[NikosK]

@NikosK I think @DrGER may have got the Q5 AMI info wrong for your Year of Q5. The AMI was originally an extra unit, the same size as a CD player, that fitted in to the front dash. My A8 had two CD changer slots and the AMI replaced the second blank unit. So 305 wasn't an unfair price; it certainly wasn't the price of a cable!!
Later cars had the AMI interface built into the media unit so you just needed a cable to connect ...
Julian

Thanks Julian,
might be, don't really know...
but at least from the looks of it, (in the glove compartment) its not bigger than a plug housing.

 

[JulianHicks]

@NikosK from what I can see, the 8R model Q5s had a CAN BUS AMI interface [part no 8T0 035 785A] that fitted in the glovebox ...

Julian

 

[DrGER]

@NikosK & @JulianHicks -- The CANbus AMI module is for non-MMI3G/MOST models (e.g., Concert & Symphony radios). Early B8 platform cars with MMI3G High seemed to have the AMI socket/cable as an option. But the connections on the main unit in the instrument panel are still there, so the functionality can still be used. See pp 30 - 32 HERE.

Re updating the system software, you can update to K0257_6 directly. All of the update releases contain system software for all modules, so there is no benefit in applying each sequentially (I don't know why this advice was given initially). Also, the MMI system software is stored mostly in flash memory in the main unit -- the HDD is used only for storage of large data sets (navigation, SDS, multimedia, etc.), which can be reloaded from SD media (except for the obsolete Gracenote CD Database).

Re updating the navigation data, see the thread here on ECE 6.36.0 -- it contains the MMI3G High data, too.

BTW, since you're an IT guy, you might find my GitHub site useful: DrGER2 - Overview --g

 

[JulianHicks]

In my defence, I got involved in a discussion re. a Audi model with which I had no experience
The original AMI was an addon module for MMI 2G cars; I know because I bought a MOST one for my A8. But not all Audi models had a MOST BUS, so there was a CAN BUS version of the addon too.
But actually, all I was doing was pointing out that £/$/€ 305 was not the price of a cable!!
J

 

[DrGER]

@JulianHicks -- Yeah, I was going to mention MMI2G, above. Inspection of VCDS auto-scan logs of models with MMI2G show AMI-MOST module -R192- 4E0035785x at Address 1E; for example, this from a 2008 A5:

Address 1E: Media Player 2 (R192)       Labels: 4E0-035-785.lbl
   Part No SW: 4E0 035 785 B    HW: 4E0 035 785 B
   Component: SG ext.Player H15 0700

All subsequent MMI3G systems get AMI from the main unit J794 directly. --g

 

[NikosK]

@JulianHicks no worries mate.
A pic is worth a thousand words.. That's what my AMI looks like:

So basically, DrGer seems to be right, and the folks in VAG were charging EUR305 for a freaking cable...

@DrGER
Thanks for all the info. I was there already (github) that is why the idea of a backup seemed feasible.
A script dumping all flash memory contents in a ...flash memory
(BTW I used to love Korn Shell. Its like 25 years I haven't seen anyone using it (myself included), since my early HPUX admin days. )

 

[DrGER]

@NikosK -- The likelihood of an firmware update failure that leaves the main unit in a "broken"state is rare, so dumping the flash filesystems to removeable media is not warranted, generally. The Harman-Becker MMI3G system has an emergency update mode to help do this with standard SD media, and there is the serial console IPL approach described in various unbricking documents (Keldo's document is comprehensive). Then there's the problem of what to use to "dump" the flash memory -- filesystem copies (using cp or tar) or raw device (using dd). Raw device copies are possible with dd (I posted this and other useful QNX 6.3.0 binaries over HERE). But really, the release media and the Red Engineering Menu Update process are the best method of "restoring" an MMI3G system.

Re ksh, I learned UNIX shell scripting almost 40 years ago on an AT&T 3B2 and later Sun Micro and SGI workstations. Still prefer ksh over bash. Comes in handy with our various Linux & Solaris systems at home (and poking around old MMI3G systems!). --g

 

[dux72]

@DrGER
Please help. Today I installed the mmi3g+ software and maps on my A8, Everything went great without errors, but I was stupid and I ran your script after the software, before installing the maps, now the navigation is stuck loading navigation.
Please help me how to get the navigation working again, will the Make-MMI3G-acios_db.ini-main script help, or something else, Thank you in advance

Here info file sd
[INFO] Start: Thu Jan 01 00:02:12 UTC 1970; Timestamp: 20250802_135524; MU: MMI3GP
[INFO] MMI3G Nav Database Unblocker: navunblocker-v24072
[ACTI] Appending patch to /usr/bin/manage_cd.sh ...
mv: Moving /mnt/efs-system/usr/bin/manage_cd.sh to /mnt/efs-system/usr/bin/manage_cd.sh-ORIG
cp: Copying /mnt/efs-system/usr/bin/manage_cd.sh-ORIG to /mnt/efs-system/usr/bin/manage_cd.sh

[ACTI] Copy FSC and acios_db.ini files to /mnt/sdcard10t12/var
cp: Copying /mnt/efs-persist/FSC/00040002.fsc to /mnt/sdcard10t12/var/00040002.fsc
cp: Copying /mnt/efs-persist/navi/db/acios_db.ini to /mnt/sdcard10t12/var/acios_db.ini
cp: Copying /mnt/efs-extended/backup/FSCBackup/00040002.fsc to /mnt/sdcard10t12/var/FSCBackup/00040002.fsc

[ACTI] Remove FSC files from /HBpersistence:
rm: Removing file '/mnt/efs-persist/FSC/00040002.fsc'
rm: Removing file '/mnt/efs-persist/FSC/cache/00040002.fsc'

[INFO] End: Thu Jan 01 00:02:13 UTC 1970; Timestamp: 20250802_135525
press any key

 

[DrGER]

@dux72 -- Your A8 is MMI3G Plus, so the other forum is more appropriate for this question. In any case, you should apply my Make-MMI3G-acios_db.ini script, as suggested, to rebuild the missing acios_db.ini file (which is why your NAV function does not initialize). --g

 

[Technophobe]

Hi @DrGER, I am sure that you have heard this lots of times, but I am really hoping that you can help me. I have a 2012 Q5 which was running HNAV_EU_P0206_D1 but had lost its navigation database, as in when I went to Navigation recently, after it previously working, it just said "navigation initialising" when I checked the software version and Nav.database version, nothing was displayed against the latter. I took the plunge earlier this week and first upgraded the firmware to HNAV_EU_K0257_6_D1, this appeared to go well apart from "map styles" which failed. However, when I have gone to upgrade the maps to 6.36.0_ECE as a user defined upgrade, as soon as it completes the first reboot it reports, "The device finished with error code 138" for all options of the map upgrade package.

I am using a 64GB SD XC card (FAT 32), which I have reformatted, and works fine for your "MMI-3G-Info-Main" script, so I am confident that card is ok (this is the third card I have tried, with each one seeing the same error). On the procedure I was following it recommended going into the GEM and deleting the Nav DB, but it says, /mnt/nav/db not found - no database to delete. I also notice when selecting List HDD Database Info, it says "no valid acios_db"

I have attached some photos and the ouput of your script, hoping that my issue will be glaringly obvious to you and that there is a simple fix (fingers crosed )