /etc/init/valetudo.conf && service valetudo restart

Note that your web panel is accessible via "http://roborock:8080".

How-To: Rooted Xiaomi Vacuum robot Gen 1 Home Assistant connection

First you need to have Home Assistant up and running. If you do not have Home Assistant, follow this guide (https://www.home-assistant.io/getting-started/) or if you wish to use Hassbian follow this guide (https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/installation/hassbian/installation/)

I have installed Hassbian because I wanted to have generic Raspberry Rassbian with Home Assistant installed. For Hassbian you may need this list of commen tasks (https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/installation/hassbian/common-tasks/)

Setting up the connetion to vacuum

To set up the connection, you need to add the vacuum to the Home Assistant configuration.yaml file (on Hassbian it can be found here: /home/homeassistant/.homeassistant/configuration.yaml). There you need to add following component: xiaomi_miio

Xiaomi miio documentation: https://www.home-assistant.io/components/vacuum.xiaomi_miio/

Simply open configuration.yaml file in text editor like vim and add following lines:

vacuum:
  - platform: xiaomi_miio
    host: VACUUM_IP_ADDRESS
    token: YOUR_TOKEN
  • VACUUM_IP_ADDRESS is IP address of your vacuum in your network (it needs to be connected in your network - see Appendix -> Connect robot to your WiFi for more information)
  • YOUR_TOKEN can be obtained several ways:

Restart Home Assistant

$ sudo systemctl restart [email protected]

Login to the Home Assistant Lovelace UI Now you should see Xiaomi vacuum on your home screen (only if you have active automatic UI - this is active out-of-the-box)

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