

SteeMan
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SteeMan got a reaction from Werner in Auto user login
@vitor Have you paid for support? Armbian is composed of volunteers who donate their time. If no volunteer desires to work on any particular board/feature/bug, no one is getting paid to be told to add such board/feature/bug. This is open source so anyone can go in and make changes/fixes/improvements and then hopefully submit them back for others to benefit from. First and foremost Armbian provides a place (forums, frameworks, source code) for anyone to join the volunteer community and help support the wide variety of boards that are out there.
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SteeMan got a reaction from Igor in Auto user login
@vitor Have you paid for support? Armbian is composed of volunteers who donate their time. If no volunteer desires to work on any particular board/feature/bug, no one is getting paid to be told to add such board/feature/bug. This is open source so anyone can go in and make changes/fixes/improvements and then hopefully submit them back for others to benefit from. First and foremost Armbian provides a place (forums, frameworks, source code) for anyone to join the volunteer community and help support the wide variety of boards that are out there.
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SteeMan got a reaction from ochentay4 in Booted Armbian on MXQ Pro 4K S905 GXBB P201, now I cant boot anything else
This is good to know. I'm only starting to upgrade to Win11, so I haven't run into this yet. But I can pass this advice on to others.
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SteeMan got a reaction from wyim in Installation Instructions for TV Boxes with Amlogic CPUs
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:
Stable Builds: https://redirect.armbian.com/aml-s9xx-box/archive
Weekly Development Builds: https://github.com/armbian/community (aml-s9xx-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.
Your extlinux.conf file should look like:
LABEL Armbian
LINUX /uImage
INITRD /uInitrd
#FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxbb-p200.dtb
FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxl-s905w-tx3-mini.dtb
#FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxm-q200.dtb
#FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-g12a-x96-max.dtb
#FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-g12b-odroid-n2.dtb
APPEND ...
Basically you need to have the correct dtb for your box and the correct boot command for your box, along with the top three environment variables set. A common mistake is for people to uncomment the dtb file needed, but leave other dtb lines in the file not uncommented and thus they fail to boot. 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.
Next you need to copy the correct uboot for your box. This is needed for how these builds boot on amlogic boxes. There are three different u-boot files located in the /boot directory: u-boot-s905, u-boot-s905x-s912, u-boot-s905x2-s922
You need to copy (note copy not move) the u-boot file that matches your cpu to a new file named: u-boot.ext
So for example with a TX3 mini box that has an s905w cpu you would copy u-boot-s905x-s912 to u-boot.ext
For x905[w,d,l], and other variants use u-boot-s905x-s912; for s905x3 use u-boot-s905x2-s922
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.
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.
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SteeMan got a reaction from jock in Tinkerboard S R2.0, patch to disable u-boot console & logo
@SuperMaximus What exactly are you trying to accomplish and why? In your post in this other thread (https://forum.armbian.com/topic/21590-rotate-armbian-logo-in-startup-splash-screen/#comment-161028) you are asking about changing the boot logo, here you are asking to disable the video output. Those are very different things. I think if you are looking to disable video output during boot, @jock suggestions are the way to go, and yes that is invasive and would involve low level changes that would require building a custom image. If you are looking to change the boot logo as you indicated elsewhere, then look at my followup post to that. If you are looking to do something else, you need to be more specific in your question. Otherwise Jock and I are wasting our time trying to guess what you are trying to accomplish.
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SteeMan got a reaction from SuperMaximus in Tinkerboard S R2.0, patch to disable u-boot console & logo
@SuperMaximus What exactly are you trying to accomplish and why? In your post in this other thread (https://forum.armbian.com/topic/21590-rotate-armbian-logo-in-startup-splash-screen/#comment-161028) you are asking about changing the boot logo, here you are asking to disable the video output. Those are very different things. I think if you are looking to disable video output during boot, @jock suggestions are the way to go, and yes that is invasive and would involve low level changes that would require building a custom image. If you are looking to change the boot logo as you indicated elsewhere, then look at my followup post to that. If you are looking to do something else, you need to be more specific in your question. Otherwise Jock and I are wasting our time trying to guess what you are trying to accomplish.
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SteeMan got a reaction from Igor in OPI3 without LAN and WIFI
@madade Why do you ask for help again when you haven't provided the information that Igor asked of you.
He asked you for four things:
You only provided an answer to one request.
Which hardware revision (picture please)?
Where does booting end? (capture of the console output of the boot)
Try another sd card. (Just because a card works in some circumstances, doesn't mean it will work for this purpose, sbc's are finicky when it comes to sd cards at times)
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SteeMan got a reaction from Werner in OPI3 without LAN and WIFI
@madade Why do you ask for help again when you haven't provided the information that Igor asked of you.
He asked you for four things:
You only provided an answer to one request.
Which hardware revision (picture please)?
Where does booting end? (capture of the console output of the boot)
Try another sd card. (Just because a card works in some circumstances, doesn't mean it will work for this purpose, sbc's are finicky when it comes to sd cards at times)
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SteeMan reacted to rpardini in Overriding new kernel versions scheme
Well this is a completely different subject, but yeah, valid. That probably/finally explains why media had double-patches to mkdebian/builddeb (which was already patched/replaced by Armbian before patches applied). I was trying to understand that, for months, and failed. Not a single comment explained it, as seems to be Oleg's policy. I will revisit it now that I know wth is going on and maybe it will make sense, but sincerely...
Currently and before:
- linux-image: has kernel, modules, and DTs (!), (in /usr/lib/<kernel_id>) -- as expected by standard Debian tooling (u-boot-menu, flash-kernel, etc). We had a long discussion about this, 2 years ago. Did we forget? (No, it was just Oleg said he agreed, but ignored it and patched his own stuff "secretly" sans any explanation or discussion).
- linux-dtb: has DTs in /boot (as expected by "most" Armbian families, using u-boot and bootscripts, also the armbian-install, config, overlays, etc).
Either way, we can definitely accommodate this "single pkg" need, but I'd like to do it in a way that is 1) comprehensible 2) usable by more families than just one 3) not a maintenance nightmare, eg, NOT double-patching. I don't think that is unreasonable.
So if we could spell out what is the need, it would be easier... again: let's work together. we've 2 months to figure out stuff before release.
I understand now that it seems that I just blindly changed the way `media` works and am crazy... might even be true, but, we can fix, and would already have fixed if more engineer talk and less drama. IMHO.
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SteeMan got a reaction from ochentay4 in Booted Armbian on MXQ Pro 4K S905 GXBB P201, now I cant boot anything else
This is expected behavior. Each distribution is modifying the boot environment in different incompatible ways. That is why the install instructions (https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17106-installation-instructions-for-tv-boxes-with-amlogic-cpus) say if you have tried to install other distributions, you will need to restore to a clean android firmware before installing armbian.
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SteeMan got a reaction from Werner in Artifact cache supresses KERNEL_CONFIGURE
I'm pretty sure this is a bug and I have logged it as such: https://github.com/armbian/build/issues/4905
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SteeMan got a reaction from tuanna in Armbian on Android TV box Tx3 mini (4GB 32GB) only recognized 1GB RAM and 6GB ROM!
First question I have is what build did you install (name of file) from where (where did you download from) and what instructions are you using?
Second point, it if you have a tx3 mini, that is using the s905w cpu, that CPU only supports 2GB of ram. So something doesn't make sense. Why do you think you have 4GB ram?
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SteeMan got a reaction from jock in wifi stops working after some time
@desperex You would have to ask Orange PI that question, as that is their name for their board.
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SteeMan got a reaction from jock in wifi stops working after some time
@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)
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SteeMan got a reaction from Elienar in Rock64: OS Will not transfer to eMMC Card from SD after installation
Did you remove the SD card after the copy to emmc? I suspect the boot order is SD first, then mmc and based on your post, if it is still booting to sd that would imply you have an sd card inserted for it to boot from.
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SteeMan got a reaction from BigZero in Here is some hopes for H616 tv Box
This post is not Armbian related and therefore off topic. However since the information is generic others might find it useful so the post is being allowed, in the hopes that someone would pick up this work and bring it into the Armbian fold. Any volunteers ?
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SteeMan got a reaction from Igor in Armbian 23.02 (Quoll) Testings
I tested the 23.02.1 aml-s9xx-box builds against all the amlogic TV boxes I have and they worked as expected.
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SteeMan got a reaction from Wizzard in T95Z Plus Issues
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.
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SteeMan got a reaction from Armate in Missing bluetooth driver for RTL8761
Have you tried installing armbian-firmware-full?
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SteeMan got a reaction from TRS-80 in how to change kernel amlogic tvbox
You are not using Armbian. You have downloaded software from a site that is a fork of Armbian and uses the Armbian name without permission. They do not participate in Armbian development, nor do they participate in these forums. We can't help you here as we don't produce the code you are running. You need to log your question with those you downloaded your software from.
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SteeMan got a reaction from stut in Help with recovering ABOX s905w
If your emmc is not working, I don't think you can. My understanding is that these amlogic boxes basically are hard coded to look for uboot on emmc. That is why the aml-s9xx-box builds use the emmc uboot to then chain load the distribution from sd/usb/etc. It is always using the emmc uboot initially. If your emmc is working, you should use recovery to reinstall the android uboot and then you could move on from there. But in your case you have already tried that, and it didn't work (likely indicating that your emmc is not working). Based on your comments, it sounds like you have previously reinstalled the android firmware, so you know that process used to work (the reason I am stating this, is that sometimes different boards/firmware combinations require specific versions of the amlogic burning tool)
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SteeMan got a reaction from stut in Help with recovering ABOX s905w
Another factor is that at least as far as the armbian builds go, there is no uboot suitable for your box available. It isn't feasible/possible to build uboots for the hundreds of different tv box hardware configurations out there (and the tv box manufacturers don't release their source for their android uboots), so the uboot on the armbian build sd card is basically just a place holder (generic uboot that 100% is guaranteed not to work for your box). The whole armbian amlogic tv box strategy is to use the uboot that comes with the tv box on emmc. So if you are trying to get something working from sd, it isn't going to be armbian unless you can get your emmc working again.
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SteeMan got a reaction from schwar3kat in armbianEnv.txt should be loaded when booted?
I would recommend that you first start with a pre-built image (https://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-pc) Then if you want use the armbian build system (https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Build-Preparation/)
Then you might be able to track down why the Debos isn't working as you think it should.
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SteeMan got a reaction from hotnikq in Efforts to develop firmware for H96 MAX V56 RK3566 4G/32G
@chinhhut The site you posted a link to, is a fork of Armbian, but continues to use the Armbian name without permission. This causes users to think they are using official Armbian when they are not, causing people to come here for support.
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SteeMan got a reaction from Mario663 in MXQ Pro Armbian 5.88 problem startup!
No, the only output is to the screen