SteeMan

Toothpick is the preferred/only method I would use.

As far as I'm aware, nowhere does it state in any instructions that you can use twrp.

You can't install via twrp, only via update - those are different processes.

What are you trying to download from different places? Be specific. The screen you are showing isn't something that you should ever be in. This isn't part of the install instructions. Please give the steps you are performing, that lead you to this screen?

@LawrenceBoothby Instead of posting links to instructions that are no longer valid (since those downloads no longer exist). It would be more useful for the community if you tried current builds and updated your site accordingly. https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17106-installation-instructions-for-tv-boxes-with-amlogic-cpus

sudo prompts for the users password (not roots password) - that is the whole point of sudo, allowing a user with sudo privilege to issue commands as root, but first requiring they re-authenticate themselves.

@SergioAiello If I understand you correctly, you still have access to the system via a regular user account. It is likely that this regular user account was the one created during your first boot, in which case that user will have sudo permissions. So you can sudo su root to become the root user, and from there you can reset the root password.

There is no mainline linux support for the s905x4. And I don't know of anyone working on it. Therefore this box may never be supported.

split out into new topic

The only suggestion I have on the usb burning tool is to try different versions. I have found that with some older TV boxes, the latest version sometimes doesn't work, but an older one will. One other point I will mention is to have the box disconnected from power when you are trying to connect to it with the burning tool (it should get power over the usb connection) and to try different usb ports on the box.

No, the only output is to the screen

I don't know what the problem is because as I said, you didn't capture the important part of the install-aml.sh script run. But I also did say the following: If you want a valid test of installing to emmc you need to restore the box to the original android firmware and start from there. And it may still not work, but that is the starting state the script expects and the only thing that is tested. I get frustrated when you don't follow (or if you do follow, you don't provide that information in your posts) the instructions I give you. As I said a couple of days ago, I need to see all of the output from the install-aml.sh script (which you haven't provided). Even more importantly, if you don't restore the box back to an original android firmware so you are starting from a known good state, I can't help you (you haven't provided any information that you have restored the original andoird firmware). And finally after all of that this may still not work, as there are hundreds of different tv boxes (most of which I don't own and can't test with).

SD cards are known to fail frequently, that is why I was saying that is the likely issue. Although given what you just described, it could be something else.

What CPU does this box have?

I would suggest looking at log files and trying to figure out why these services are failing.

Please provide some basic information. What build are you using? What u-boot.ext? Screen shots of what you are seeing during the boot process would help. From your post it seems the system is booting, so I'm not sure what problems you are reporting without more details.

Based on the link you posted, you are not using Armbian. You are using builds from a fork of armbian for which the owners of that fork continue to use the Armbian name without permission (which causes confusion). We can't help you here as those are not armbian builds. You need to go to the site you downloaded from for help with their builds.

@Energokom Thank you for your contributions to the forum and welcome. I appreciate your comments and apparent knowledge. As for your question, I am going to direct you to this thread: I have been planning on getting this documented better as it is a bit complex sorting through hexdump's source code and notes, but the information is all there. I think you have the skills to sort it out. I inherited the existing u-boot-* files as binary blobs. It really bothers me to be including these in the builds without source code and instructions on how to recreate them. That is one of my next tasks on the aml-s9xx-box build is to make that better. So I have spent some time with hexdump's code rebuilding what is currently shipped, but I haven't really moved forward from there yet.

It depends on the native uboot installed on the box if it will support booting from a usb device. So some do and some don't. Your earlier post would indicate you have a faulty sd card and you may need to get a new one to continue down that path as it appears your device doesn't support booting from usb.

Are you asking if the armbian build will see all 4gb on this box? Or are you asking how to get it to see all 4gb?

The focus of armbian is supporting mainline linux. There really isn't any interest in supporting the legacy kernels. The legacy kernels are not supported and because of their age are full of known security vulnerabilities. However the build framework will let you build one if you need to.

You say you have tried many versions, can you be more specific? There are only the versions linked in the FAQ post instructions: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17106-installation-instructions-for-tv-boxes-with-amlogic-cpus If you are trying other builds then you may need to reinstall the original android firmware before trying the armbian community builds as mentioned in the instructions.

On a fresh install, the ssh daemon is running and listening on port22. You should be able to get the dynamically assigned ip address from your router and then log in as root with the default armbian root password. Then since this would be the first login, it will run through the initial setup in your ssh session, and prompt to the new root password, setup initial user, etc.

ssh in

Yes, I know that. I was just pointing out that you said: and he said: So it sounded like you were only planning on running one of the three commands he instructed you to run.