Energokom

Therefore, if you do not need GPIOs, it is better to buy a mini PC than an SBC. People buy TV boxes for Linux precisely because of the cheapness. Few people need SBCs. Most people need a small device in a box for a minimal price. Why buy a banana pi M5 pro for $ 195, which will stop support in a few years, when you can buy x86 mini PC with this money and not know the problems with support?
 
Can you name the reasons why it is worth buying an SBC instead of a mini PC?

@Hqnicolas Take a chill pill dude. I am not trying to prove/disprove anything.
I am simply suggesting that the board may indeed be of 8/64 config. Sometimes, due to screwed up u-boot, not all the RAM is reported correctly. And here, I can see that adding up the memory (3.8) and zram (1.9), it comes to around 6GB. Hence, I suspect the memory is still there, it's just not reported correctly because of the zram/swap thing. Removing the swap/zram completely may indeed show it to be 8GB.
 
On your note of TV boxes being unreliable, I never refuted your claim. I agree about the unreliability. At the same time, I own two of these x88 pro20 boxes (8/128 and 4/32) and looking at the chips and the markings on the board, I have certain confidence that it would be an 8/64 indeed.
And, I own a total of 4 tv boxes, and a total of 4 sbcs (2 raspberry pis, one orange pi 5 plus, 1 starfive vision V 2), so I know what to expect and how wild things are out in the tv box world.
 
I am sure you also know better than to claim to be the final authority on declaring all tv boxes as "unreliable"
 

@Hqnicolas very thanks for your help.
Anyway im so happy with my 25€ expense.
It comes with 4g of ddr4. rk3566 , Gigabyte Lan, Dual wifi, 64gb emmc, display, usb3 port, and including a beautiful box, remote and power suply.

How much cost the same from a partner board?

I overclocked the CPU to 1.4MHZ using the voltage 0x1437c8, governor = conservative.
opp-1200000000 { opp-hz = <0x00 0x47868c00>; opp-microvolt = <0x13d620>; clock-latency-ns = <0x9c40>; status = "okay"; }; opp-1296000000 { opp-hz = <0x00 0x4d3f6400>; opp-microvolt = <0x137478>; clock-latency-ns = <0x9c40>; status = "okay"; }; opp-1392000000 { opp-hz = <0x00 0x52f83c00>; opp-microvolt = <0x1437c8>; clock-latency-ns = <0x9c40>; status = "okay"; }; The system has been working steadily for several hours and the browser is working faster.
Earlier I tried to overclock to 1.4 using the voltage 0x1312d0, but the system received errors almost immediately as soon as I started the browser.
My DDR is still 533MHZ. I want to raise the frequency to 600 - 660MHZ.
As I said earlier, I use a radiator with a fan
 
Just in case, a photo test point for RK3318 v.1.4 to launch a TV box in the maskrom mode

you're comparing 20USD android tv box with a 60USD rpi4/4go or a 300USD with ram intel nuc. That's not comparable, sorry

This issue should now be fixed.  The s905x2 and s905x3 chain loaded u-boot has been updated to address the issue introduced with 23.02 and later builds.  Any build after 2023/01/31 should incorporate the fix (so the current community builds as of today have the fix) and this will appear in the 24.02 release builds.

I compiled the rk3528 linux image from the rk3588 linux sdk ，Rockchip's official linux sdk image can be burned to emmc using factorytool.  I've only compiled the base linux firmware, I'm still learning how to modify and debug the rest.

In fact, this is a good TV box for porting linux. Almost all the work has already been done. Video acceleration is working, cvbs is working. USB 3.0 and 2.0 are working. While there are problems with HDMI, you need to turn on the TV or monitor only after U-boot has started. And there is a problem with porting the OS to emmc.
 
TV boxes are in high demand than SBC: they are cheaper, already with a case and a power supply, an HDMI cable, and a remote control.
 
I always advise buying a TV box instead of an SBC. In addition, more and more SBC remain without armbian support.

My TV box freezes on the frequency 667. Until they make a u-boot with stable operation at 667MHz, it will not work well. If you need a frequency of 800MHz, you need to take a u-boot from android

With a DDR memory frequency of 533 MHz, I have no problems with LAN
 
I am using a script to create idbloader.img
../mkimage -n rk3328 -T rksd -d "rk3318_ddr_333Mhz_v1.16.bin" idbloader.img
cat "rk3328_miniloader_v2.50.bin" >> idbloader.img
 
My idbloader.img does not work with Armbian images (kernel update 5.19.15 and libreelec). But, with your other images, my idbloader.img works.
So I'm trying to ask you, maybe you used DDR_v1.19.bin?
 
My RAM = D9PQL 
Operating frequencies and memory timings:
800 MHZ (11-11-11-28) / 39-208-5-12-6-6-24
761 MHZ (10-10-10-27) / 37-199-5-12-6-6-23
685 MHZ (9-9-9-24) / 33-179-5-11-6-6-21
609 MHZ (8-8-8-22) / 30-159-4-10-5-5-19
533 MHZ (7-7-7-19) / 26-139-4-8-4-4-16 - At this frequency 533 MHZ, my TV box is now working flawlessly
457 MHZ (6-6-6-16) / 22-119-3-7-4-4-14
380 MHZ (5-5-5-14) / 19-100-3-6-3-3-12
 
 

I created idbloader666.img , but my TV box RK3188 freezes literally a couple of minutes after loading with a frequency of 666MHz idbloader666.img
At a frequency of DDR 333MHZ, it works for months.
 
Using the HEX editor, I created rk3318_ddr_400Mhz_v1.16.bin and collected idbloader400.img with a DDR frequency of 400MHZ.idbloader400.img
The CPU operates at a frequency of 1.3 MHZ - it has been working stably for an hour.
Now I have launched memtester 512M
 
After a successful memory test, I continued experimenting with the HEX editor and increased the DDR frequency to 533MHZ and my TV Box started
Now I'm restarting the memory test
 
idbloader533.img

No. Only linux or android

Welcome to the world of Armbian on TV Boxes!
 
TV Boxes are not officially supported by the Armbian project.  This "TV Box" sub forum is for users interested in experimenting with Armbian on TV Boxes.
 
Overall you will be best served if you set your expectations low as to what you might be able to accomplish with your TV Box and Armbian.  Specifically you should think of your TV Box as a potential linux server - *not* as a desktop replacement.
 
Feel free to post and ask questions in the TV Box forums if you are interested.  But realize this is a peer-to-peer forum so you may or may not get an answer.  Don't expect or demand support as there are only a handful of people that participate in these forums and they are all donating their time.
 
Search is your friend.  There is a lot of historic information stored on this site.  Your question has likely already been asked previously.  However, a lot has changed over time and therefore be prepared for a lot of the information you find by searching the forums to be outdated and in some cases just plain wrong.  Even though that may be the case, please search the forums first before posting a question.  It shows you are willing to invest the time to do your part and makes those of us who volunteer our time to answering questions more likely to want to help you.
 
 
Amlogic (S9xx) based TV Boxes
1. There is a community build for Amlogic based s9xx TV Boxes - The key being community - so please contribute to make improvements
2. A single developer (@balbes150) had worked years on getting things to the state they are.
3. As of October 14th, 2020 balbes150 removed support for Amlogic CPUs, so that is the last active build from him
4. Expectations should be set low (i.e. don't expect anything to work) but if you do get the box to boot, get HDMI and wired ethernet to work, you are doing good.
5. You really shouldn't expect things like Wi-Fi, bluetooth, remote control, etc. to work.
6. There is a very small number of people on this forum/club that are able to provide any guidance.
7. Most likely no one on this forum owns your specific box and therefore generally can only provide vague guideance.
8. If you get this working on your box, it will likely only be useful for server type tasks, maybe a little light graphical desktop usage, but do not expect video playback, etc.
 
RockChip (rk3399, rk3328, rk3288, rk3228, etc) based TV Boxes
These are probably the best supported TV boxes currently.  They have the most active developers.  Feel free to post in the Rockchip TV Box sub forums your questions.
 
Allwinner (H6, H616, H313) based TV Boxes
There is no ongoing effort to support Allwinner based boxes.  Occasionally a developer will respond to a question, but in general if this is what you have, you will be expected to do a lot of work on your own, so you better be comfortable doing development for these type of boards.  You aren't likely to find anything that you can just install and have work.
 
Other Comments
The official recommendation from the Armbian project would be to not use TV Boxes and use officially supported SBCs. Taking this approach will likely result in an easier time, less hassle, better support and likely a more fully functioning device.
 
There are reasons you may choose to want to use unsupported Armbian on TV boxes, for example here are some of my ( @SteeMan ) reasons:
 
1) It is a challenge and therefore a learning opportunity.  I would never have learnt to build my own linux kernels from source if I was still exclusively using x86 hardware.  If you want a challenge you will find it here.
 
2) Price vs specs.  The Android TV boxes are built to be cheap consumer devices.  They are produced in larger quantities which drives down the per unit price.  You will generally not be able to get the same level of hardware for the same price with a standard SBC.  But that cheapness comes with - no support by the manufacturers and potentially sub-standard components.  If the manufacturers goal is to sell the lowest price box they are likely cutting corners somewhere to make that happen.
 
3) emmc is standard.  TV boxes always come with internal storage while most SBCs do not.  Again from a price/performance standpoint having internal emmc storage vs running off an SD card is a plus.  emmc storage *should* be faster and more durable than storage on an sd card.  The caveats here being that this is one of the areas that the manufacturers may cut corners.  For example I have two TX3 mini boxes that are supposed to have 16GB of emmc memory (like the other TX3 mini boxes I have), but they were instead manufactured with cheaper nand memory for which there is no mainline kernel support.  There is no visible difference between the identically packaged boxes that had emmc vs those that came with nand, other than opening the case and looking at the physical chips on the boards.
 
4) cases come standard.  TV boxes always come with cases, whereas for SBCs that is an extra cost.  For my uses having a case is a big improvement vs not having one.  A downside if that these cases are not necessarily well designed to provide adequate cooling.  So depending on your use case, overheating might be a problem.
 
5) While I own both SBCs and TV boxes, I personally find the TV boxes work best for my needs (running server based software) and I enjoy the challenge of getting them running and keeping them running with the great underlying work that the Armbian project is doing to build on top of.
 
If you have the correct expectations (set your expectations low) are looking to learn and are up for a challenge these are fun things to work with.  And I look forward to working with you on these forums.
 
 

I overclocked the CPU to 1.4MHZ using the voltage 0x1437c8, governor = conservative.
opp-1200000000 { opp-hz = <0x00 0x47868c00>; opp-microvolt = <0x13d620>; clock-latency-ns = <0x9c40>; status = "okay"; }; opp-1296000000 { opp-hz = <0x00 0x4d3f6400>; opp-microvolt = <0x137478>; clock-latency-ns = <0x9c40>; status = "okay"; }; opp-1392000000 { opp-hz = <0x00 0x52f83c00>; opp-microvolt = <0x1437c8>; clock-latency-ns = <0x9c40>; status = "okay"; }; The system has been working steadily for several hours and the browser is working faster.
Earlier I tried to overclock to 1.4 using the voltage 0x1312d0, but the system received errors almost immediately as soon as I started the browser.
My DDR is still 533MHZ. I want to raise the frequency to 600 - 660MHZ.
As I said earlier, I use a radiator with a fan
 
Just in case, a photo test point for RK3318 v.1.4 to launch a TV box in the maskrom mode

I created idbloader666.img , but my TV box RK3188 freezes literally a couple of minutes after loading with a frequency of 666MHz idbloader666.img
At a frequency of DDR 333MHZ, it works for months.
 
Using the HEX editor, I created rk3318_ddr_400Mhz_v1.16.bin and collected idbloader400.img with a DDR frequency of 400MHZ.idbloader400.img
The CPU operates at a frequency of 1.3 MHZ - it has been working stably for an hour.
Now I have launched memtester 512M
 
After a successful memory test, I continued experimenting with the HEX editor and increased the DDR frequency to 533MHZ and my TV Box started
Now I'm restarting the memory test
 
idbloader533.img

Nope, every board and every memory chip have their flaws, so you have to take your chances.
 
Why? Of course not.
Perhaps you may need to increase the vdd_log voltage, which drives the memory controller, but don't expect great results... As you see, the board does not even arrive at booting the kernel when the wrong frequency is chosen, so the problem here is before the kernel takes control when tinkering with boot frequencies.
What I have seen is that, when the memory controller driver is engaged, it is perfectly able to reach 800Mhz on board that can't even boot at 660Mhz, so something is still missing in the equation.

I overclocked the CPU to 1.4MHZ using the voltage 0x1437c8, governor = conservative.
opp-1200000000 { opp-hz = <0x00 0x47868c00>; opp-microvolt = <0x13d620>; clock-latency-ns = <0x9c40>; status = "okay"; }; opp-1296000000 { opp-hz = <0x00 0x4d3f6400>; opp-microvolt = <0x137478>; clock-latency-ns = <0x9c40>; status = "okay"; }; opp-1392000000 { opp-hz = <0x00 0x52f83c00>; opp-microvolt = <0x1437c8>; clock-latency-ns = <0x9c40>; status = "okay"; }; The system has been working steadily for several hours and the browser is working faster.
Earlier I tried to overclock to 1.4 using the voltage 0x1312d0, but the system received errors almost immediately as soon as I started the browser.
My DDR is still 533MHZ. I want to raise the frequency to 600 - 660MHZ.
As I said earlier, I use a radiator with a fan
 
Just in case, a photo test point for RK3318 v.1.4 to launch a TV box in the maskrom mode

I overclocked the CPU to 1.4MHZ using the voltage 0x1437c8, governor = conservative.
opp-1200000000 { opp-hz = <0x00 0x47868c00>; opp-microvolt = <0x13d620>; clock-latency-ns = <0x9c40>; status = "okay"; }; opp-1296000000 { opp-hz = <0x00 0x4d3f6400>; opp-microvolt = <0x137478>; clock-latency-ns = <0x9c40>; status = "okay"; }; opp-1392000000 { opp-hz = <0x00 0x52f83c00>; opp-microvolt = <0x1437c8>; clock-latency-ns = <0x9c40>; status = "okay"; }; The system has been working steadily for several hours and the browser is working faster.
Earlier I tried to overclock to 1.4 using the voltage 0x1312d0, but the system received errors almost immediately as soon as I started the browser.
My DDR is still 533MHZ. I want to raise the frequency to 600 - 660MHZ.
As I said earlier, I use a radiator with a fan
 
Just in case, a photo test point for RK3318 v.1.4 to launch a TV box in the maskrom mode

I created idbloader666.img , but my TV box RK3188 freezes literally a couple of minutes after loading with a frequency of 666MHz idbloader666.img
At a frequency of DDR 333MHZ, it works for months.
 
Using the HEX editor, I created rk3318_ddr_400Mhz_v1.16.bin and collected idbloader400.img with a DDR frequency of 400MHZ.idbloader400.img
The CPU operates at a frequency of 1.3 MHZ - it has been working stably for an hour.
Now I have launched memtester 512M
 
After a successful memory test, I continued experimenting with the HEX editor and increased the DDR frequency to 533MHZ and my TV Box started
Now I'm restarting the memory test
 
idbloader533.img

I do not know, my  HK1box-LAN100m.dtb has been included in the new armbian builds.
 
If there is no my dtb, then you can use meson-sm1-tx3-bz.dtb or meson-sm1-x96-air.dtb
So that the multiloader finds u-boot on emmc, you may have to flash the stock android firmware to a later one
 
Or use this option: rename u-boot-tx3-bz.bin to u-boot.ext (But when you turn on the TV Box, there will be a colored grid, then an orange background and only then a normal black background and loading)
 
The problem is that there is no u-boot.bin for our TV box, which would allow you to boot normally from an SD card. It's best to fix u-boot-tx3-bz.bin
 
I found a solution for myself, built the kernel on 5.15.89 and used the old rootfs armbian desktop
And armbian desktop it works load with my SD card, as well as wi-fi and bluetooth, everything suits me, so I stopped working on creating u-boot.bin
 

i fixed meson-sm1-hk1box-vontar-x3.dtb for hk1box-LAN100m
I'm cleaning up the ethernet@ff3f0000 - everything related to the  external chip:
ethernet@ff3f0000 { compatible = "amlogic,meson-g12a-dwmac\0snps,dwmac-3.70a\0snps,dwmac"; reg = <0x00 0xff3f0000 0x00 0x10000 0x00 0xff634540 0x00 0x08>; interrupts = <0x00 0x08 0x04>; interrupt-names = "macirq"; clocks = <0x02 0x26 0x02 0x02 0x02 0x0d 0x02 0x02>; clock-names = "stmmaceth\0clkin0\0clkin1\0timing-adjustment"; rx-fifo-depth = <0x1000>; tx-fifo-depth = <0x800>; status = "okay"; power-domains = <0x03 0x06>; pinctrl-0 = <0x11 0x12>; pinctrl-names = "default"; phy-handle = <0xe4>; #(there was a link at <0x13> to the external chip) phy-mode = "rmii"; # I remove the letter "g" since we have 100 M/s nvmem-cells = <0x14>; nvmem-cell-names = "eth_mac"; phandle = <0x5f>; mdio { #address-cells = <0x01>; #size-cells = <0x00>; compatible = "snps,dwmac-mdio"; phandle = <0x1d>; }; };  
Here we also remove the  external ethernet chip
mdio@0 { reg = <0x00>; #address-cells = <0x01>; #size-cells = <0x00>; phandle = <0xe2>; #ethernet-phy@0 { # reg = <0x00>; # max-speed = <0x3e8>; # reset-assert-us = <0x7530>; #reset-deassert-us = <0x13880>; #reset-gpios = <0x1e 0x0f 0x07>; #interrupt-parent = <0x1f>; #interrupts = <0x1a 0x08>; #phandle = <0x13>; - In the code above there was a link to here to the external chip ethernet #}; }; mdio@1 { reg = <0x01>; #address-cells = <0x01>; #size-cells = <0x00>; phandle = <0xe3>; ethernet_phy@8 { compatible = "ethernet-phy-id0180.3301\0ethernet-phy-ieee802.3-c22"; interrupts = <0x00 0x09 0x04>; reg = <0x08>; max-speed = <0x64>; phandle = <0xe4>; - # in the code above, I changed the link to this part internal ethernet }; };  
You can check my DTB and add for HK1box-LAN100m to the armbian build
meson-sm1-hk1box.dtb.zip

The main rule of any forum: if you haven't paid the money, no one owes you anything. They may or may not help you. (Don't be surprised by this)
No one should waste time on you. How much did you spend your time and effort to help this armbian community or someone on this forum? I would understand your surprise "what is this forum for" if you would have invested a lot of effort in this forum in its development - and you would not have received anything in return.
 
You were given the right remark: why do you need linux, especially on TV box, if you don't know how to use linux.
 
The second rule: you can ask for support of the device - to the person from whom you bought it or the manufacturer.
 
If you bought an armbian product, you can request support from ambian. If you didn't pay armbian, then the community and the forum don't owe you anything. You can only ask and hope that someone will agree to spend their time for free on you. (Don't be surprised if that doesn't happen)

Balbes has stopped supporting the s905x3. We will need to compile it ourselves.
 
Who would like to compile it with me? Is anyone interested? Can I have a show of hands?