fevangelou

For anyone looking for simple instructions to install the official Armbian image for "H96 Max V56" (as of August 30th, 2025) using a Linux PC (e.g. Ubuntu Desktop 24.04): 1. Install the "rkdeveloptool" tool first, as instructed in: https://docs.radxa.com/en/zero/zero3/low-level-dev/rkdeveloptool?host-os=debian sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev dh-autoreconf pkg-config libusb-1.0 build-essential git wget git clone https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool cd rkdeveloptool autoreconf -i ./configure make -j $(nproc) sudo cp rkdeveloptool /usr/local/sbin/ At the time of writing, this installed version 1.32. If you installed "rkdeveloptool" from Ubuntu's repos, it would install version 1.0 which may work, but let's be on the safe side here... 2. Connect and boot the device to loader/maskrom mode 2.1 While pressing the reset button (back/right) with a pin, connect the USB 2.0 port (back/left) and the power cable. Gotta be careful here not to miss the reset button pressing while connecting the cables. 2.2 Use the rkdeveloptool tool to identify the device and the mode it is on ("loader" or "maskrom"). $ rkdeveloptool ld ...should show the connected device if point 2.1 was successful - e.g. on my 8GB RAM device it printed this: DevNo=1 Vid=0x2207,Pid=0x350a,LocationID=304 Loader Or after I had already flashed Armbian, it would show: DevNo=1 Vid=0x2207,Pid=0x350a,LocationID=304 Maskrom (If you installed "rkdeveloptool" from Ubuntu's repo, the command is "rkdeveloptool list" if I recall correctly - every other "rkdeveloptool" command following though is the same) Now grab the latest release of Armbian for this device. At the time of writing it was: https://github.com/armbian/community/releases/download/25.11.0-trunk.106/Armbian_community_25.11.0-trunk.106_H96-tvbox-3566_bookworm_current_6.12.44_minimal.img.xz (the name of the device is on the filename) Extract the included .img file with (sudo apt install xz-tools): $ unxz Armbian_community_25.11.0-trunk.106_H96-tvbox-3566_bookworm_current_6.12.44_minimal.img.xz 2.2.1 If in "loader" mode (see the last part of the command's output above), simply flash Armbian directly. E.g. $ sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0x0 Armbian_community_25.11.0-trunk.106_H96-tvbox-3566_bookworm_current_6.12.44_minimal.img (if you attempt to flash the attached bootloaders, you'll get a "device not supported" error - Armbian already contains a bootloader) 2.2.2 If in "maskrom" mode (e.g. if you are re-flashing Armbian), flash the bootloader first: # For the 8GB RAM device use the attached (in this post) H96-MAX-8gb-MiniLoaderAll.bin file $ sudo rkdeveloptool db H96-MAX-8gb-MiniLoaderAll.bin # For the 4GB RAM device use the attached (in this post) H96-MAX-4gb-MiniLoaderAll.bin file $ sudo rkdeveloptool db H96-MAX-4gb-MiniLoaderAll.bin ...and then re-flash Armbian as you did the first time: $ sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0x0 Armbian_community_25.11.0-trunk.106_H96-tvbox-3566_bookworm_current_6.12.44_minimal.img 2.3 Reboot the device with: $ sudo rkdeveloptool rd Done! If all goes well, once you reboot the device you will be asked to set a root password and optionally a sudo user. Rebooting afterwards you should now be greeted with: _ _ _ _ _ /_\ _ _ _ __ | |__(_)__ _ _ _ __ ___ _ __ _ __ _ _ _ _ (_) |_ _ _ / _ \| '_| ' \| '_ \ / _` | ' \ / _/ _ \ ' \| ' \ || | ' \| | _| || | /_/ \_\_| |_|_|_|_.__/_\__,_|_||_|_\__\___/_|_|_|_|_|_\_,_|_||_|_|\__|\_, | |___| |__/ v25.11 rolling for h96-tvbox-3566 running Armbian Linux 6.12.44-current-rockchip64 Packages: Debian stable (bookworm), possible distro upgrade (trixie) Updates: Kernel upgrade enabled and 2 packages available for upgrade Support: for advanced users (rolling release) IPv4: (LAN) 192.168.1.10 (WAN) 1.2.3.4 Performance: Load: 3% Uptime: 2 min Memory usage: 2% of 7.50G CPU temp: 40°C Usage of /: 3% of 57G Commands: Configuration : armbian-config Upgrade : armbian-upgrade Monitoring : htop Last login: Sat Aug 30 12:47:54 2025 Key points: - If you do this the first time, it's obviously a matter of just flashing the latest Armbian image directly. - You don't need to open the device or compile Armbian. - It's simpler than 2 years ago when I bought the device thanks to people like @Hqnicolas (muito obrigado Nicolas!) H96-MAX-4gb-MiniLoaderAll.bin H96-MAX-8gb-MiniLoaderAll.bin

Got it. Thank you.

Thank you. One my Amlogix S905X devices has the balbes150 Armbian build (originally Ubuntu 20.10 with his custom kernel) but updated to Jammy 22.04 latest. $ cat /etc/armbian-release # PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE BOARD=arm-64 BOARD_NAME="ARM-64" BOARDFAMILY=arm-64 BUILD_REPOSITORY_URL=https://github.com/150balbes/Build-Armbian.git BUILD_REPOSITORY_COMMIT=62b8c07-dirty DISTRIBUTION_CODENAME=focal DISTRIBUTION_STATUS=supported VERSION=20.10 LINUXFAMILY=arm-64 BRANCH=current ARCH=arm64 IMAGE_TYPE=user-built BOARD_TYPE=conf INITRD_ARCH=arm64 KERNEL_IMAGE_TYPE=Image Using armbian-config I believe I've updated anything that could be updated under System/Firmware & Software/Full (Install full firmware package). The option to switch kernels under System yields no additional options obviously. Is there any chance of upgrading its kernel to the latest supported by the Armbian community builds for these Amlogic devices? E.g. by adding some repo? UPDATE 1: The Ubuntu & Armbian repos are set to the jammy channel already. It's a minimal setup so no other repos are present.

Is there a path to upgrading the kernel? E.g. pull it from the up-to-date .img files or something? Thank you.