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