calusbr

I’m using the DEVMFC version [https://github.com/devmfc/debian-on-amlogic]. Additionally, I took the `/boot` partition and copied all the files from the Devmfc_Ubuntu-Oracular_6.12.11-meson64_Minimal-25.01.24.img.xz image. Then, I downloaded the same version available from the Armbian community, but with a graphical interface: Armbian_community_25.5.0-trunk.4_Aml-s9xx-box_noble_current_6.12.12_xfce_desktop.img.xz.
 
I first flashed the Armbian image onto a USB drive. Then, in the `/boot` partition, I moved all existing root files into a `/backup` folder. After that, I copied the files from the DEVMFC version into the root of the `/boot` partition on the USB drive.
 
Surprisingly, when I tried to boot this setup on a TV Box similar to the Vontar X4, which has an S905X4 processor, it actually booted! It prompted me to create a root password, a regular user, set the language, and select a time zone. Then, it successfully launched into X for the graphical interface. However, it seems that USB ports were either disabled, or the system froze—the login screen was visible, and the keyboard cursor was blinking, but no input was possible.
 
I believe this is a solid starting point for getting Armbian images with a graphical interface running on S905X4 (Meson SC2), S905W2 (Meson S4), and S905Y4 (Meson S4) processors. Even without hardware-accelerated graphics, it should still be usable for basic applications like Notepad, text editors, spreadsheets, calculators, terminal access, and other simple tasks.
 
Has anyone else made progress running Armbian on the S905X4?

Hi @gnusmag45, I'm sorry you are having issues with your board. I hope the multitool still boots after you erased the flash
Unfortunately your board has an eMCP, which is a chip that contains both the eMMC and the DDR memory. I never had the chance to test a board with such chip by myself, so it is totally guesswork.
 
The multitool has a dtb which is usually very compatible because it does not use any "advanced" features of the board, and also uses lower operating frequencies to maximize compatibility at the expense of performance. Something does not work for your board although.
 
I edited the device tree of the multitool to provide more current strength to the eMMC pins and also some other configuration that may be of some benefical effect for your board.
 
This is the dtb: rk322x-box-emcp.dtb.
Put it in the root directory of the multitool, then edit the the file extlinux/extlinux.conf and change the existing rk322x-box.dtb with this rk322x-box-emcp.dtb.
Save the conf file and try again to boot the multitool. Check if after some reboots the flash memory is detected consistently, maybe make a backup to "stress" it and see if the backup is completed correctly, but don't install any armbian image yet.
 
I suggest you to first try to burn an Armbian image directly on the sdcard and boot armbian from sdcard. This may let you upload a full set of logs (via armbianmonitor -u) to the internet and let us inspect them before proceeding to install the image on the eMMC.
Also check if the eMMC is correctly detected within Armbian after some reboots: it is important that the kernel detects it otherwise even if you install Armbian on eMMC it won't boot anyway.

Hello @Jens J.
 
I found a solution to be able to run Armbian on this device.
At my institution we are converting these TV Boxes into computers to make available in public schools. So I have 40 units from this same box and this unit was the only one with NAND memory.
So I managed to install Armbian on the other units and after carrying out all the customization I created a DD image of the EMMC unit /dev/mmcblk1.
 
(Note: check if your partition is /dev/mmcblk1 or /dev/mmcblk2)  
Create a compressed disk image:
dd if=/dev/mmcblk1 status=progress | gzip -9 /mnt/external/filename.img.gz  
Then I cloned the NAND unit and, oddly enough, it was uploaded to the Armbian system.
zcat /mnt/external/filename.img.gz | dd of=/dev/mmcblk1  
It appears that when cloning information from an EMMC partition to NAND the u-boot process occurs normally without analyzing the hardware context.
So if anyone has the same problem, if you can get another unit with EMMC memory, it may be possible to convert it to a NAND unit.

@Abd Choucair
 
Follow this tutorial in Portuguese to be successful on your TV Box:
Link: https://github.com/educabox/educabox/blob/main/boxes/btv11.md