Backfire TV - Take back control of your Firestick
Take Back Control of Your Amazon Firestick.
Tired of Ads, a cluttered launcher, and buttons you can't change? BackFireTV is a project to liberate your Firestick from Amazon's walled garden and make it truly yours. They call it the firestick. To fight fire with fire, you need a backfire.
That's the soul of BackFireTV. To truly liberate it and return back to its core capabilities this project uses a linux script, one Android app and ADB access against Amazon's restrictive policies. We leverage these internal tools to create a "backfire" against the incessant ads and locked ecosystem, transforming your Firestick back into the useful, customizable device it was always meant to be.
The Problem
The Amazon Firestick starts as an excellent, affordable streaming device. However, Amazon's
aggressive Ad policies and restrictive ecosystem have turned it into an increasingly annoying
and a less useful device. It comes with frustrations:
- Messy interface. The less the better was probably the best slogan for the early device,
its interface is now cluttered and chaotic when you probably need just a couple of buttons
for starting your favorite applications.
- Constant Ads. The default launcher is filled with commercials and sponsored content.
- Bloated Interface. A cluttered and slow home screen you can't customize.
- Locked Buttons. Dedicated buttons for services you don't use (like popular streaming
providers) that can't be easily changed.
- Lack of Control. A closed ecosystem that limits what you can do.
I could overlook them all if the device was provided for free. But since you pay and you own it it should be legit to do whatever you please in your personal device and network.
The Solution: BackFireTV
BackFireTV hacks your Firestick to give you back control. It uses a clever system of DHCP hooks
and ADB (Android Debug Bridge) commands to remotely manage your device, block annoyances and
customize your experience from the moment it connects to your network.
The dhcp lease action starts a nohup command on the firestick and forgets about it, the daemon
then manages running programs, hacks remote control features and keys. It can be paused or
resumed, no rooting required.
Features
- Custom Launcher. Automatically replaces the default Amazon launcher with the lean and clean Wolf Launcher.
- Ad-Free Experience:. Blocks annoying ads and sponsored content for a cleaner interface.
- Button Remapping. Reprogram the physical buttons on your remote. For example, make the Disney+ button launch Kodi or your favorite application.
- Works on every firestick 4K. Tested on: Firestick TV 4k (1st/2nd gen), Firestick TV 4k Max.
- No rooting required. It runs on basic user permissions with standard privileges. It also works on standard devices: latest firmware, with or without external hw attached (usb storage, network cards, usb hubs, ...).
- No banned apps. This hack relies on the linux subsystem underneath, no matter what Amazon does on the AppStore, this script can always be sideloaded and cannot be banned (no fingerprints on android app layer).
- Toggle to default anytime. Standard amazon launcher can still be toggled any time for administrative tasks or just as a comparison. Feel free to manage it as usual and switch back to kiosk mode once done.
- 1+1+1 = A script to rule them all. 1 script (on the firestick), 1 hook (on dhcp server), 1 app (Android) [opt] to toggle between Ads-Free and Standard mode.
Before & After: Reclaim Your Screen
When it's free I'm fine with Ads. If I'm paying for it (as I did) I'll do whatever I want because it's mine.
I'll publish the entire project with documentation and configs on github. Feel free to ping me on Slack for further details
See it in action (video)
Project repository: https://github.com/andreabenini/backfiretv
This project is part of:
Hack Week 25
Activity
Comments
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20 days ago by andreabenini | Reply
I've created the project, a generic placeholder with basic description and goals. Nothing yet defined apart from the name and a basic logo. This will be a side project of my official hackweek AI project. More or less what I'll do for fun instead of yelling at Ads on TV
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16 days ago by andreabenini | Reply
I'm now tinkering with real hw on top of updated OSes in order to extend their capabilities. I've several devices and I'm also adding storage and wired network cards to maximize throughput on all of them. I've just created a github repository where all code will be stored: https://github.com/andreabenini/backfiretv Dealing with andoid registry is usually pointless unless you already know what you're doing but there're interesting hidden features and the idea is to always remember there's a real linux os (with a working shell) under it
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14 days ago by andreabenini | Reply
Testing with these devices: Firestick TV 4k 1st generation, Firestick TV 4k 2nd generation, Firestick TV 4k Max (2nd generation). Same pattern on all of them, hackable even with external hw attached (hd, network cards, usb hubs)
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14 days ago by andreabenini | Reply
Adding screenshots after controlling the boot process, refining deamon script
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13 days ago by andreabenini | Reply
Adding some nice docs around the installation process, I'm now refining dnsmasq hook script to keep it easily portable without too much human intervention but basically daemon code seems to be fine at the moment. After obtaining the lease it waits for a couple of seconds before killing default launcher and replace it with my custom one (Wolf in my case, but it's up to you to pick your favorite)
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10 days ago by andreabenini | Reply
Created the examples directory in https://github.com/andreabenini/backfiretv/tree/main/examples Added dhcp hook for dnsmasq daemon. All you have to do is define firestick devices in your network in the dhcp/dns hook. As simply as:
# Firestick devices, define them here
firestick_devices=("firestick1" "firestick2" "firestick3")Follow instructions there reported for further details
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10 days ago by andreabenini | Reply
- Adding dnsmasq configuration file and hooks
- Adding simple bash daemon to keep firestick under control
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10 days ago by andreabenini | Reply
Feel free to create Pull Requests or raise issues at: https://github.com/andreabenini/backfiretv/issues
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