Installing TCL on an MK903IV HDMI stick

[derekewing]

Hello All,

I would like to install TCL on a MK903IV stick. They usually come with an android OS, I would like to replace kitkat/lollipop with TCL.
The stick has an HDMI output, two micro usbs and a standard sized usb port, an internal SD card for storage and a wifi adapter.
 I was planning on installing TCL from a USB stick/cd plugged into the usb port.

The end result will be to have a MK903IV stick that I can plug into any screen, push a single image to the sdcard on the device and have them output via the hdmi (using something like xzgv image viewer)

I would like to try TCL as it boots up fast and I can customise it
 i.e.
starts an SSH server onboot -> display one image from a specific location
I will then use scp over ssh to update (copy a new image) that image at some point in the future.
I would like to control what is displayed during boot (i.e just show the one image from the same specific location)

Is this a long road to nowhere ?
Can I install via USB on to a MK903IV stick ?
Has anyone done something similar before ?
Does anyone see any major hurdles in this approach ?

Any comments, thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[curaga]

Those Android sticks often don't come with usable kernels, and the companies violate the GPL by not releasing the kernel source. There may also be hardware blocks preventing you from installing your own OS.

So the first step is finding the kernel source for your stick, and seeing if anyone has installed a custom OS on it. Alternatively, get an x86 stick, the Intel Compute Stick should work with any Linux distro as-is.

[hiro]

i agree with curaga, i had my saga with these kind of sticks 4 years ago and it was all a huge waste of time.