Thanks Werner, Unfortunately I have to halt this project. Though I can now create an booting Neo3plus Armbian image based on the Zero2, it does not fit my initial requirements. Obviously u-boot requires an android partition scheme. The current version as used by the nanopi zero2 cannot be used for my own purposes. So it will need to wait until the board can boot without a vendor u-boot version.

> Is there a way to test different DTS without physical meddling with our SBCs? Using armbian-config from Armbian-unofficial_25.05.0-trunk_Transpeed-8k618 image says I cannot edit DTS at all, but even if I could, wouldn't it simply soft-brick the SBC if DTS is incompatible? > Would it be feasible to have uboot + dts + maybe a kernel + some utils, so that we could boot any standard ARM ISO ever produced? Armbian would become standardised, then "firmware" layer is up to the user - whether their device has real UEFI, my proposed environment, or the current all-in-one blob solution seen in all ARM distros. > I found zero actionable information on how to create DTS for given device, is it arcane information for electronics lovers? Do I need to compile specific kernel for it? Given our SBCs have 100% working DTS for Android, couldn't LLMs work out the difference between how Android expects it and how Armbian does? It's awful this division exists, but c'mon this doesn't seem like intelligent problem requiring solutions, but a machinistic mapping of boring register addresses and the corresponding syntax? These seem like standard groundwork that needs to be laid out before any work on any project starts, but in embedded world these lacks in operational hygene consume 99.99% of work focus, don't they? and in the end nothing really works as it should.. Yes, I'm worthless here, but aren't these problems hurting literally everyone to ever use any SBCs, including raspberries, oranges etc. I wish I could help, but the entry seems steep.

Those are not the correct instructions. Please follow the instructions linked off of the download page: https://www.armbian.com/amlogic-s9xx-tv-box

I haven't used samba for a long time so I'm probably not the best to ask, but I checked my old notes about samba, and this was my goto config: [samba] # edit, or whatever name you want to give it path = /path/to/mountlocation/ browsable = yes writable = yes read only = no force user = <your_username> force group = <your_usergroup> create mask = 0644 # edit, you should probably set this to 0640. This is for files, no need for 7 here, unless you want every file to be executable on the samba share? direcotry mask = 0755 # make sure this works on debian, errors on arch (edit, this was in my notes, so I guess 755 instead of 0755.. maybe.. Or rather 0750 or 750 to only give access to your user and group) public = no This was the only thing I changed from default IIRC, so no guest access or anything, just a uname and passwd to connect. Changing the directory permissions on the server filesystem (chmod) does not matter at all when it comes to samba. As you can see in the conf I provided, the mask is defined there, and all files will get that user/mask (if ext4, exfat does not support user/group/all masks, what you see in your filesystem is what you set in fstab for exfat) and is the mask you will se when looking through a samba mount on another computer. And as a rule of thumb, don't use 777 or 666, the solution is very rarely to completely open up everything, that's a "windows thing" (run as administrator or give everybody access to the directory/application), try to get rid of that habit.

Now flashed with Rufus (very popular windows program) and of course also no boot. I just strictly follow Google KI: Step-by-Step Instructions: Download Image: Download a suitable Armbian image for Amlogic S905/S905X devices (e.g., from the Armbian forum threads by balbes150). Flash SD Card: Use BalenaEtcher or Rufus to flash the image to a MicroSD card. Configure DTB: Open the SD card's boot partition, navigate to dtb/amlogic/, and locate a file for the S905H or generic S905 (gxbb_p200_wetek_play2.dtb or similar). Edit uEnv.txt or extlinux/extlinux.conf to point FDT to this file. Wetek Play 2 dtb on "Minix Neo U1" because: 1. 2. Its the only dtb which makes all working with a Minix Neo U1 in Libreelec. So now i need a detailed step by step manual on how to get a working armbian on a wetek play 2 or minix neo u1!