jibo.guide
A community-driven guide to restoring your Jibo social robot after the original cloud services were shut down. Get Jibo back where he belongs — on your shelf, awake and talking.
Jibo was the world's first social robot. When the original company shut down its servers in 2019, thousands of Jibos performed a final goodbye dance and went silent. The Jibo Revival Group (JRG) is bringing them back by taking advantage of a known flaw in the hardware we own — we are not hacking anyone else's system.
Choose Your Route
There are currently two ways to modify your Jibo. Both end up in the same place — SSH access and the ability to install JiboOS.
Route A — Automated Installer
Use the community-built jibo_automod tool to handle the eMMC
dump, modification, and flash automatically. Works on Linux and Windows.
Requires basic comfort with a terminal.
Route B — Manual
Do every step by hand: build ShofEL2, dump the eMMC, extract the
/var partition, edit mode.json, and flash it back.
Great for understanding what's happening under the hood.
A simpler "one-click" installer is planned for the future. Until then, both routes require some technical knowledge. If you get stuck, join the Discord — the community is friendly and helpful.
What You'll Be Able to Do
- SSH into your Jibo as
root - Install the community JiboOS update (restores functionality)
- Access Jibo's local ASR (speech-to-text) and TTS (text-to-speech) services
- Build and run custom skills and integrations
- Eventually: Home Assistant integration, custom AI brain, and more
FAQ
Is this safe? Could I brick my Jibo?
The modification changes a single file (mode.json) on the
/var partition. The rest of Jibo's OS is untouched. We strongly
recommend keeping a backup of your var_partition_backup.bin — if
anything goes wrong, you can flash the original back. A full eMMC dump (Route B)
gives you a complete system backup as well.
Is Jibo fully back to normal?
Not quite yet — we are still in the restoration phase. The JiboOS community update restores significant functionality (wake word, animations, local voice round-trip), but it is an ongoing project. Check the Discord for the latest update releases.
Do I need to be a programmer?
Route A (automated) requires only basic comfort with a terminal — running
a script and following prompts. Route B requires understanding Linux commands
and tools like dd, fdisk, and mount.
No coding knowledge is needed for either route.
What Jibo hardware is supported?
All known Jibo units use the same NVIDIA Tegra K1 (T124) SoC and eMMC layout. Both V1 and V2 Jibos should work with this guide. V2 Jibos have the MIT Scratch extension software pre-installed, which is a bonus.
What OS do I need on my computer?
Linux is strongly preferred (any distro with libusb).
Windows is supported via WSL2 or the native .bat launchers
(requires Zadig + MSYS2). macOS is not currently supported.
Is this free?
Yes, completely. As KevinKor from the JRG put it: "I am not charging any money for this. This project isn't a business; it's a labor of love."