I've been experimenting with customizing the Mi Box, thinking of making it a holiday gift for older and younger relatives, but it needed to be more senior- and kid- friendly for that.
The default Leanback Launcher offers too many options and too many elements on screen for those purposes. Even though the Mi Box recommendations row can be removed through settings, I still wanted to narrow down the interface to a few favored apps.
I like HALauncher, because it lets you lock down the GUI to whatever you want. That way adults who don't want to get confused by the box can press the home button at any time and come right back to their pre-set group of app options. And you can set children up with their limited circle of games and cartoons.
To change the default launcher, I followed instructions on XDA, with a minor addition and a few clean-up edits.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/shield-tv/themes-apps/alternate-launcher-root-marshmallow-t3359076
(hat-tip to poster DBCAB)
The steps are below. I tried to retain the original as much as I could, and the original steps are quoted, with my edits in brackets.
Steps
Find or buy a USB Type-A to Type-A cable (male-to-male), available on Amazon for about $6
Find or borrow a PC with Windows 7 or higher. Hopefully it's either a laptop, or a desktop near a TV that you can connect the Mi Box to.
On the PC, download the Xiaomi USB drivers for Windows. I downloaded it as a ZIP from unofficial archive GSMUSBDriver.com, but it also looks like you can download it as a RAR from the official Xiaomi Chinese-language site. Unpack/unzip the file into a location you'll remember.
- [On the PC] Download Minimal ADB and Fastboot[, created by XDA users,] and install:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=42407269#post42407269
- Activate Developer mode: Go to settings- [Device - About] and press build 8-times [You will receive a message on-screen that you are now regarded as a developer]
- go to Settings--Preferences--Developer Options and activate debugging for USB
Connect the USB Type-A to Type-A cable (male-to-male) from the Mi Box to your PC.
Windows will recognize a new device over the USB connection and will likely fail to find an appropriate driver. You can then point it to the location where you de-compressed the driver files.
A message will appear on your TV-screen asking you to okay the connection to the Windows PC for debugging.
After you installed Minimal ADB, you should have had a command prompt window appear on your Windows PC pre-set to the ADB-Fastboot directory. If you don't see it, then press/click the Windows key and search for ADB and run that program (which is just a shortcut to a command prompt that opens in that directory).
- Type in the command prompt
adb shell
pm hide com.google.android.leanbacklauncher
[If you want, you can later] undo this:
adb shell
pm unhide com.google.android.leanbacklauncher
Now press the home button on your Mi Box remote control and you'll be asked which of your alternate launchers should be used, and whether to make the choice permanent.
Be sure to disable USB debugging in developer options so that you can use a USB keyboard/mouse, hard drive, etc. In HALauncher, do this in settings, and then OS Settings.
Disconnect the USB cable, and restart the box.
Voila, you've changed the Mi Box default launcher.
Has anyone been able to get their hands on a mi box in Australia? And how did you get it? The Walmart website doesn't do shipping and the Xiaomi (www.mi.com) website isn't accepting orders untill the 8am 18/10 (2am 19/10 AEST) and I'm not sure whether it ships to Australia. Also on ebay and aliexpress I can only find the Chinese version of the box.