Xiaofan

Just want to mention that all the above works under the 3.14 kernel. For 4.18 kernel, I tested the Armbian 5.60 version and 5.55 version and the results are the same.

A few things do not work yet on 5.60 version (4.18 kernel) 1) reboot does not work -- only function as shutdown. 2) I have not figured how to change the resolution to 1920x1080p60 yet (HDMI) -- it is now only at 1024x768 3) WiFi does not work and the addon USB card TP-Link TL-WN727N is not working out of the box as in 3.14 kernel. I followed the following -- by editing armbianEnv.txt to add "disp.screen0_output_mode=1920x1080p60 " (this method works for my Rock64 board) but it does not seem to work. https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Fine-Tuning/

meson-gxm-q200.dtb seems to work. I edited uEnv.ini to point to this dtb and it seems to work fine.

Just got my H96 Pro+ (S912, 3GB/32GB) version works with the 3.14 image (specifically Armbian_5.44_S9xxx_Debian_stretch_3.14.29_xfce_20180729.img) and no dtb file. WiFi does not seem to be recognized but that does not bother me since I use a range extender for my Arm Linux experiments. And I inserted a TP-Link TL-W727N (N150 card) and WiFi immediately works as well. I was trying the 5.60 version ( Armbian_5.60_Aml-s9xxx_Debian_stretch_default_4.18.7_20180928.img) but no dtb seems to work to get USB working -- I tried a few dtb and they do not seem to work.

BTW, the H96 Max+ box I have is rooted and I installed Termux and rooted package works fine (eg: libusb) and I can even build libftdi on the box using clang. So technically I can change the files. Still I do not know if there is anything related to the boot sequence that I can change.

I was using the Armbian_5.60_Rk3328-tv_Debian_stretch_dev_4.4.143_20180922 previously and I think I reported wrongly previously when I said that the box did not boot up -- the box booted up straightly to Android. Today I use the Armbian_5.60_Rk3328-tv_Debian_stretch_default_4.4.143_20181004 image and it is the same. The board does not seem to access the SD card at all and boots to Android.

Just a quick update, I got the Rock 64 2GB version, Armbian works greatly on it and I just plugged in an old WiFi dongle (TP-Link TL-WN727N and an IOGear Bluetooth dongle and both work fine as well. Now I need to go back to see if there is a way to get the H96 Max+ work with Armbian.

Just got the H96 Max + (4GB/64GB) but I could not get Armbian to work (tried a few DTBs). The board does not seem to light up at all. with the SD card inserted. Now I am waiting for my Rock 64 board to be delivered to me, probably in another one or two weeks. I will test again then.

I use Taobao to buy boards and TV box and then ship to Singapore. Orange Pi > Nano Pi >> Banana Pi there. As for the cost, everything goes up this year, so it is understandable that board price goes up.

Microchip is very good for long term parts availability. But I am not so sure about its acquisitions like SMSC/SST/Atmel/etc. I think I will still trust them. There are not many players in this market for Cortex A5/A7/A8/A9/Axx MPU vendors to serve long term needs like industrial electronics-- NXP/Freescale, TI, Microchip/Atmel are probably the most reputable companies. FYI -- at work our product can have life cycle of more than 30 years -- in the Industrial Automation market.

Wow, ¥349 for RK3399 4GB/32GB is really cheap. The cheapest I can find from Taobao is ¥599. Then I still need to pay either 7% GST plus cheaper sea shipment or more expensive shipment to Singapore. The cheapest RK3399 based dev board seems to be Nanopi M4 ( ¥499 board + ¥49 heat sink) 2GB with zero eMMC.

For 4.x kernel and Wifi, I just use a range extender for my purpose. I use TP-Link RE350 for use with my X96 Mini. You can also use Power line or other means if there are no easy access to LAN port.

Ref: https://www.cnx-software.com/2017/11/27/amlogic-s905x-vs-rockchip-rk3328-vs-allwinner-h6/ CPU wise roughly: RK3399 > Amlogic S912 > Allwinner H6 > Amlogic S905X = RK3328 On the other hand, there are very few H6 based TV Box and majority of them are based on S912/S905W and RK3328. Some of the RK3328 based boxes have the advantages of higher memory and storage) (4GB/64G) compared to S912 based (usually 3GB/32GB) and S905W based (usually 2GB/16GB). I like my recently bought X96 Mini but I also ordered Rock64 and RK3328 based box (H96 Max 4GB/64GB) and S912 based box (H96 Pro Plus 3GB/32GB) to play with Android and follow the Armbian development here. The RK3328 based TV box is actually more expensive than S912 based because of the higher memory/storage.

This makes perfect sense. Thanks for sharing. BTW, interestingly I bought the X96 Mini with the main objective to run Armbian as well. I am relatively new to Arm Linux (not new to Linux, using quite a bit of Linux since 2005 with Ubuntu 5.04) -- only started to play with some boards like Udoo Neo and Nano Pi M1 Plus this year and I like Armbian. One of my main objectives with Armbian is to carry out tests for libusb related open source projects like libftdi/HIDAPI/pyusb/openocd/etc. The other objective is to learn more about embedded Linux.

I also see this in various version. In the end, I think this is due to the fact that somehow the file system permission got messed up. You can try the server version and you will be able to log-in. But then sudo will not work due to permission problems. I suspected that the pp "Update&Backup" is the culprit but I do not know whether it is the problem or not. I have an X96 mini and I did not encounter this issue in the earlier version of the FW. I do have a workaround, since we only need to use "Update&Backup" once, just format the messed-up SD card and do it again -- your next image will work. I've tried this with multiple versions for the past week.