SteeMan

@st0rk

@st0rk try using a recent build. I haven't seen this issue on recent kernels. But I did previously see the problem with the 5.9 build.

moved post to correct forum

nand support only exists in legacy vendor kernels. Mainline linux does not have such support. Armbian is focused on bringing mainline linux to all sorts of devices so that users have access to currently supported code. If you think about what you are asking for, you are asking for a linux kernel that is at least 8 years old and has never received any security or other patches. Why would you want to run with a kernel that has likely hundreds of known security vulnerabilities in it?

Moved to correct forum

@trev1no2 What you are trying to do is possible, but it is likely to be a lot of work. You can't just take a kernel built to support one cpu/board and expect it to run on another board. That is why for example Armbian needs to build 20+ different kernels to support the variety of cpu/boards that Armbian can run on. So a kernel built for a RPi won't simply run on a Jetson Nano. You say you have tried to build the image on the Nano running Armbian. What version of Armbian? Since you are trying to build this, I'm assuming this 'patched kernel' you are talking about is a series of source code patches that you are trying to apply on top of a specific kernel version (apparently 5.4 in your case). One problem is that the 5.4 kernel is 3 years old and Armbian has moved on to more recent kernels. So you will either need to port your patches to the more current kernels armbian supports, or get a 5.4 kernel working on your board. If you go down the 5.4 route, then your first step would be to get a generic 5.4 kernel working on your board (i.e. don't worry about the patches yet, just see if you can build a 5.4 kernel that you can get running on your board). Once you have that working then you can deal with patching your kernel with your patches. However, my recommendation would be to not try to going with a 5.4 kernel, but porting the patches to the current Armbian kernel and using the Armbian build framework to build your kernel.

What version do you have installed (please provide the full name of the image you downloaded to install)?

@hexdump Thanks for that link. I just read through the whole thread and this other one that is referenced therein (https://forum.armbian.com/topic/18902-s905-failed-to-boot-from-emmc). It is clear that no one has been able to work around the fact that the mbr info is incompatible with the android uboot on the s905 based on all the smart people that have looked at the problem. The workaround that @pista used is the best out there, but because it directly writes the boot files (kernel, etc) to emmc, it isn't a good solution IMHO as it is not compatible with a standard apt update of the kernel (which the new aml-s9xx-box builds support) I have found that the "op hub" fork perhaps has found a solution by using the ampart tool (https://github.com/7Ji/ampart) Since I don't have an s905 box, I really can't do much. And since the s905 boxes are by now ancient it isn't really worth my time to get one and go down this rabbit hole. However I do plan to remove from the aml-s9xx-box builds the install-aml-s905-emmc.sh script as I don't see how as written it can ever work and update the install instructions accordingly.

sid is the Debian distro and kinetic is the Ubuntu distro

Please read the TV Box FAQ post: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/16976-status-of-armbian-on-tv-boxes-please-read-first (wifi isn't going to work on most amlogic tv boxes and no one is working on that, but this is a community project so code submissions are welcome)

moved post to separate topic

Have you tried any other dtb files? Per the instructions you should try all of the dtbs for your cpu type hoping to find one that works the best. Also 15-30 seconds is too long. Try 5 seconds and then 10 seconds. Also what happens when you power the box both with and without the sd card inserted (not using the reset button for either). Installing multiboot (what happens when you press the reset button with the sd card is inserted) is something that only needs to be done once. Before a successful install of multiboot the box will always boot to android (with or without the sd card installed). However after multiboot is enabled, then the box will boot to android without the sd card, and attempt to boot from the sd card if it is present and not boot android.

So I have been looking at the two scripts in /root (install-aml.sh and install-aml-s905-emmc.sh). Basically the only difference between the two is that s905 version assumes that p0 and p1 exist, where the other version creates the partitions. Since I didn't author these scripts (but now find myself maintaining them), I don't know why this difference exists in the scripts. And since I don't have an s905 box, I've never been able to test the s905 version. Since you seem to have an s905 box that doesn't have the partitions that the one script expects, you could try to run install-aml.sh instead. It seems you have the ability to restore the andoid image if necessary. So unless you really brick the box hard, you should be able to recover if the other script doesn't work.

Post back once you have tried the install using the instructions in the FAQ and let us know how things went.

The link you posted above is to a site not affiliated with Armbian. They have a fork of armbian but continue to use the Armbian name without permission. They do not participate in Armbian development, nor to they contribute to these forums. If you have any questions about their code, you need to direct it to them at their site. Overall you are comparing desktop from one provider to command line from a different provider. (comparing apples to oranges essentially). As for the Armbian build, please read the following TV Box FAQ post: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/16976-status-of-armbian-on-tv-boxes-please-read-first (The short answer is wifi doesn't work on most amlogic TV boxes with the Armbian builds - in fact not a single box I own has working wifi)

https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17106-installation-instructions-for-tv-boxes-with-amlogic-cpus

This doesn't look like any Armbian build. Where did you get this build? Also please read this TV box FAQ post: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/16976-status-of-armbian-on-tv-boxes-please-read-first (Note the parts about TV boxes not being supported and not to expect wifi to work.)

I'm going to close down this thread. I think everyone has had their say and we are at the point of repeating ourselves without adding additional value.

I moved your post to a new topic. But to answer your question, yes, you are going down the right path. What model TV box do you have?

If the dongle is well supported by mainline linux then it should be supported under armbian (you may need to install armbian-firmware-full)

The script is supposed to create the p0 and p1 partitions you say are missing: (from install-aml-s905-emmc.sh) ... mkfs.vfat -n "BOOT_EMMC" $PART_BOOT ... mke2fs -F -q -t ext4 -L ROOT_EMMC -m 0 $PART_ROOT

Since this should be a community, and I don't have access to a box that has your issue (both of my m96mini's work with the default dtb). I would encourage you to put together a PR in github for this change and contribute to the community. However instead of modifiying the existing dtb, I would recommend your patch create a new dtb for your box. It would also be helpful if you took pictures of the motherboard to see what chips you do have to be compared to what I have to see the differences. This could also be accomplished through a dtb overlay as well, but I'm not sure how that would work with the extlinux.conf file as standard armbian support for overlays uses the armbianenv.txt file.

The link you posted is to a site not affiliated with Armbian. They have a fork of armbian but continue to use the Armbian name without permission. They do not participate in Armbian development, nor to they contribute to these forums. You should direct your question to those that are providing you the code you are using.

You might want to consider either getting something that is supported or using a usb ethernet dongle. Otherwise you have a steep learning curve ahead of you. I've personally never needed to extract a dtb from android, so I can't provide any guidance beyond what I have mentioned above.

That script is fairly easy to follow the logic if you look at it. I don't have a s905 based box, so I can't test it personally. It would appear based on your report that the script misidentified the sd card as the emmc and overwrote the sd card (which is why you can still boot android), but that is just a guess.