tgillett

@well83 Thank you for that u-boot file - the device now boots up into the Armbian login page. Once I replaced the login credentials, the system runs as expected. Many thanks for your help. It does beg the question though, where did this particular uboot file come from, and more generally what is the process for producing u-boot files? Once again, many thanks for your help.

@well83 The device I have is labelled A95X-F3-Air and it operates happily on the earlier Armbian firmware using uboot-s905x2-s922 file and /dtb/amlogic/meson-sm1-a95xf3-air.dtb Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1n6CZa582uJECV3lzQDtFbmbyvmOSiUSg Filename: Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_bullseye_current_5.9.0_desktop.img.xz So I am reasonably confident that all the components are ok. I went through the process as you outlined for installing 6.1.11: 1. Downloaded version 6.1.11 from here: https://mirror-us-phx1.armbian.airframes.io/dl/aml-s9xx-box/archive/ ( filename is Armbian_23.02.2_Aml-s9xx-box_bullseye_current_6.1.11_xfce_desktop.img.xz), and checked the sha256sum out all ok. 2. Edit the /extlinux/extlinux.conf file as follows: LABEL Armbian LINUX /uImage INITRD /uInitrd #FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxl-s905x-p212.dtb #FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxl-s905w-tx3-mini.dtb #FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-sm1-a95xf3-air-gbit.dtb FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-sm1-a95xf3-air.dtb append root=UUID=505123a0-7aa3-403f-b86b-27e32bc39aef rootflags=data=writeback console=ttyAML0,115200n8 console=tty0 rw no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0 splash plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles 3. I then copied the uboot file uboot-s905x2-s922 to u-boot.ext 4. Safely removed the SD card and installed on the A95X device. 5. Powerup sends a screen signal to the monitor as shown by the calibration LED, but otherwise a blank screen. I feel I am missing some basic step, but I can't see what it it. Any suggestion s appreciated.

Thanks, I will try that and see if I can make any progress and let you know.

@well83 The bad news is that I have not been able to get any of the three firmware versions to run on my two types of S905 based hardware. One device is labelled "A95X-F3-AIR" and is based on S905X3, and the other is labelled "D905" and is based on S905. Outlined for info below are the steps I have used to successfully get older firmware running on both devices. You will note that the version of Armbian (20.10) is quite old so I am keen to update. I am particularly interested initially in your success with 6.11.1 and trying to replicate that as a starting point. Apart from downloading the firmware and burning it to SD card to create the "armi-boot" and "armbi_root" partitions, would you be able to tell me of any changes you had to make to the uboot.ext file, and the /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf file, FDT and any other files to make it work on your device please? Many thanks in advance for your help. Regards 1. Tutorial Web Page https://i12bretro.github.io/tutorials/0269.html 2. Armbian Firmware Download (link from tutorial page) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1n6CZa582uJECV3lzQDtFbmbyvmOSiUSg Filename: Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_bullseye_current_5.9.0_desktop.img.xz 3. Edit /BOOT/extlinux/extlinux.conf: LABEL Armbian LINUX /zImage INITRD /uInitrd FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxl-s905x-p212.dtb # Use this line for S905X e.g. "D905" #FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-sm1-a95xf3-air.dtb # Use this line for 905X3 e.g. "A95X-F3-AIR" APPEND root=LABEL=ROOTFS rootflags=data=writeback rw console=ttyAML0,115200n8 console=tty0 no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0 4. Copy correct u-boot file. Copy "/boot/u-boot-s905x" to "/boot/u-boot.ext" for S905X device Or Copy "/boot/u-boot-s905x2" to "/boot/u-boot.ext" for S905X3 device 5. Install SD card in target device, install keyboard, mouse and HDMI monitor and power up.

@well83 Would you be able to post links to allow me to download the three different versions of the firmware you have mentioned please (6.1.30, 6.6.3 and 6.1.11 )? That way I can attempt to replicate your test exactly to see what is going on, Thanks

I am sure there are many ways to brick a TV box, so never say never... That said, the idea here is that you just boot Armbian / Debian from the SD card, leaving the contents of the internal eMMC memory (ie the Android TV Box code) unchanged. This means that if you remove the SD card and power up the device, it will boot into the Android code. I have several S905x3 boxes that I run routinely as headless classroom micro-servers with Armbian installed on the SD card without any issues. They always revert to Android if I boot without the SD card. If you decide to go further and install Armbian to eMMC (assuming you have suitable hardware for this) then please read Steeman's notes about this in his original post above. Worst case scenario, if you do somehow mess up the eMMC, then you can use the Amlogic tools to re-install the original code. T

From what you have posted, I can't tell which Amlogic CPU your device actually has. Do you have any additional information which would identify the CPU e.g. as: S905 S905W, D, L S905X S905X2 S905X3

Just for the record... The image file I used to get my S905X3 box running was from this tutorial: https://i12bretro.github.io/tutorials/0269.html which references this site for the image file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1n6CZa582uJECV3lzQDtFbmbyvmOSiUSg The file is: Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_bullseye_current_5.9.0_desktop.img.xz I used the dtb file "meson-sm1-a95xf3-air.dtb" from the Stable image referenced in SteeMans post. This at least gets the board running and allows for an upgrade to the Debian Bullseye operating system using the apt-get command. I can't get the current Stable images from the site referred to in SteeMans post here to work: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17106-installation-instructions-for-tv-boxes-with-amlogic-cpus/ Also the SHA checksums for these files don't seem to agree with the published value, so it may be there is some problem... I hope this helps.

Success! I used an SD card that was set up and working in a S905 based device, using an earlier version of Armbian. I added the new dtd file (/dtb/amlogic/meson-sm1-a95xf3-air.dtb) and adjusted extlinux.conf accordingly. I copied u-boot-s905x2-s922 to u-boot-ext. Then I did the toothpick boot thing and held it for around 30 secs (not sure if this duration had any specific effect). After releasing the boot switch, the boot process started and it ended up running just like the previous S905 device. I then went back and tried again with the stable build that @SteeMan referenced, but that failed. So there seems to be some outstanding issue that needs a bit more time and testing to sort out. But at least now I know the dtb and u-boot files are ok so it is easier to try out other things. I have to say that the S905X3 processor handles the workload (Kolibri application) with much less effort than the previous S905 device. Hope this helps.

HI I have just received the same type of device and started trying to install the Armbian firmware. I have followed the steps in SteeMans post here: The steps I have taken are listed below. I am using the "toothpick" method to power up with the boot switch depressed, then releasing after a few seconds. (How long should it be??) But no luck. Obviously someone has done this before since there is a dtb file specifically for this device, so I think I am missing some step along the way. I have installed Armbian on a S2905 device previously, but not the S2905X3 which is used in this device. Other than finding some problem with my installation process, the only alternative would seem to be just trying out all the dtb files in turn. But that sounds dubious in the face of there being a specific dtb file for the device. Any comments, advice or suggestions would be very welcome. Thanks in advance. -------------------------------------------------- Installation 1. Download firmware: Stable Builds: https://redirect.armbian.com/aml-s9xx-box/archive 2. Burn the firmware to SD card with Etcher 3. Edit the armbi-boot /extlinux/extlinux.conf file to point to the appropriate dtb file: LABEL Armbian LINUX /uImage INITRD /uInitrd FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-sm1-a95xf3-air.dtb append root=UUID=afbf3a1b-d905-4b27-b78a-3682d3db0dca rootflags=data=writeback console=ttyAML0,115200n8 console=tty0 rw no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0 splash plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles 4. Copy armbi-boot /u-boot-s905x2-s922 to /u-boot.ext 5. Install the SD card and attempt to boot

@Werner Thanks.

@Werner Thanks. I have updated my master and built new images for the CubieTruck and for OPi PC+. The new CT image worked but not the OPi PC+ image. Is it possible that the fix has not been applied to OPi PC+ / H3 as yet, or is the fix inherently common to all Allwinner 32bit devices?

I have tried the image for Buster from the Download page for OrangePi PC Plus, and also built new images from current Git repo. In all cases the device bootloops when it tries to start the kernel. The image from the OrangePi website works ok. This looks like a similar issue as experienced recently with CubieTruck and BananaPi A20 boards (https://armbian.atlassian.net/browse/AR-749) which was fixed with a workaround (https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/2963) Is it possibly the same / similar underlying problem?

I updated my build environment and made a new build for CubieTruck using Buster minimal. Booted the board multiple times and works every time. Thanks for your help.

Hi Igor Thanks for the update. I would like to test this solution on CubieTruck board. What do I need to do to get an updated image please? Thanks Terry