adrian0541

Hello, folks. I can not make neither the 23.02.2 or the 23.8.1 version to work on the A95X F3 AIR Tv Box. Any suggestion?

Hi. @tgillett I've tried the Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_bullseye_current_5.9.0_desktop.img file (link) (mentioned on your previous messages) with the Armbian_23.8.1_Aml-s9xx-box_bookworm_current_6.1.50_xfce_desktop.img DTB files (link) (from @SteeMan 's post) . The system started well to a XFCE Desktop enviroment. It has sound working well since the beggining and it appears to have ethernet working too. However, I can not make the wifi connection to work. Could you, please, help me with that? Also, the Debian 20.10 repositories since to be oudated and not working anymore. How can I update the repositories?

@knish Is it possible that the SD card is only unreadable to the Mac system? On the other hand, I've had problems using the last version of the system (23.8.1), but could make an older version like the 23.02.2 to work. Maybe you could try that. Link

2023-10-18 Today I will start with the second attemp to use ARMBIAN on a TV Box for a fully Linux desktop experience. I gaved the old TV Box (T95 Max+) to one of my nephews as a retro game console with Emuelec (he was very pleased). I could make ARMBIAN work with the Ubuntu version from this link. I used the 6.1.11 jammy version. The user interface and the ethernet port worked well with the meson-sm1-a95xf3-air-gbit.dtb file. Sadly I could not make the sound or the wifi to work, but I could easily reach wifi connection through a USB Wifi Device. I also changed the original device firmware for Aidan's ROM, which let me install a pure Android TV system on the TV Box, instead of the uglier original one. Today I will start trying a new TV Box: the A95X F3 AIR, with 4 GB of RAM, 32 Gb of internal memory and 100 Mbits ethernet. I will let you know how the ARMBIAN experiment went.

By the way, I have ordered an A95X F3 TV Box to test ARMBIAN on it. I hope It all works from the begining, since there is an specific DTB file for it.

Generally the best way to determine your hardware is to open the box and look at what chips are installed (but that sometimes in tv boxes isn't helpful as the manufacturers are known to use chips with fake markings). The other thing to do is to hook up to the serial console and review the uboot output and early kernel output. With arm based tv boxes and boards the hardware is made available to the kernel via the dtb file. So it is the dtb that maps the kernel to the on board hardware. So if you aren't using a dtb explicitly designed for your board/box you won't get working features as the linux kernel won't know what the correct hardware is. That is why with these tv boxes where there are only dtbs for a small handful of them that you are unlikely to get all features working on a box. This is why the suggestion is to try all the dtbs and find the one that is closest to your hardware (i.e. has the most things working). @SteeMan Is there way to obtain or to construct the correct DTB file from the original files on Android? (The files that came on the internal TV Box Memory)

I'm configuring the XFCE Desktop UI. Any idea of how to pass from the original menu to Whisker Menu?

On the other hand I started this project as a hobby, trying to build an affordable mini console for my nephews (I already have one for my own, made from a HP Elidesk Mini). After succesfully achieving that (using Emuelec) on this TV Box (T95 Max+) I asked myself if it was possible to also install a fully functional version of Linux, so they could use this TV Box as a mini PC (you know, for navigation and school homework). For the price of the TV Box, (around 30 USD on Aliexpress) I have no problems to start over again with another model. So, I would like to ask a little more questions: Is there a TV Box with similar specs (AMLOGIC S905X3, 4 Gb of RAM, 32/64 Gb of internal memory, 100/1000 gbit/s ethernet, etc.) that has a fully functional version o ARMBIAN? If there is, Which model is it? What is the exact version or ARMBIAN that proved to work? If there is not, could you recommend to me another TV Box with simmilar or better specs which I could use for similar purposes. Maybe, should I try with rockchip TV Boxes?

@well83 Thanks for the answers. Which one (links) is the Ubuntu Version?

How can I determine the type of hardware I need to search the drivers for? How do I know my Wifi, Ehernet and sound hardware? I've installed Hardinfo from the APT repository and made a scan of the hardware if it helps. I Also Installed AIDA64 on Android. Hardware Info.zip

Well, after trying all the DTB files, these are the results: meson-sm1-a95xf3-air.dtb Boots with a graphical user interface. Max Res 4K There is no WIFI connection There is no Ethernet connection There is no sound meson-sm1-a95xf3-air-gbit.dtb Boots with a graphical user interface. Max Res 1080p There is no WIFI connection It appears there is Ethernet connection There is no sound meson-sm1-bananapi-m2-pro.dtb Boots with a graphical user interface. Max Res 1080p There is no WIFI connection It appears there is Ethernet connection There is no sound meson-sm1-bananapi-m5.dtb Boots with a graphical user interface. Max Res 1080p There is no WIFI connection It appears there is Ethernet connection There is no sound meson-sm1-h96-max.dtb Boots with a graphical user interface. Max Res 1080p It appears there is Bluetooth (at least an item is showed) There is no WIFI connection It appears there is Ethernet connection There is no sound meson-sm1-khadas-vim3l.dtb The system does not start meson-sm1-odroid-c4.dtb The system does not start meson-sm1-odroid-hc4.dtb The system does not start meson-sm1-sei610.dtb The system does not start meson-sm1-x96-air.dtb Boots with a graphical user interface. Max Res 1080p There is no Bluetooth There is no WIFI connection There is no Ethernet connection There is no sound meson-sm1-x96-air-gbit.dtb Boots with a graphical user interface. Max Res 1080p There is no Bluetooth There is no WIFI connection It appears there is Ethernet connection There is no sound I think I will try to continue with meson-sm1-h96-max.dtb file. Using a USB Wifi Stick I'm perfectly capable to connect to a Wifi Network. --------------------------------------------- I updated the system using (on terminal): sudo apt update Then sudo apt upgrade --------------------------------------------- Now I will try to install the TV Box Wifi and Sound Drivers ---------------------------------------------

After adding the meson-sm1-a95xf3-air.dtb file on extlinux.config I was able to start on a graphical user interface. Then I used these credentials: User: root Password: 1234 By the way, for this test I'm using a Rii X8+ USB Mini Keyboard, which works as a keyboard and a touchpad ------------------------------------- After this achievement, I have some questions: How do I Active the wifi connection? Could I try another DTB file? Or Should I try using a USB Wifi Stick and then try to update the drivers from the terminal using some commands? The same question goes for sound driver. -------------------------------------

@SteeMan Where do I find the FAQ Section? Could you, please, post a link for me and future users? ---------------------------------------- Update: I found the DTB and U-BOOT files instructions on the original post:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- This post was constructed from the answers of another one, so I will try to clarify what's going on. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm trying to install ARMBIAN 23.02.2 on a T95 MAX+ TV Box, with an AMLOGIC S905X3 proccessor (4 GB of RAM; 100 mbit/s ethernet; 32 Gb of internal memory). The 23.8.1 ARMBIAN version for AMLOGIC (link) proccessors, does not work well. It was suggested to me (Thanks to @well83) to use the 23.02.2 version (link). In this post I will be trying the Armbian_23.02.2_Aml-s9xx-box_bullseye_current_6.1.11_xfce_desktop.img.xz file. After trying some differents DTB files I was able to boot to a graphical user interface (see the subsequent answers below for more details). Now I'm trying to determine how to install and/or congifure the propper wifi and sound drivers.

@well83 Should I restart the proccess from the creation of the bootable USB Drive or can I just edit the extlinux.config and retry without redoing the USB creation part?