Pita Bread

Hi Mark,
Try this image. First extract the image. Then use balenaEtcher software to write the image onto your SD card.
 
A toothpick can be used to trigger FEL mode on an TX95 Max by pressing the FEL button on the PCB with the non-conductive tool. The FEL button is located inside the 3.5 mm headphone socket. To trigger FEL mode, press the button while the device is booting.
 
https://etcher.balena.io/#download-etcher
https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/releases/download/20241125/Armbian-20241125-unofficial_24.11.0-trunk_Transpeed-8k618-t_bookworm_edge_6.10.10_xfce_desktop.tar.gz
 
 

I disassembled my tv box - there are 4 screws under the 4 rubbery feet. Removed the motherboard and I drilled some holes of 1/4 inch (7 mm) diameter through the bottom plastic piece. Then I placed a USB fan underneath the tv box and wow the temperature really goes down and stays down around 45 C to 60 C depending on work load. The fans are 80mm and 120mm in size. I chose 120mm to be sure.
 
 

That's a very good idea, especially if my online accounts that have my photos would ever become problematic for any reason. I have armbian on a tv box with SMB (samba) and with a USB 3.0 hard drive. The tv box is connected by gigabit ethernet to my home network. So I am going to try these apps - PhotoSync, FolderSync, CX File Explorer - on my android phone to backup my personal photos and videos and determine which is easiest and fastest.
 
Which app on your phone/tablet have you chosen to use to backup your photos/videos?

Whenever you are comfortable with that.
You could brick your box.  Unlikely, but there are so many different tv boxes out there that there is always a chance your box is somehow different than common ones.  Since the boot environment starts from what is on emmc, if you screw up the emmc completely, your box is bricked.  (You should still be able to recover by using amlogic tools to reinstall an android rom, but...)
No limit that I can think of.
You have that all correct.

Take apart your tv box.  Take pictures of all the components inside.  Looking for your exact part number of your wifi module - mine was AP6330.
 
Then I googled and found this person solved it on their tv box. 
 
 
But the procedure might work for other wifi chipsets.   Just have a look in /lib/firmware/brcm and you will see plenty of them.  Plus I believe that is the broadcom designs.  Going up one level there are even more.
 
WARNING - Not an expert... but this trick worked for me.
 
Good Luck.

Nope .  I will put that in my notes if I get there again.  What kernel are you running

Wow - thanks for Webmin.  I've never heard of that one but looks nifty.  I'm going to have to take a look at that.  Thanks

While normally we discourage references to ophub as they are a fork of Armbian  but continue to use the Armbian name without permission for their fork.  They also don't contribute back to Armbian nor do they participate in these forums, I think your post is helpful.  It would really be nice if someone were to dig into this and submit a PR back to Armbian to bring the support into the base code that is maintained here.

Hi @datatech451 - glad to hear I am not alone.  Yep - I fiddled with SuperCeleron, ATVx and custom launchers a few years back.  I have an old pc with LibreElec around here somewhere too.  But today I am no longer trying to keep Android going on this one.  I moved on to Firesticks since then and the remote control is a big factor on why we stay there.  But for the S912 - I am focusing on the mediaserver side and thinking of adding photo backup of my phone.  I am just in the tinkering and learning phase.  I've had Plex working and have been trialing Jellyfin lately.  It works well to stream locally to my firesticks.  Big Buck Bunny of course and it seems pretty solid.  But I am not doing 4k BBB or anything.  But still testing and troubleshooting random issues and craziness.  In fact - I put Portainer on board.  Jellyfin in a Docker.  Homarr in a Docker, Grafana in a Docker, Adguard in a Docker and Cockpit...  But lots of things not working exactly right but I think because I overload it.  Really trying to push it to the limits just to see and learn.  
 
Burning that all down today and doing a fresh build with just what I need - Jellyfin, Cockpit and Adguard.  I'm gonna skip Docker this time and I bet I get it all working well enough to learn the next level. 
 
As for cooling - I bought some extra heat sinks but never made it further.  I am a little worried about pulling the existing sink off - don't want to crack the cpu.   Feels more solid than thermal paste - more like thermal glue.  But yes - seems to get HOT in a hurry when it is busy.   This box has a heat sink plus heat tape and a piece of sheet metal.  I am betting that is no longer standard build.
 
BTW - I fiddled with my watt meter and this thing just sips...  Seems to idle around 3.6 to 4.1 watts.  Did some measurements during 2 hours of streaming, and did some math it seems it would only use about 2.9 kWh per month if on all the time.   My spinning HDD uses more than that - could justify that SSD upgrade in the future.
 
I found another box with a S905 (I think) in my recycle bin - I might look at optimizing that for retro gaming.   We will see what happens next.   Do you have a favorite gaming ROM or experience? 
 
Anyway - best of luck and keep the faith!

Good to meet a fellow armbian android tv box fan.   We need a logo or shorthand alias for fans 🤣.
 
ZFS - was easy but not clear.  Inside armbian-config under System/Storage is a script to install ZFS support.  I did this and it didn't work... then undid it and then installed it a second time and it worked.  Somewhere in there I also ran the standard commands for install:
 
sudo apt install zfsutils-linux sudo apt install zfs-fuse  
Probably after the first uninstall... but the commands indicate failure.  But then installing the second time seemed to work.
 
Did that on both of these boxes I have working.  
 
Thanks for the ethtool command.  Here's my results on box1
 
ports auto-negotiation: Yes Supported FEC modes: Not reported Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 1000baseT/Full Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes Advertised FEC modes: Not reported Link partner advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 1000baseT/Full Link partner advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes Link partner advertised FEC modes: Not reported Speed: 1000Mb/s Duplex: Full Auto-negotiation: on master-slave cfg: preferred slave master-slave status: slave Port: Twisted Pair PHYAD: 0 Transceiver: external MDI-X: Unknown netlink error: Operation not permitted Current message level: 0x0000003f (63) drv probe link timer ifdown ifup Link detected: yes  
Not an expert and first time reading this command but looks like 1000 is the answer.  Crazy thing - box 2 does not have the line "MDI-X: Unknown" shown towards the bottom and "Port: MII" instead of "Port: twisted pair" but is otherwise identical.  Posting in case it helps anyone else - but these are beyond me.  
 
If you confirm that the above = 1000 I will update both my box running posts.  
 
By the way - Another favorite is Software/Management/Cockpit.  Easy to see how the server is doing.  Plus it has a built in terminal and file manager. 
 
Add that to Tailscale and you can check on the server or grab a file while out of the house.  
curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh  
Those are my favorites.  What are yours?
 

TV Box Name: Sunvell T95Z plus Octagon shaped box (I wrote it before – but Beware – apparently a lot of variants)
 
CPU Amlogics S912
Armbian build file name: Armbian_community_25.8.0-trunk.277_Aml-s9xx-box_noble_current_6.12.34
DTB file used: meson-gxm-t95z-plus.dtb – (my other T95z uses meson-gxm-vega-s96.dtb)
Kernel Version: 6.12.34
Distribution Installed (focal, buster, etc): Noble
Working Ethernet (Yes/No): Yes
Max Ethernet Speed that works (100/1000): Not sure how to determine...
Does wifi work (Yes/No): No
Does bluetooth work (Yes/No): Not tested
Does HDMI audio work (Yes/No): Yes
 
Additional Comments (provide any additional information you feel is important):
This is my second T95z plus box build. Using as headless server and both seem solid. Confirming what others have said – the build is different inside. This has a different wifi card and eemc. I have a 3rd T95z plus that has the dreaded NAND chip too. Having fun and learning. Using as a simple NAS now with a ZFS pool and works just fine.

Thanks for the detailed description! Very useful post, especially for those who are just starting to tinker with Armbian on TV boxes. I had a similar situation with another S905X3 box - neither Wi-Fi nor Bluetooth worked, and there was trouble with HDMI audio.
 
Special thanks for the advice on disabling unattended-upgrades and systemd-networkd-wait-online, I just encountered problems with long loading, now I understand where the legs are growing from. Regarding USB audio - an excellent solution, I didn't even know that it was so easy to bypass the lack of built-in sound. I will try with a similar adapter.
 
If you have a chance, tell me later whether you managed to set up Wi-Fi via a USB adapter or in another way. And I wonder if you tried other window environments besides XFCE? LXQt, for example?
 
In any case - a great guide, thanks for your work!

Hi,
 
You don't need a u-boot.ext to boot.  You can perfectly boot a  mainline kernel with a stock vendor u-boot.
 
The DTB you found for coreelec is a dtb for the vendor 5.4 kernel. That DTB is not compatible with mainline kernels.
 
There is some mainline kernel work being done for the Meson S4 (S905W2 is a Meson S4) at the moment. 
 
On my Github page I have a Debian and Ubuntu image containing a mainline compatible DTB for the S905W2. Everything works to create a headless Linux server. But there is no HDMI or sound yet unfortunately.
 
 

TV Box Name: Sunvell T95Z plus Octagon shaped box (Beware – apparently a lot of variants)
CPU Amlogics S912
Armbian build file name: Armbian_community_25.5.0-trunk.370_Aml-s9xx-box_noble_current_6.12.23
DTB file used: meson-gxm-vega-s96.dtb (but several seem to work… none with wifi out of the box)
Kernel Version: 6.12.24
Distribution Installed (focal, buster, etc): Noble
Working Ethernet (Yes/No): Yes
Max Ethernet Speed that works (100/1000): Not sure how to determine...
Does wifi work (Yes/No): YES *** See Below
Does bluetooth work (Yes/No): Not tested
Does HDMI audio work (Yes/No): Yes
Additional Comments (provide any additional information you feel is important):
Tested many files. Ubuntu (noble) seemed much more usable than Debian (bookworm)
 
Also tested
Armbian_community_25.5.0-trunk.334_Aml-s9xx-box_bookworm_current_6.12.21 _gnome_desktop.img.xz
Armbian_community_25.5.0-trunk.334_Aml-s9xx-box_noble_current_6.12.21 _gnome_desktop.img.xz
Armbian_community_25.5.0-trunk.334_Aml-s9xx-box_oracular_edge_6.14.0 _gnome_desktop.img.xz
Armbian_community_25.5.0-trunk.334_Aml-s9xx-box_oracular_edge_6.14.0.img.xz

Since I am trying to learn server/media center/adguard or pihole stuff – chose the server headless install eventually. Learning has started.
**** Thank you thank you to @ZuiMelanieForno and their post here:
But basically looks like the easy way is to create a soft link of the ap6330 driver file as the brcm4330 file that must be loaded by default.
sudo mv /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac4330-sdio.txt /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac4330-sdio.txt.old sudo ln -s /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac-ap6330-sdio.txt /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac4330-sdio.txt Not sure of this solution will survive update.   (UPDATE: Confirmed - it does not survive update - but doing the commands again and a reboot seemed to work.)
 
I have installed pihole and had it running. I had jellyfin running. Rebuilt from 0 again and am trying to do inside of docker containers. Dockers seems running but still some learning to go.
 
If I write my sd to my eMMC – can reset to 0 again by booting from an sd card … and when ready burn that to eMMC? Or should I keep the writes to the eMMC as few as possible?
 
I own two of these boxes – Identical on the outside but the newer one (bought probably 1 year later) does NOT have an eMMC. It has the dreaded NAND chip(BiWIN 16GB)… Also a different wifi module I think…. (LTM8830)
 
Oh and – can I just say I love pulling this thing out of retirement and having a tiny low cost media server in the house. Thanks @balbes150 and @SteeMan and Everyone for their hard work!  This is amazing... until I blow it up again...

These instructions are for Amlogic CPUs for TV Boxes. 
 
Note: If you have previously run other distributions on the box such as coreelec the below installation will not work.  You will need to restore the original android firmware before attempting the install.  coreelec changes the boot environment in ways that are incompatible with these Armbian builds.
 
Download links:
    Weekly Community Rolling Builds:  https://www.armbian.com/amlogic-s9xx-tv-box/
    or build your own image using the Armbian build framework
 
Once you download your chosen build, you need to burn the image to an SD card.  Generally balenaEtcher is recommended as it does a verification of the burn.  Also be sure to use high quality SD cards.
 
Once you have the SD card with your chosen build, then you need to edit the boot configuration file on the SD card.  In the BOOT partition of the SD card there will be a file /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf, that you need to edit.  There will also be a extlinux.conf.template file to use as a reference.  You will need to add a line into the extlinux.conf file for the Device Tree (dtb) file you will be using for your box.  Place this line before the APPEND line as shown in the .template file.
 
Basically you need to have the correct dtb for your box.  You may need to attempt to use different dtb files until you find the one that works the best for your box's hardware (there are a bunch of dtb files in /boot/dtb/amlogic/... to try depending on your cpu architecture and hardware).  It is unlikely that there will be a matching dtb file for your TV box.  The idea is to find the one that works best for your box.  This may mean that you try booting with different dtb files until you fine one that works good enough for your needs.  By searching the forums you will find information about what dtbs other users have found work best for different boxes.  Because you are booting from an SD card, you can easily try different dtb files.  The dtd files are named by cpu family.  So for example dtb files for the s905x2 cpu are named meson-g12a-*.  Below there is a table that shows the identifiers for each familiy (g12a for s905x2 in this case).
 
Next you need to copy the correct uboot for your box.  This is needed for how these builds boot on amlogic boxes.  There are four different u-boot files located in the /boot directory:  u-boot-s905, u-boot-s905x-s912, u-boot-s905x2-s922, u-boot-s905x3
You need to copy (note copy not move) the u-boot file that matches your cpu to a new file named u-boot.ext in the /boot directory
So for example with a TX3 mini box that has an s905w cpu you would copy u-boot-s905x-s912 to u-boot.ext: cp u-boot-s905x-s912 u-boot.ext
(See table below for more details on which u-boot to use for which cpu)
 
Once you have your SD card prepared you need to enable multiboot on the box.  There are different ways documented to do this, but the most common is the "toothpick" method.  The "toothpick" method means to hold the reset button while applying power to the box.  The reset button is often hidden and located at the back of the audio/video jack connector.  By pressing that button with a toothpick or other such pointed device you can enable multiboot.  What you need to do is have the box unplugged, have your prepared sd card inserted, then press and hold the button while inserting the power connector.  Then after a bit of time you can release the button.  (I don't know exactly how long you need to hold the button after power is applied, but if it doesn't work the first time try again holding for longer or shorter times).
 
You should now be booting into armbian/linux.  Note that the first boot takes longer as it is enlarging the root filesystem to utilize the entire SD card.
 
After you are satisfied that your box is working correctly for your needs you can optionally copy the installation from the SD card to internal emmc storage (assuming your box has emmc). (Note: Installing to emmc has some risks of bricking your box.  Don't do this unless you feel you understand how to reinstall your box's android firmware)  You install armbian to emmc by running the shell script in the /root directory: install-aml.sh. Note: It is not possible to install into emmc on boxes with the s905 cpu (s905x, s905w, s905x2, etc however should all be supported).  It is recommended that you make a backup of emmc first.  Also be prepared if anything goes horribly wrong with your emmc install to reinstall the android firmware using the Amlogic USB Burning Tool to unbrick your device.  If you have or can find an original android firmware on the internet and you can generally (but not always) recover a bricked box using the Amlogic tool and the original firmware file.
 
 
Mapping from CPU to uboot and dtb:
 
u-boot-s905
s905 - gxbb
 
u-boot-s905x2-s912
S905X - gxl
S905W - gxl
S905D - gxl
S905L - gxl
S805X - gxl
S912 - gxm
A311D - gxm
 
u-boot-s905x2-s922
S905X2 - g12a
S922 - g12b
 
u-boot-s905x3
S905X3 - sm1
 
Not supported or not tested
S805 -
S905W2 -
S905X4 -
S805X2 - s4
A113D - axg
A113X - axg
 
 
 
Note: Followup posts in this thread should be limited to comments to improve or better understand these instructions.  Other issues should be posted as new questions in the Amlogic CPU Boxes sub-forum.

i can confirm that its working, when Armbian and the Devmfc Kernel versions are the same.
you need to copy boot and the modules
X96 Max Plus Ultra (S905x4)
Debian Bookworm with xfce

Mini tutorial
I am putting here some notes for posterity
In the current version of armbian (testing H6) I use X11 / Xorg only reaches 1024x768, but my display reaches 1440x900.
To add this new resolution to the list of Settings/Display you have to give these commands:
 
# xrandr --listmonitors
(this command serves to see what it's called, the hdmi output)
 
# cvt 1440 900
(output: 
# 1440x900 59.89 Hz (CVT 1.30MA) hsync: 55.93 kHz; pclk: 106.50 MHz
Modeline "1440x900_60.00"  106.50  1440 1528 1672 1904  900 903 909 934 -hsync +vsync )
 
# xrandr --newmode "1440x900_60.00" 106.50 1440 1528 1672 1904 900 903 909 934 -hsync +vsync
 
# xrandr --addmode HDMI-1 1440x900_60.00
 
# xrandr --output HDMI-1 --mode 1440x900_60.00
 
If it works then modify Xorg with:
 
# sudo mcedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-monitor.conf
 
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "HDMI-1"
Modeline "1440x900_60.00" 106.50 1440 1528 1672 1904 900 903 909 934 -hsync +vsync
Option "PreferredMode" "1440x900"
EndSection
 
# reboot
 
 
 
 

Thankyou in my case TMAX 95+ China X3-9.0-2GB4GB-6330-0720-191119_1
 
https://www.mediafire.com/file/6ndvrg9ze0v6eww/X3-9.0-2GB4GB-6330-0720-191119_1.img/file

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?

A backup of all of the files mention in my previous post (above) is now on The Internet Archive. Either browse the web page and choose what you want to download https://archive.org/details/H96Max-X3-s905x3-tvbox-android-firmware-backup ,
 
Or just download the one 7z file and decompress it by using the latest version of 7zip or Winrar https://archive.org/download/H96Max-X3-s905x3-tvbox-android-firmware-backup/h96maxX3tvBox-files.7z
 
*edit: If you are unable to download files from the archive.org website, or that website is blocked, then first connect to a VPN (virtual private network) service such as Surfshark or TotalVPN and choose a server in USA.
 
Cheers ☺

Howdy y'all. (It's something people in southern USA say). hehe. I want to eventually setup a mini NAS server via Gigabit ethernet using this device. So, I recently purchased this same tv box as @Yvan P. described and I successfully installed Armbian_community_24.11.0-trunk.273_Aml-s9xx-box_oracular_edge_6.11.3 (2.64 GB img file). It was more time consuming and challenging than I originally thought. I'll explain.
 
My box included Android firmware version PPR1.180610.11.20230208 and Kernel 4.9.113 built on 08FEB2023. Trying to boot any custom OS like Armbian via SD card in TF slot or USB flash drive in either 2.0 port or 3.0 just boot looped the H96 logo again 'n again. I had to downgrade the  firmware. I followed instructions that I found on github here and on xda-developers here, but I used an alternative method in TWRP. *The following is a LONG explanation. Get ready! ☺
 
Download the 2022 firmware file as a zip or img, (another copy here) the Amlogic Bootcard maker and TWRP.  Prepare a micro SD card with one partition, formatted as FAT32. Also prepare a USB flash drive (or USB card reader) with one partition, formatted as FAT32. Copy the 20220516 firmware file to the USB flash drive. Make the SD card bootable with Amlogic Bootcard maker or Burn card maker software. Copy recovery-twrp_x96max-20220601-1253.img to the root of the SD card and rename the file to recovery.img on the SD card. With power cord disconnected, tv box off, Insert SD card in TF slot of tv box, and insert USB flash into the USB 2.0 port. Connect a USB mouse to the blue USB 3.0 port so you can click on buttons. Use a toothpick to press and hold the reset button inside the 3.5mm AV port. Keep holding the AV button and connect the power cord. Keep holding button until TWRP appears on screen, and swipe right to allow modifications.
 
Recommended to backup all the partitions here to the SD card or USB flash drive, and keep a the second copy somewhere safe, especially Recovery.  Under "select partitions for backup" make sure they don't say "0MB". If they do, then there is a problem and you shouldn't continue - stop. Troubleshoot and fix the problem - ask questions online. Otherwise, continue... ☺

For backup of the existing firmware, click Backup, Select Storage and choose the Micro SD card or USB OTG (##MB). Select all partitions and swipe right to do the backup. No need for compression. Wait. Go back to the main menu with back (bottom left corner), and select Install. Click Select Storage then select USB OTG (##MB), and OK button. Depending on which firmware file you want to use, the "franklin-ota-eng.qmx_srv.zip" file should appear. Or click Install Image and the ""AML_user_H96MaxX3_9_20220516.1821.img" file should appear. Click on the file, and swipe right to do the install.   Wait, and do not do anything until you see IMAGE FLASH COMPLETED. After you see the COMPLETED message, remove the SD card and USB flash drive and go to the main menu and click Reboot, System. Let Android boot, and check the version of Android in the settings. It should be PPR1.180610.011.20220516 and kernel 4.9.113, May 16 2022.
 
Now we can boot Armbian from the SD card and make sure it works, updates and reboots properly. I used the standard instructions for writing an Armbian image to a SD card. I selected the server image "Armbian_community_24.11.0-trunk.273_Aml-s9xx-box_oracular_edge_6.11.3.img". Copied u-boot-s905x3 to u-boot.ext, and set /dtb/amlogic/meson-sm1-h96-max.dtb in extlinux.conf . I disconnected power cord, inserted SD card into TF, held reset button in the audio jack, and connected power cord still holding the button for 15 seconds. Armbian logo came up and I released the button. All 4GB RAM (3.69GB usable) is good, ethernet is good at 1 Gigabit, but there is no sound, no bluetooth and no wifi. That's alright because I will use this as a mini NAS server and maybe an ad blocking DNS server via Gigabit ethernet. I froze the kernel in armbian-config, ran "apt update" and rebooted. There were some error messages about initramfs but nothing bad. It rebooted and started alright. For smoother 'n faster data transfer, I should replace my cheap old cat5e cables and probably get a better and brand-name gigabit switch. I hope this helps future aml tv box enthusiasts 🐧.
 

forgot to mention for the armbian sd card I also modified the extlinux.conf to point to /dtb/amlogic/meson-sm1-h96-max-x3.dtb and copied u-boot-s905x3 to u-boot.ext . I'm using Armbian_25.02.0_amlogic_s905x3_bookworm_6.6.68_server_2025.01.01.img

I followed @Pita Bread's steps but there were some things I had to do differently so I am noting it down for others' reference.
 
I had to plug the SD card and USB stick into a USB hub and plug the hub into the box. I also had to use an SD card smaller than 32GB. With these I was able to boot into TWRP using the hold reset button during power on method. The H96 splash screen shows first then TWRP comes up shortly after.
 
Proceeded in TWRP with specified steps but my system partition showed as 0MB for some reason. I was only able to back up my boot and recovery. There were some mounting errors for /system and even though it said [install complete] my tv box firmware did not downgrade. Ultimately I ended up formatting the system partition as exFAT and EXT4 using Wipe > Advanced wipe > change file system > Format (off the top of my memory). Note this removes the entire operating system.
 
After wiping it i shut down the system from the main menu. 
 
i used burncard maker on my micro SD card with the desired version of firmware (2019 firmware for this box in my case). Then I inserted the card with the image directly into the SD card port of the tv box. 
 
The box was then powered on WITHOUT holding the reset button. It showed "updating android" and successfully downgraded the firmware. Hooray!
 
Part 2: Installing armbian 
 
I installed an armbian image from this repository https://github.com/ophub/amlogic-s9xxx-armbian which is being developed specifically for TV boxes.
 
I used balenaEtcher to burn the image onto the micro SD card, then inserted the card into my USB hub and plugged the hub into the powered off tv box. While holding the reset button inside the AV port, I inserted the power cable to boot the box and it booted into armbian. I forget if I needed to hold that reset button or not though. After that i followed the instructions from the repository and on screen to copy armbian into the eMMC to permanently install armbian onto it (ie. Use the armbian-install command in the terminal)
 
Currently wifi and ethernet seem to work. I am continuing to test the box.

Hi Pita Bread, thanks for the support.
 
I tried with SD and USB, same error. That's why I tried to reinstall everything using Debian instead of Ubuntu (on the USB at the moment), but the problem is still there. At least now there's an Oops: 0000000096000004 which is better than nothing
 
This was the first thing I checked, temperature was 41°C or similar when it crashed.
 
I set it, let's see. The board was running for a couple of days before it crashed, Let's hope it crashes sooner this time
 
About the wires.. I hope they are not frayed, I will try to see if I can find another power supplier.
 
Thanks again,
Alb
 
 
 
 

TV Box Name: H96 MAX V56
CPU: RockChip RK3566
Armbian build file name: Armbian_community_24.8.0-trunk.6_H96-tvbox-3566_jammy_current_6.6.32_gnome_desktop.img.xz
Kernel Version: 6.6.32 
Kernel Version: 6.12.6
Distribution Installed (focal, buster, etc): Jammy
Working Ethernet (Yes/No): yes
Max Ethernet Speed that works (100/1000): 1000 Gigabit
Does wifi work (Yes/No): Yes
Does bluetooth work (Yes/No): depends on User WorkAround
Does HDMI audio work (Yes/No): Yes
Additional Comments (provide any additional information you feel is important):
 
No TF-Card Boot and No USB boot
all done by Rockchip Hardware flash
Topic 4/32gb
Topic 8/64gb