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SteeMan

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Posts posted by SteeMan

  1. @desperex Armbian doesn't have the resources to track bugs and work for fixes in upstream code.  We generally just take upstream code and incorporate.  So someone external to Armbian needs to work the upstream producers to get them to make fixes as appropriate.  The problem is that for many of these inexpensive commodity chips/drivers there isn't any long term support infrastructure (i.e. they produce, release and then move on to the next chip with no intention to support them)

  2. Have you tried installing the armbian-firmware-full package?  The base distribution comes with the armbian-firmware package installed (note not -full) which is a trimmed down package that contains a small subset of all available linux firmwares to reduce size.

  3. Please try with the instructions on this site (where you originally posted this) using current downloads.

     

    I have multiple of these boxes and the reset button should work.

    Describe what happens when you use the reset button (complete description like how long you are holding reset, what is shown on the screen, when you are adding power etc.)

     

  4. These instructions are for Amlogic CPUs for TV Boxes. 

     

    Note: If you have previously run other distributions on the box such as coreelec the below installation will not work.  You will need to restore the original android firmware before attempting the install.  coreelec changes the boot environment in ways that are incompatible with these Armbian builds.

     

    Download links:

        Weekly Community Rolling Builds:  https://www.armbian.com/amlogic-s9xx-tv-box/

        or build your own image using the Armbian build framework

     

    Once you download your chosen build, you need to burn the image to an SD card.  Generally balenaEtcher is recommended as it does a verification of the burn.  Also be sure to use high quality SD cards.

     

    Once you have the SD card with your chosen build, then you need to edit the boot configuration file on the SD card.  In the BOOT partition of the SD card there will be a file /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf, that you need to edit.  There will also be a extlinux.conf.template file to use as a reference.  You will need to add a line into the extlinux.conf file for the Device Tree (dtb) file you will be using for your box.  Place this line before the APPEND line as shown in the .template file.

     

    Basically you need to have the correct dtb for your box.  You may need to attempt to use different dtb files until you find the one that works the best for your box's hardware (there are a bunch of dtb files in /boot/dtb/amlogic/... to try depending on your cpu architecture and hardware).  It is unlikely that there will be a matching dtb file for your TV box.  The idea is to find the one that works best for your box.  This may mean that you try booting with different dtb files until you fine one that works good enough for your needs.  By searching the forums you will find information about what dtbs other users have found work best for different boxes.  Because you are booting from an SD card, you can easily try different dtb files.  The dtd files are named by cpu family.  So for example dtb files for the s905x2 cpu are named meson-g12a-*.  Below there is a table that shows the identifiers for each familiy (g12a for s905x2 in this case).

     

    Next you need to copy the correct uboot for your box.  This is needed for how these builds boot on amlogic boxes.  There are four different u-boot files located in the /boot directory:  u-boot-s905, u-boot-s905x-s912, u-boot-s905x2-s922, u-boot-s905x3

    You need to copy (note copy not move) the u-boot file that matches your cpu to a new file named u-boot.ext in the /boot directory

    So for example with a TX3 mini box that has an s905w cpu you would copy u-boot-s905x-s912 to u-boot.ext: cp u-boot-s905x-s912 u-boot.ext

    (See table below for more details on which u-boot to use for which cpu)

     

    Once you have your SD card prepared you need to enable multiboot on the box.  There are different ways documented to do this, but the most common is the "toothpick" method.  The "toothpick" method means to hold the reset button while applying power to the box.  The reset button is often hidden and located at the back of the audio/video jack connector.  By pressing that button with a toothpick or other such pointed device you can enable multiboot.  What you need to do is have the box unplugged, have your prepared sd card inserted, then press and hold the button while inserting the power connector.  Then after a bit of time you can release the button.  (I don't know exactly how long you need to hold the button after power is applied, but if it doesn't work the first time try again holding for longer or shorter times).

     

    You should now be booting into armbian/linux.  Note that the first boot takes longer as it is enlarging the root filesystem to utilize the entire SD card.

     

    After you are satisfied that your box is working correctly for your needs you can optionally copy the installation from the SD card to internal emmc storage (assuming your box has emmc). (Note: Installing to emmc has some risks of bricking your box.  Don't do this unless you feel you understand how to reinstall your box's android firmware)  You install armbian to emmc by running the shell script in the /root directory: install-aml.sh. Note: It is not possible to install into emmc on boxes with the s905 cpu (s905x, s905w, s905x2, etc however should all be supported).  It is recommended that you make a backup of emmc first.  Also be prepared if anything goes horribly wrong with your emmc install to reinstall the android firmware using the Amlogic USB Burning Tool to unbrick your device.  If you have or can find an original android firmware on the internet and you can generally (but not always) recover a bricked box using the Amlogic tool and the original firmware file.

     

     

    Mapping from CPU to uboot and dtb:

     

    u-boot-s905

    s905 - gxbb

     

    u-boot-s905x2-s912

    S905X - gxl

    S905W - gxl

    S905D - gxl

    S905L - gxl

    S805X - gxl

    S912 - gxm

    A311D - gxm

     

    u-boot-s905x2-s922

    S905X2 - g12a

    S922 - g12b

     

    u-boot-s905x3

    S905X3 - sm1

     

    Not supported or not tested

    S805 -

    S905W2 -

    S905X4 -

    S805X2 - s4

    A113D - axg

    A113X - axg

     

     

     

    Note: Followup posts in this thread should be limited to comments to improve or better understand these instructions.  Other issues should be posted as new questions in the Amlogic CPU Boxes sub-forum.

  5. First off read:

     

    4 hours ago, KMfoliographics said:

    Now I will run Armbian_5.67_Aml-s805_Ubuntu_bionic_default_3.10.108_desktop_20181207 from @Balbes150

    You are asking about a build that is over three years old, for a kernel that is much older than that from a developer that has stopped working on amlogic tv boxes.  This isn't likely to lead to the results you are looking for.  The best advise I can give you is to read this thread:

    which contains the historic info about supporting the s805 cpu

  6. Which dtb are you using?

     

    Since you found someone who apparently got these things working, you would probably be best served by reaching out to them to see what they did to get wifi/sound working on this box.  It looks like they forked their build from armbian a while back and here is a link to the diff between the base armbian they forked from and their set of changes: https://github.com/armbian/build/compare  (Your answers are somewhere in that diff).  Since I don't own that box, there isn't much I can do beyond pointing you in these directions.

  7. Since there is no mainline linux kernel support for the s905x4 that I am aware of, I suspect that coreelec is using the android based kernel.

    Note that currently the boot environments for coreelec and armbian are incompatible.  So if you install coreelec, you will need to reflash android in order to use armbian.

    Also note that the armbian amlogic environment uses the native firmware (android installed) boot loader.

    You have an ambitious task ahead of you, good luck.

    Since Armbian is community based, anything want to submit to the project as a result of your efforts would be welcomed.  If you need advice on PR submittal, I'd be happy to help.

     

  8. @Gaaf What version did you originally have installed (file name and download location)?  How did you upgrade from 22.11.0 to 23.2.0?  It looks like you are switching from the current stable kernel to the unstable edge kernel?  How did you switch?  Is that what you intended?  Basically I need more information about your environment and how you have upgraded it, to be able to explain what you are seeing.

     

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