gnthibault

Ok looks like I bricked my box forever with that method of installation (install-2018.sh with s912-uboot copied as uboot.img).
 
The firmware flash procedure does not even work anymore now. I now need to shortcut some pins from the emmc to start the flash process, and after that amlogic usb burning tools stops at 7%. It might be that pluging in the power source causes the system to boot, interrupting the interaction with emmc, but I am not sure. Any idea how to fix this, by forcing erasing of the emmc (even physically if possible).
 
I still have another S912 box, but keeping up to date with armbian is clearly too painful and risky, no installation guide whatsoever, just random bits of info here and there, generally without explanation of what happens under the hood, or link to opensource code, and high chance of bricking your box.

Ok looks like I bricked my box forever with that method of installation (install-2018.sh with s912-uboot copied as uboot.img).
 
The firmware flash procedure does not even work anymore now. I now need to shortcut some pins from the emmc to start the flash process, and after that amlogic usb burning tools stops at 7%. It might be that pluging in the power source causes the system to boot, interrupting the interaction with emmc, but I am not sure. Any idea how to fix this, by forcing erasing of the emmc (even physically if possible).
 
I still have another S912 box, but keeping up to date with armbian is clearly too painful and risky, no installation guide whatsoever, just random bits of info here and there, generally without explanation of what happens under the hood, or link to opensource code, and high chance of bricking your box.

does also -including Desktop- work on my T95K-Pro
as before ethernet only via USB-Dongle or  WiFi wlan0 via the nvram_ap6330.txt-copy-"trick":
 
nvram_ap6330.txt

Have you implemented these guidelines ?
 
There can be no identical label. The installation script specifically changes the eMMC label and uses its eMMC value in the settings. Using UUID is a bad solution that is often used by those who do not want to properly design the installation system.
 

I think gnthibault I've mentioned this before in forums but is it possible confusion may be occurring between duplicate partition labels?
In fstab, you have LABEL=ROOTFS /  and in uEnv.ini etc bootargs=root=LABEL=ROOTFS
What I'm saying is the internal emmc flash and sdcard may have the same ROOTFS label.
Perhaps take the sdcard and relabel the ROOT partition with tune2fs or get UUID= value from blkid (and changing boot files in /boot/ and /etc/fstab ?

Tell me, do you create problems on purpose ? I wrote you what you need to do on TV box, where you have already created a problem. And only after you find the right solution for the spoiled TV box, you can start experimenting with others.
 
What DTB did you use on the second TV box ?
 
Show the full contents of the "uEnv.ini " and " extlinux.config" after you have edited them.

Good news
Update version NEXT kernel 5.0.0-rc2 20190118.
Khadas VIM1 has WiFi And BT without any patches. Perhaps some of the other models Wi-Fi will work.

1. The structure that gparted shows is correct. The installation script is specially written so that it is as safe as possible to put the system in the eMMC. It keeps all the important data structure of the standard firmware in eMMC (u-boot env recovery boot etc). This allows you to use regular tools to restore native Android firmware in any TV box at any time.
2. When you renamed the file " s912-u-boot.img", you took the risk (I warned about this earlier in this topic) of replacing the regular u-boot-2015 with a new version of u-boot-2018. New version assembled and tested only on Khadas VIM2 (it I told). So when you replaced your u-boot-2015 with a new one, you got a problem. The new u-boot-2018 cannot work with standard firmware tools. It is not known whether the new u-boot is compatible specifically with your TV box model or not.
3. You may now have to perform special steps to restore the health of your TV box.
4. All new versions are specially launched from external media to check if everything works on your hardware correctly. Only then is the installation done on the eMMC. For example, in core 4.x there is no support for many Wi-Fi on some models does not work USB, etc.
5. If USB does not work, to restore the ability to control the system , you have to use either SSH through the network or UART. At that moent when you installed the new version into eMMC, but it is not working USB, have you had the opportunity small means to restore the system to its previous level, but again you hurried and did not wait for advice on how to do it.
6. I do not understand what the current state of the system in eMMC is. What happens if  turn on the TV box, which messages appear on the screen ?
 

Ok looks like I bricked my box forever with that method of installation (install-2018.sh with s912-uboot copied as uboot.img).
 
The firmware flash procedure does not even work anymore now. I now need to shortcut some pins from the emmc to start the flash process, and after that amlogic usb burning tools stops at 7%. It might be that pluging in the power source causes the system to boot, interrupting the interaction with emmc, but I am not sure. Any idea how to fix this, by forcing erasing of the emmc (even physically if possible).
 
I still have another S912 box, but keeping up to date with armbian is clearly too painful and risky, no installation guide whatsoever, just random bits of info here and there, generally without explanation of what happens under the hood, or link to opensource code, and high chance of bricking your box.

1. Universal multi-loading is a prerequisite.
2. The installation process is simplified, now it is enough to run one installation script, it contains all the steps (which were previously in two scripts).
 
 
I left until the previous version of the steps, perhaps someone will use the first versions of the images.

two S905x converted in linux machines :-)
 
using
 
Armbian_5.67_Aml-s9xxx_Ubuntu_bionic_default_4.19.6_desktop_20181207.img
 
one for DHCP and DNS server, and other lan stuff, second for zoneminder ip cameras controlling
 
two are modded for heat dissipation with aluminium heatspreader and ceramique2 thermal paste, more than 80°c in full, to 56°c full...
 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dJJ3gR2iOlKDB4s1O8BMBRZQtKtqoOLc
 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lKWpTCbooglkXVeCaTMWEECsJ3aBWcnu

If you did not violate the instructions and before installing the system in eMMC created a full backup (using the utility "ddbr"). You could easily go back to the old version.
I draw everyone's attention, before any experiments, be sure to create a backup.

Hello,
 
I have compiled the kernel and bootloader from:
https://github.com/150balbes/build
 
It generates *.deb for uboot, kernel and dtb files , i downloaded those file to my ubuntu installed os on my sd card, then I have run dpkg --install *.deb files and rebooted, when rebooted the box won't start, even the LED is not lighted !? , I have tried to make hard reset even I have removed the SD card and made a hard reset , the box won't start at all. I think when I have run the dpkg install command it wrotes the bootloaded into /dev/mmcblk0 which is I guess the internal emmc file.
 
Is there any thing I could do to deblock the situation.
 
[Edit] my box is an mxq pro 4K.
 
Thanks for your help,

Is there any procedure I could follow to restore the uboot, I have tried the sdcard method without a success, I will try the USB cable one, but what is the exact procedure of doing that ?

i use meson-gxm-khadas-vim2.dtb also work with my h96pro+  3g/32g (cs-s32 v3)
Armbian_5.59_Aml-s9xxx_Debian_stretch_default_4.18.0_20180829
i don't care about wifi issue because i just run it as a proxy server to passthrough china GFW
 
btw , did anyone try to install wireguard into h96pro+ ?
i try it but fail to start because missing correct kernel-header package
 
"modprobe: FATAL: Module wireguard not found"
 
how to solve it ?

according to balbes150 who creates those beautiful images, the installation to emmc on the kernel 4.xx looks like this:
 
1. Execute script “/boot/create-mbr-linux.sh”

2. install Armbian on eMMC execute script “/root/install.sh”.
 
I did this and it worked just fine

Oh no pal, of course it is not ok. You should always rename it to dtb.img - that explains why 3.14 worked. It just took dtb from android on emmc and it did work because android on this box has same 3.14 kernel

meson-gxm-q200.dtb works for me, but only with ubuntu xenial headless. I could not boot ubuntu bionic headless with it. I also didn't try distributions with desktop

Hi koakh,
my goal is to replace my raspb3 (webserver and other services)with the same box as you (H96 Pro+)
 
Could you please post a (if possible) short version what you did to run Armbian on your H96 box? (DTB and Armbian version)
(Wifi is not so important for me)
 
Did you manage to install armbian on the internal storage?
I think the sd-reader is slower than the raspb3 one. (tested with samsung evo) So I wanted to get armbian running on the internal storage.
 
thanks for your time

Hi, which image and which dtb file needs for this box

can me send a download link? Thanks!

Hello @guidol
The problem you are talking is about my post about load and reload module?
 
This is problem is a nightmare to fix.....now its very stable even boot only with power connected and nothing more (ethernet cable off) 
 
Now I can move on with APN and finish my docker/springboot headless server
(That is finished with mongodb Arm64v8 container
 
If someone have interest in headless server say, I can create a topic from start to finish. 
Or I can upload the finish image version, no problem (AlfaWise H96 Pro+)
 
Once again thanks to all PPL envolve in Armbian and in Linux too

@balbes150 Can you please modify my original dtb.img to work with one of your firmware made with kernel 4.9.40?
It's working with 3.14.29, gcc 4.9, but not with gcc > 5 or kernel 4.9.40
dtb.img

Added the files to MEGA. Try this link.
 
https://mega.nz/#F!Xw4WVBqY!xgPbJkJkfMUIVoCAX2hBlQ

Hey,
i have a problem with 4.18 kernel version on H96 Pro Plus. It's not booting from usb. Stuck with "no signal" on the display. Kernel 3.14 was ok with "gxm_q201_3g.dtb". Any advices?

I CAN'T BELIVE IT !!! IT WORKS !!!
 
@jeanrhum
You are my hero of today !! I was very desperate about but then cames you and all went well. I haven't tested all in full but update and upgrade works fine and as optimistic as I am all the rest will also work. Thank you very much for you help !!
 
@balbes150
Also a big thanx to you for you good job with the rom !
 
GUYS I AM HAPPY !!!