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@Bones558 I don't have a a7z to test with right now. I should be getting one soon and I'll look into it. I'm pretty sure a USB to UART serial device works.

I'm having an issue getting my A7z to boot using your Armbian build tree. I created an image using Nobel and kernel 6. Wrote it to the SD card using Armbian imager. The status light on my A7z always stays solid-on. Any ideas? Armbian-unofficial_26.02.0-trunk_Radxa-cubie-a7z_noble_vendor_6.6.98.img.xz

Mhhh..... it doesn't seem to be possible to use images from BananaPI CM4 to OrangePI CM4 directly. Comparing both images, those are indeed different: is there a simple way to burn them (to SD Card or better to eMMC)? Regards,

If you mean the built-in script as described in the instructions linked to from the download page (https://www.armbian.com/amlogic-s9xx-tv-box) Then yes that should do everything you need.

Hi, is there any way to install Armbian on the built-in emmc memory on an mxq 4k pro with an s905w processor? Should I follow these guides? https://7ji.github.io/embedded/2022/11/08/alarm-install.html https://7ji.github.io/embedded/2022/11/11/ept-with-ampart.html Or is the built-in script in the system sufficient and will do everything without damaging anything? I would be grateful for any tips

@SteeMan - there is no pressure to do it quickly or at all ... if you should look at it and have questions, just ask me here (i'm reading here regularly, but sometimes with a few days delay) or create an issue in my github repo. i'm always happy to see that you are keeping the amlogic boxes stuff alive pretty well in armbian.

I always appreciate the work you do. I'll try to experiment with what you have done. It sounds very interesting, but I probably won't have time until next month though to look at it.

you might try to write (after gunzip) this u-boot boot-amlogic_gxl_a95x-r2-atf-aarch64.dd.gz from https://github.com/hexdump0815/u-boot-misc/releases/tag/250629-01 which i built some time ago via "dd if=boot-amlogic_gxl_a95x-r2-atf-aarch64.dd of=/dev/your-sd-card bs=512 seek=1 skip=1" to the sd-card to which you wrote the armbian image before and see if it boots (never tested it with armbian) - build instructions for that u-boot are here: https://github.com/hexdump0815/u-boot-misc/blob/wip-v2025-04/readme.gxl ... alternatively you might try to boot this (non armbian) image to see if that u-boot works at all on your device: https://github.com/velvet-os/imagebuilder-testimages/releases/download/autumn-release-2025-testimages/aarch64_mbr_uefi-aarch64-trixie-251016.img.gz (please keep in mind that anything around that image is not related to armbian and thus should not be discussed here as i do not want to hijack this armbian thread) @SteeMan - in case you are interested in getting some of this into armbian, maybe have a look at it and i can try to answer potential questions around it - this was just some experiment to boot amlogic via the u-boot uefi implementation and grub which worked out quite well - as a result an amlogic tv box feels a bit like a pc with a normal grub boot on the screen ... should be possible to make that work for many of the supported amlogic socs - i simply do not have the time to look further into this right now ...

Can't you run on sdcard? It is heavily suggested to run on sdcard before installing on emmc. However the overlay is emmc-pins

@Робертс My screen is constantly white. Here's my wiring diagram. Display-Orangepi zero 3 VCC-5v GND-GND CS-PH9(spi1) RST-PC14 D/C-PC7 SDI-PH7(mosi) SCK-PH4 BL-3.3v SDO-PH8(miso) Also, there might be a typo. The specified dc-gpio in your dts is described as PHC7. I don't quite understand, is it PC7 or PH7?

Unfortunately, nothing's working for me yet(. It didn't work with dts, and my Python tests have only resulted in a gray screen and nothing else. I'm still using deepseek, as I don't understand it myself. Maybe I should connect the display's MISO? Although the display only seems to receive data, not transmit it.

Yes. Probably this week.

Is your LCD at least turning white on powerup? Did you connect the "LED" pin in the LCD, to 3.3V? Send a drawing of how you are connecting the LCD to the orange pi zero 3.

You can switch to beta to get faster updates, though they're untested autobuilds, so if something breaks, you have to unbrick yourself.

The Evolution of SBCs: From Hobby Boards to Edge ComputingOver the past two decades, single-board computers (SBCs) have transformed from experimental maker tools into the backbone of modern embedded and edge systems. What started as a handful of affordable hobby boards has grown into a diverse ecosystem powering automation, AI, and connected infrastructure around the world. From Prototypes to PossibilityEarly SBCs were humble experiments — small circuit boards combining processor, memory, and I/O on one platform. For years they lived quietly inside industrial machines and educational kits. The real turning point came in the early 2010s with boards like the Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, and Cubieboard, which brought Linux to the maker community at a scale and price that anyone could access. These boards opened the floodgates for innovation. Suddenly, home labs, classrooms, and startups could prototype full Linux systems for the cost of a dinner. The appeal wasn’t just price — it was openness, GPIO access, and a thriving community that treated hardware as something to explore, not just consume. The Rise of a Global EcosystemAs demand grew, more vendors entered the field: Orange Pi, FriendlyElec, Radxa, and dozens of others expanded on the idea, each offering faster SoCs, more memory, and better I/O. Modern SBCs can now host NVMe storage, multiple displays, gigabit networking, and dedicated NPUs for AI workloads — features once reserved for full desktops or servers. They power digital signage, smart gateways, home servers, and even small AI clusters. Developers began caring not just about hardware specs, but also kernel stability, upstream drivers, and long-term support — exactly where Armbian excels. What’s NextLooking ahead, the direction is clear: AI acceleration everywhere – NPUs and neural engines are becoming standard on SBCs.Unified software stacks – Containers, orchestration tools, and reproducible builds are reaching the edge.Energy-aware computing – Solar and battery-powered deployments highlight the need for lean, resilient systems.Armbian’s role in this landscape is to provide the stable software foundation that ties it all together — open, optimized, and reliable across dozens of architectures. In SummarySBCs have grown up. They are no longer just learning tools or proof-of-concept boards — they are the quiet engines running modern infrastructure at the edge. Armbian sits at the heart of that transformation, helping these devices boot faster, run cleaner, and stay useful long after their first flash. The evolution of the SBC mirrors the story of open computing itself: innovation born from community effort, refined through shared knowledge, and extended by software that stays light enough to go anywhere. View the full article

Hi there, I'm really happy with Armbian on my Oprange Pi 5 Plus but recently I noticed that I'm not getting kernel updates so often as before. I use rockchip-edge branch and I'm stuck at kernel "6.18.0-rc6-edge-rockchip64". I know there are new versions being tested (https://github.com/armbian/os/pkgs/container/os%2Fkernel-rockchip64-edge), will they be released to armbian? Maybe you are working hard on Armbian version 26.2 and I'm just anxious Thanks in advance!

@robertoj Hello. I was able to get some DuPont wires and test them directly without soldering. The result was zero. I tried using ChatGPT to get it working.He suggests that my display isn't initializing. In some cases, it's either that the reset isn't working, or that the frequency is too high for a Chinese display. I tried using fbtft, but the result was zero. I followed your configuration and pinout. Are there any steps I might have missed?

@robertoj Could you post a step-by-step guide on setting up the Chinese ili9488 screen on a red board and OrangePi Zero 3? I think this forum will receive many thanks for your work.

Thanks, but I cannot run rk322x-config (or can I without being fully booted?). I suppose I can try in overlays=... line in /boot/armbianEnv.txt, but what should I write here?

hello @digital, in some rare cases there are some minor trickeries to try and improve compatibility with eMMC. If you run rk322x-config, there is a panel dedicated to eMMC which allows you to select some compatiblity options, like emmc-pins and DDR/UHS modes. You may try first enabling emmc-pins and rebooting to see if it gets recognized. Anyway photos of the board and the original stock device tree could be useful to identify the compatibility problem.

@quaSimba: Fantastic work! Will put a link at the top of the tutorial for visibility.

Armbian recently merged and will be releasing (and backporting) a patched devicetree file for the Odroid C4 and HC4 that eliminates the second power-cycle "glitch" during boot. Hopefully this will fix at least one issue people have been reporting, where some HDDs (or other devices) do not react well to rapid power double-tap during boot. https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/patch/kernel/archive/meson64-6.19/board-odroid-sm1-regulators-boot-on.patch It will also be released (and likely backported) upstream in next Linux kernel release and/or fixes. Also, something else people have been reporting is the HC4 struggling to spin up two large HDDs at the same time. If you have an HDD with a "Power Up In Standby" (PUIS) setting, such as the Seagate IronWolf, then you can configure all non-system (non-boot) drives in this manner, and then mount and access them sequentially after the system has booted. Depending on how much power the HDDs use in regular operation, this might work to get both spun up and running. Theoretically, you could also access just one drive at a time and then place it back in standby before using the other drive. YMMV.

I have Dolamee D5 box. The legacy kernel 4.4.194-rk322x boots ok, but newer images from @jock or my own built image does not see EMMC. Any ideas? dmesgs attached. 4.4.194.txt 6.12.63.txt

@kil I also own a T95H and playing around with that now. Would it be possible getting your final dts, dtb and .config for u-boot? Thanks in advance & best regards

Hi, I could try to help, my board is exactly the same as yours. Can you provide me a source with instructions of how to do that?