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Hello everyone, I am trying to install Armbian on my Android TV Box, but unfortunately, I flashed an incorrect firmware. Now the device is hard-bricked: the red and blue LEDs are blinking alternately, there is no HDMI output (black screen), and the physical reset button is not working properly. I already have an SD card loaded with the multitool to install Armbian, but I need to force the SoC into Maskrom Mode first so it can bypass the corrupted eMMC and boot from the SD card. Device Specifications: SoC: Rockchip RK3228A Board ID: T39-V1.0 Storage: eMMC (BGA type) I have attached the front and back photos of my PCB board (IMG-20260607-WA0027.jpg and IMG-20260607-WA0031.jpg) for reference. Could anyone help me identify the exact and safe test points (CLK to GND shorting points) for this specific T39-V1.0 board layout? Thank you so much for your help!

I tried but failed because I didn't understand at first, but now I understand part of it, and my TV box is malfunctioning. The problem is that when I plug in the power cord with the adapter, no lights or anything come on, but when I plug in the USB cable near the LAN port, it starts up normally (because I initially followed method 4.2. Full install to NAND / eMMC). Now I've flashed the Android firmware and it's working, but the error is as I described above. So, is the power IC dead or is the problem somewhere else?

Hi everyone! 👋 I managed to get Armbian running on a generic RK3518 TV box — mainline U-Boot, onboard Ethernet, and AIC8800D80 SDIO Wi-Fi all working. I couldn't find a single RK3518 thread here when I started, so I wrote everything up to help the community. Full step-by-step guide, device tree, and the loader binaries I built are in my GitHub repo: 👉https://github.com/juliovendramini/rk3518_armbian Happy to answer questions. Hope it helps someone! 🙂

i am running a H96(model RK3318) android tv box, its old, i have lost itss remote as well. basically noow i am tryinh to install ambrain os on it, but the conditon now is , even the android id now visible on the tv/monitor, basically when i insert the power cable on the display "boot" is showing with blue light. after few sec, some number like "07:01" is showing, but when i connect my htmi cable, the tv is detecting the htmi. but its showing no signal. basically there is no output on the display. i have tried many methods, there is no problem in htmi, or tv or cable. the andoird itself not booting. and the sd card method for ambrain also not working . tried the toothpick method and everything. but still its nott working!. i dont know why there is no output on the display. i dont know whhat issue. usb, htmi, everything is working. even charger also working.

I'm getting this weird graphical artifact on a Radxa Rock 4SE connected to a TV via HDMI. It covers roughly a third of the right side of the display, note that the terminal window is covered by the artifact but the cursor is above it. I started from a Debian minimal image and added the desktop environment via armbian-config. The artifact is visible on both GNOME and KDE Plasma (with fully updated system on both rolling and stable) but not with XFCE. It also disappears with resolutions lower than 4K or switching to tty. Any idea what might be causing this?

These Chinese people are very creative. I never imagined seeing a TV box with a SATA port. @Astlin You will need to interact with the .dts file to build a .dtb file with this capability. Before taking any action, check if your board is not from this other JP-Box project. https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/patch/kernel/archive/rockchip64-7.1/dt/rk3566-jp-tvbox.dts The topic you should interact with is this one here: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/31887-jianpian-rk3566-tv-box-8g32g-develop-log/#comment-175700 I don't actually have access to the JP-box @Astlin. If you are using the H96 max RK3566 firmware, the SATA port may not be enabled, but you can enable kernel changes within the Armbian compilation menu and insert your changes into the board's DTS file. https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/patch/kernel/archive/rockchip64-7.1/dt/rk3566-h96-tvbox.dts I believe the person responsible for this sign is @tdleiyao @ning have tested our DTB file on JianPian device https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/config/boards/jp-tvbox-3566.tvb If you have time, we can update the JP-box project in the correct topic. https://forum.armbian.com/topic/31887-jianpian-rk3566-tv-box-8g32g-develop-log/#comment-175700 I have maintained a sample repository with the necessary data to enable RK3566 cards in Armbian. https://github.com/hqnicolas/ArmBoardBringUp The reason JP-box isn't working is that it was enabled in kernel 6.6, and we're already on 7.1, nobody updates this since then. You can use the H96 modifications as start point. this modifications apply to the JP-box, but some functions, such as the SATA port, require customization.

Tell me please. TV Box JPTV RK3566 8GB RAM eMMC 32GB, WIFI/BT, USB2, USB3, there is no SATA. There is no microSD connector and wiring for it on the board. (I can attach additional photos of the board). Android 11 was working fine. According to the instructions, I flashed on Armbian_community_26.2.0-trunk.904_Jp-tvbox-3566_trixie_current_6.18.29_minimal.img. When loading in the terminal, I got this error: Then I tried to flash on Armbian_community_26.2.0-trunk.904_H96-tvbox-3566_resolute_current_6.18.30_kde-plasma_desktop.img - the board started and I was able to safely run a couple of tests for the presence of a decoder/encoder through the terminal and ssh: but SATA does not work. Can you tell me why the "native" firmware for this board does not start?

Hi, I need help with flashing my tv box or installing it on linux. I would also be happy if you could run an armbian or similar minimal system. I would like to run a website on it at home. I already did it for an old venz v10 for a friend and installed armbian on it and he really liked it, but my couldn't install it with a memory card, the on new box 1. System Information Google Android Tv Box - Android 14 Android Version: 14 (Upside Down Cake) API Level: 34 Android Security Patch Level: 2025-01-01 Rooted Device: No Android ID: 5c4aa62950194797 Build ID: rk3528_box_32-userdebug 14 UTT2.241219.001 eng.hxws.20260124.163421 release-keys Codename: REL Fingerprint: google/blueline/blueline:14/UTT2.241219.001/eng.hxws.20260124.163421:userdebug/release-keys ID: UTT2.241219.001 Incremental: eng.hxws.20260124.163421 Java Runtime Version: Android Runtime 0.9 Java Virtual Machine Version: ART 2.1.0 Java Virtual Machine Heap Size: 128 MB Kernel Architecture: armv7l Kernel Version: 6.1.118 (hxws@PowerEdge-R720-8) (Android 10087095, +pgo, +bolt, +lto, -mlgo, based on clang 17.0.2 of r487747c (https://android.googlesource.com/toolchain/llvm-project d9f89f4d16663d5012e5c09495f3b30ece3d2362), LLD 17.0.2) #124 SMP PREEMPT Wed Jan 21 10:25:12 CST 2026 Tags: release-keys Type: userdebug Google Play Services Version: < None > Huawei Mobile Services Version: OpenSSL 1.1.1 (compatible; BoringSSL) OpenSSL Version: 1.2.13 ZLib Version: 1.2.13 2. Hardware and Processor (CPU/Device) Device Type: TV Manufacturer: Google Model: android_tv_box Brand: google Motherboard: RK3528 Device: blueline Hardware: rk30board Platform: rk3528 Product: blueline Processor: RK3528, 4 cores SoC Model: RockChip RK3528 Core Architecture: 4x ARM Cortex-A53 @ 2016 MHz Instruction Set: 64-bit ARMv8-A (32-bit mode) CPU Version: r0p4 CPU Cores: 4 CPU Clock Range: 408 - 2016 MHz CPU Utilization: 5% Scaler Controller: Interactive Supported ABIs: armeabi-v7a, armeabi Supported 32-bit ABIs: armeabi-v7a, armeabi AES/ASIMD/NEON/PMULL/SHA1/SHA2: Supported 3. Memory and Storage (RAM/Storage) Installed RAM: 2 GB Total Memory: 1920 MB Available Memory: 1221 MB Memory Used: 707 MB (36% of 1.9 GB) Total Internal Storage: 11.00 GB Free Internal storage: 10.11 GB Storage usage: 914 MB (8% of 11 GB) 4. Display and GPU (Display) Display: 1920 x 1080 (Full HD, 16:9) Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080 xdpi / ydpi: 320 / 320 dpi GPU manufacturer: ARM GPU renderer: Mali-450 MP Refresh rate: 60 Hz Default orientation: Landscape OpenGL ES version: 2.0 GPU version: OpenGL ES 2.0 OpenGL ES extensions: (List: GL_EXT_debug_marker, GL_OES_texture_npot, GL_OES_vertex_array_object, GL_OES_compressed_ETC1_RGB8_texture, GL_EXT_compressed_ETC1_RGB8_sub_texture, GL_OES_standard_derivatives, GL_OES_EGL_image, GL_OES_depth24, GL_ARM_rgba8, GL_ARM_mali_shader_binary, GL_OES_depth_texture, GL_OES_packed_depth_stencil, GL_EXT_texture_format_BGRA8888, GL_OES_vertex_half_float, GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_OES_EGL_image_external, GL_OES_EGL_sync, GL_OES_rgb8_rgba8, GL_EXT_discards_framebuffer, GL_OES_get_program_binary, GL_ARM_mali_program_binary, GL_EXT_shader_texture_lod) 5. Network and Connections (Network/Bluetooth/USB) Network: WiFi Telephony: None Wi-Fi Status: Enabled SSID: BSSID: 02:00:00:00:00:00 Hidden SSID: No IPv4 Address: 192.168.1.35 IPv6 Address: fe80::5ef3:83b1:27d0:574a Signal Strength: -46 dBm (Excellent) Link Speed: 54 Mbps Frequency: 2427 MHz Gateway: 192.168.1.254 Netmask: 255.255.255.0 DNS1: 192.168.1.254 DHCP Lease Time: 24 hours 5 GHz Band: Supported Wi-Fi Aware: Not Supported Wi-Fi Direct: Supported Bluetooth: Enabled Bluetooth Version: 4+ USB Device - Linux 6.1.118 ehci_hcd EHCI Host Controller: (Serial Number: ff100000.usb, ID: 1D6B-0002, Class: 09/00, Speed: 480 Mbps) USB Device - Linux 6.1.118 xhci_hcd xHCI Host Controller: (Serial Number: xhci-hcd.4.auto, ID: 1D6B-0002, Class: 09/00, Speed: 480 Mbps) USB Device - YICHIP Wireless Device 6. Other Data Audio: HDMI 7.1 Codecs: Widevine L3 (SD only) Wireless Debugging: Enabled IP Address and Port: 192.168.1.35:40729 Wi-Fi pairing code: 642947 IP address and port (for pairing): 192.168.1.35:40035 Device features: (List: android.hardware.audio.output, android.hardware.bluetooth, android.hardware.bluetooth_le, android.hardware.camera, android.hardware.camera.any, android.hardware.camera.external, android.hardware.camera.front, android.hardware.cetherandroid.hdware.mi android.hardware.keystore.app_attest_key, android.hardware.location, android.hardware.location.network)

Hi, I can't find an image for my TV box and I was wondering if anyone has one that I could use on the device. Thanks for your help

Hi I am trying to breathe some life into an older generic Amlogic TV box on my workbench and am hitting a brick wall with modern mainline images. I’m looking for a copy of a legacy, community-archived Armbian image (Kernel 5.4.y, 5.10.y, or 4.19.y) tailored for the S905X / S905W (meson-gxl) architecture. The newer automated GitHub builds (6.12+ kernels) completely purge the old asset files, and modern multi-stage boot configurations (boot.scr) are being entirely bypassed by my box's legacy onboard bootloader. Hardware Specs & Current Context: SoC: Amlogic S905X / S905W variant (Generic budget clone box, likely 1GB RAM) Target DTBs I'm testing: meson-gxl-s905x-p212.dtb or meson-gxl-s905w-tx3-mini.dtb The Baseline (Crucial Detail): CoreELEC-Amlogic.arm-9.2.8-Generic boots instantly and functions flawlessly from a Class 4 MicroSD card on this box. CoreELEC The Problem: Modern Armbian ophub images (6.x mainline kernels) fail to engage the bootloader at power-on and skip straight to the internal, native Android OS, even with aml_autoscript renames or script adjustments. Because CoreELEC 9.2.8 catches immediately, I know the physical hardware, SD slot bus, and basic external boot priority work perfectly. It confirms this specific box requires a primitive build structure that still utilizes the true legacy u-boot.ext chain-loader file on the root partition and simple text configuration (uEnv.ini or early uEnv.txt configurations) which these stubborn eMMC controllers require to handshake. CoreELEC If anyone has a preserved .img.xz or .img.gz file sitting on a local drive or a private cloud mirror (like an old balbes150 or flippy build from 2020–2022), I would greatly appreciate a download link! Thanks in advance for keeping the legacy hardware archive alive.

Hi, I can suggest a general procedure but it is not guaranteed to work for every TV-Box. 1) Be sure of what TV-box you have (Allwinner, Ambian or Rockship); 2) download git clone --depth=1 --branch=main https://github.com/armbian/build 3) open downloaded git and search for /build/patch/u-boot 4) select the directory that corresponds to your TV-box. For example: /build/patch/u-boot/u-boot-sunxi 5) edit arm64-sun50i-H313-add-lpddr3-deconfig.patch, if you have a secure image: add +CONFIG_SPL_IMAGE_TYPE_SUNXI_TOC0=y and increment the counter to 32 (@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@) and "secure-boot.patch" to /build/patch/u-boot/u-boot-sunxi. See procedure here https://forum.armbian.com/profile/210518-nick-a/ 6) ./compile.sh observing Nick's instructions.

I fried SOIC-8 IC (Probably power management) on H96 Max X2 PCB (I-BOX TV) by applying 12V If anyone (@Thang?) has a board like that, please take a close up of that chip on the back side. I might be able to source it and replace it. Original related topic by Thang is here. BTW, there is native console available on pretty much all Armbian boards, that lets you see linux messages before they appear on the HDMI port. It helps to understand the bootloader sequence, u-boot sequence and gives you root access.

Hi @Jean-Francois Lessard Thanks for sharing the new openvfd option for Armbian. I am using a Allwinner H618 Android 12 TV box that got FD6551 controller. I have verified the chip model by opening the box. The headers of respective version is also installed and I have double checked that. apt install -y linux-headers-edge-sunxi64 Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading state information... Done linux-headers-edge-sunxi64 is already the newest version (25.11.2). From the Android dts file I can find the following. I have tried the configuration mentioned here as well but there is no VFD output. Is there any other configuration I have to check or modify for the VFD to work? leds { leds_clk = <0x23 0x08 0x0b 0x00>; leds_dat = <0x23 0x08 0x0c 0x00>; status = "okay"; }; fd655_para { device_type = "fd655_para"; compatible = "Ik,fd655_dev"; fd655_clk_io = <0x23 0x07 0x06 0x01>; fd655_dat_io = <0x23 0x07 0x07 0x01>; status = "okay"; }; ald-colorleds { compatible = "elebao,colorleds"; dev_name = "ald-colorleds"; pinctrl-0 = <0x70>; colorleds_data_gpio = <0x23 0x07 0x02 0x01>; status = "okay"; }; I tried to make the module as you have instructed, however I am getting the below given error messages. /tm16xx-display# make module make EXTRA_CFLAGS="-DCONFIG_TM16XX -DCONFIG_TM16XX_KEYPAD -DCONFIG_TM16XX_I2C -DCONFIG_TM16XX_SPI -include /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/tm16xx_compat.h -I/root/tm16xx-display/include/" -C /lib/modules/6.12.11-edge-sunxi64/build M=/root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay CONFIG_TM16XX=m CONFIG_TM16XX_KEYPAD=y CONFIG_TM16XX_I2C=m CONFIG_TM16XX_SPI=m CONFIG_LINEDISP=m modules make[1]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-6.12.11-edge-sunxi64' CC [M] /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.o CC [M] /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/tm16xx_core.o CC [M] /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/tm16xx_keypad.o LD [M] /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/tm16xx.o CC [M] /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/tm16xx_i2c.o CC [M] /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/tm16xx_spi.o MODPOST /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/Module.symvers CC [M] /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.o In file included from /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.c:2: /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.c:13:41: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘LINEDISP’ 13 | KSYMTAB_FUNC(linedisp_attach, "_gpl", ""LINEDISP""); | ^~~~~~~~ ./include/linux/export-internal.h:45:28: note: in definition of macro ‘__KSYMTAB’ 45 | " .asciz \"" ns "\"" "\n" \ | ^~ /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.c:13:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘KSYMTAB_FUNC’ 13 | KSYMTAB_FUNC(linedisp_attach, "_gpl", ""LINEDISP""); | ^~~~~~~~~~~~ ./include/linux/export-internal.h:41:12: note: to match this ‘(’ 41 | asm(" .section \"__ksymtab_strings\",\"aMS\",%progbits,1" "\n" \ | ^ ./include/linux/export-internal.h:62:41: note: in expansion of macro ‘__KSYMTAB’ 62 | #define KSYMTAB_FUNC(name, sec, ns) __KSYMTAB(name, KSYM_FUNC(name), sec, ns) | ^~~~~~~~~ /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.c:13:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘KSYMTAB_FUNC’ 13 | KSYMTAB_FUNC(linedisp_attach, "_gpl", ""LINEDISP""); | ^~~~~~~~~~~~ /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.c:14:41: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘LINEDISP’ 14 | KSYMTAB_FUNC(linedisp_detach, "_gpl", ""LINEDISP""); | ^~~~~~~~ ./include/linux/export-internal.h:45:28: note: in definition of macro ‘__KSYMTAB’ 45 | " .asciz \"" ns "\"" "\n" \ | ^~ /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.c:14:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘KSYMTAB_FUNC’ 14 | KSYMTAB_FUNC(linedisp_detach, "_gpl", ""LINEDISP""); | ^~~~~~~~~~~~ ./include/linux/export-internal.h:41:12: note: to match this ‘(’ 41 | asm(" .section \"__ksymtab_strings\",\"aMS\",%progbits,1" "\n" \ | ^ ./include/linux/export-internal.h:62:41: note: in expansion of macro ‘__KSYMTAB’ 62 | #define KSYMTAB_FUNC(name, sec, ns) __KSYMTAB(name, KSYM_FUNC(name), sec, ns) | ^~~~~~~~~ /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.c:14:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘KSYMTAB_FUNC’ 14 | KSYMTAB_FUNC(linedisp_detach, "_gpl", ""LINEDISP""); | ^~~~~~~~~~~~ /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.c:15:43: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘LINEDISP’ 15 | KSYMTAB_FUNC(linedisp_register, "_gpl", ""LINEDISP""); | ^~~~~~~~ ./include/linux/export-internal.h:45:28: note: in definition of macro ‘__KSYMTAB’ 45 | " .asciz \"" ns "\"" "\n" \ | ^~ /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.c:15:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘KSYMTAB_FUNC’ 15 | KSYMTAB_FUNC(linedisp_register, "_gpl", ""LINEDISP""); | ^~~~~~~~~~~~ ./include/linux/export-internal.h:41:12: note: to match this ‘(’ 41 | asm(" .section \"__ksymtab_strings\",\"aMS\",%progbits,1" "\n" \ | ^ ./include/linux/export-internal.h:62:41: note: in expansion of macro ‘__KSYMTAB’ 62 | #define KSYMTAB_FUNC(name, sec, ns) __KSYMTAB(name, KSYM_FUNC(name), sec, ns) | ^~~~~~~~~ /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.c:15:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘KSYMTAB_FUNC’ 15 | KSYMTAB_FUNC(linedisp_register, "_gpl", ""LINEDISP""); | ^~~~~~~~~~~~ /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.c:16:45: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘LINEDISP’ 16 | KSYMTAB_FUNC(linedisp_unregister, "_gpl", ""LINEDISP""); | ^~~~~~~~ ./include/linux/export-internal.h:45:28: note: in definition of macro ‘__KSYMTAB’ 45 | " .asciz \"" ns "\"" "\n" \ | ^~ /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.c:16:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘KSYMTAB_FUNC’ 16 | KSYMTAB_FUNC(linedisp_unregister, "_gpl", ""LINEDISP""); | ^~~~~~~~~~~~ ./include/linux/export-internal.h:41:12: note: to match this ‘(’ 41 | asm(" .section \"__ksymtab_strings\",\"aMS\",%progbits,1" "\n" \ | ^ ./include/linux/export-internal.h:62:41: note: in expansion of macro ‘__KSYMTAB’ 62 | #define KSYMTAB_FUNC(name, sec, ns) __KSYMTAB(name, KSYM_FUNC(name), sec, ns) | ^~~~~~~~~ /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.c:16:1: note: in expansion of macro ‘KSYMTAB_FUNC’ 16 | KSYMTAB_FUNC(linedisp_unregister, "_gpl", ""LINEDISP""); | ^~~~~~~~~~~~ make[3]: *** [scripts/Makefile.modfinal:31: /root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.mod.o] Error 1 make[2]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-6.12.11-edge-sunxi64/Makefile:1870: modules] Error 2 make[1]: *** [Makefile:224: __sub-make] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-6.12.11-edge-sunxi64' make: *** [Makefile:50: module] Error 2 root@homeassistant2:~/tm16xx-display# make-module install make-module: command not found root@homeassistant2:~/tm16xx-display# make module-install make -C /lib/modules/6.12.11-edge-sunxi64/build M=/root/tm16xx-display/drivers/auxdisplay CONFIG_TM16XX=m CONFIG_TM16XX_KEYPAD=y CONFIG_TM16XX_I2C=m CONFIG_TM16XX_SPI=m CONFIG_LINEDISP=m modules_install INSTALL_MOD_PATH= make[1]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-6.12.11-edge-sunxi64' DEPMOD /lib/modules/6.12.11-edge-sunxi64 Warning: modules_install: missing 'System.map' file. Skipping depmod. make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-6.12.11-edge-sunxi64' root@homeassistant2:~/tm16xx-display# make service-install modprobe tm16xx modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'tm16xx': Exec format error make: *** [Makefile:60: service-install] Error 1

@Nick A Thanks for releasing the wonderful Armbian image for the Allwinner H618 and for supporting the community with your valuable suggestions. I recently purchased a TV box with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage running Android 12. I downloaded Armbian-unofficial_25.05.0-trunk_Transpeed-8k618-t_bookworm_edge_6.12.11_server.img.xz from here and flashed it to an SD card using BalenaEtcher. The box boots successfully, and I can configure it via the CLI. However, this motherboard is different from the ones previously posted here. The silkscreen on the board reads "X3Plus_H618_4bit_V3.0". Based on the naming convention and the appearance of the device, it seems to be the model available here. This board uses an FD6551 chip for the front VFD display. I have managed to extract .img file from the stock android. Are there any modifications I need to make to get the Wi-Fi, USB ports, and front VFD working? Could you please suggest? Things that are working: HDMI Display LAN Controller 1 out of the 2 USB ports. The port near to SD Card slot more precisely Things that are not working: WiFi - The chip got a metal shield. On top of the shield it is written with W804S1, inside the shield I could find AIC8800D40 chip. 1 x USB Port - Near the top left hand corner Front VFD display.

Hello, I have a Tanix TX6-A TV box and I’ve tried many Armbian builds, including the ones from https://armbian.com/boards/tanix-tx6 and ophub. However, the onboard Wi-Fi does not work on any of them. Has anyone found an Armbian image that works properly with the Tanix TX6-A, including Wi-Fi support?

--- Hey everyone! Long-time lurker, first post here. I picked up one of those cheap RK3229 TV boxes and decided to see how far I could push it on a mainline kernel — no Android, no BSP, no blobs. What started as curiosity about whether rkvdec actually worked on kernel 6.6 turned into a full rabbit hole of GStreamer pipelines, PHY register dumps, and DRM memory bandwidth math. The whole debugging and documentation process was done collaboratively with Claude (Anthropic's AI assistant), which made it a lot easier to dig into kernel driver internals and iterate on the pipeline without spending weeks at it. All the results were validated on real hardware. Sharing here in case it saves someone else the same rabbit hole. --- [GUIDE] Hardware H.264 decode at 720p — mainline kernel 6.6, GStreamer, no blobs After spending some time on my RK3229 TV box running Armbian 24.2.5 Bookworm (kernel 6.6.22-current-rockchip), I got hardware H.264 decode working at 720p real-time using only mainline kernel drivers and open-source GStreamer plugins. Posting here in case it helps others. --- What works - H.264 720p@30fps fully hardware decoded via rkvdec (the mainline V4L2 stateless decoder) - Direct HDMI output via kmssink (DRM/KMS — no X11, no Wayland needed) - Audio output via ALSA (HDMI or analog) - YouTube streaming with audio+video in sync using a small proxy server What doesn't work and why - 1080p: The decoder itself handles it, but writing ~90 MB/s of NV12 frames to uncached DRM memory saturates the Cortex-A7 memory bus. Not a software problem — there's no fix without DMA-BUF zero-copy between rkvdec and the DRM subsystem. - YouTube in a browser: Browsers do their own software decode — no VA-API bridge exists for rkvdec on mainline. Even with a desktop environment installed, frame rate will be unusable. - HEVC / AV1: Not supported by rkvdec on RK3228/RK3229. --- The GStreamer pipeline # Local H.264 file — video only gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=video.mp4 ! qtdemux ! h264parse \ ! v4l2slh264dec ! videoconvert ! kmssink driver-name=rockchip sync=true # YouTube streaming with audio (requires proxy — see repo) gst-launch-1.0 -e \ souphttpsrc location="http://PROXY_IP:8091/play?v=VIDEO_ID&q=720&fmt=ts" automatic-redirect=true ! \ tsdemux name=demux \ demux. ! queue ! h264parse ! v4l2slh264dec ! videoconvert ! kmssink driver-name=rockchip sync=true \ demux. ! queue ! aacparse ! avdec_aac ! audioconvert ! audioresample \ ! "audio/x-raw,rate=44100,channels=2" ! alsasink device=hw:2 Key points: - v4l2slh264dec is the stateless GStreamer element — do not use h264_v4l2m2m (that's for stateful decoders like RPi) - kmssink driver-name=rockchip uses /dev/dri/card0 (Rockchip DRM display), not the Lima GPU - For YouTube, MPEG-TS (fmt=ts) is required — fragmented MP4 with empty_moov breaks GStreamer cap negotiation --- Why this is different from Jock's media framework Jock's framework uses kernel 4.4 + RKMPP proprietary blobs. This uses kernel 6.6 mainline + rkvdec upstream driver + open-source GStreamer. No blobs, works with current Armbian, survives kernel upgrades. --- Requirements - Armbian 24.x with kernel 6.6-current-rockchip (kernel 5.15 / Bullseye not tested — V4L2 stateless API wasn't stable until 5.18) - GStreamer 1.22 from Debian Bookworm sudo apt install -y gstreamer1.0-tools gstreamer1.0-plugins-base \ gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad \ gstreamer1.0-libav gstreamer1.0-alsa --- Repo with scripts and full setup guide https://github.com/Reinoldo-Ozy/rk322x-mediaplayer Includes the yt-play playback script and the proxy server (yt_proxy.py) with systemd unit. The README covers the full setup, performance numbers, and a detailed limitations section. Tested on a generic MXQ Pro-style box with RK3229, 2 GB RAM, Armbian 24.2.5 Bookworm, kernel 6.6.22-current-rockchip, DTB rk322x-box.dtb.

This week's work advances on three fronts: kernel and bleedingedge alignment across Rockchip and Sunxi trees, board and platform enablement spanning RV1106 to SpacemiT, and CI hardening with self-hosted runner maintenance. On the kernel side, bleedingedge was bumped to 7.1-rc3, accompanied by cfg80211 API fixes and re-enablement of the rtl8189fs and rtl8852bs drivers for the new release. Both the rockchip64 and sunxi patch stacks for current and edge were rewritten, an upstream ptrace fix for CVE-2026-46333 was backported to linux-rockchip, and the odroidxu4-current kernel moved to 6.6.139. Platform enablement was broad. The Ayn Odin2 gained 7.0 kernel support, the Mekotronics R58X-Pro switched its vendor build to mainline U-Boot with a corrected LCD driver, and the H96 TV box advanced to U-Boot v2026.04. RV1106 transitioned from extlinux to a bootscript and gained DS1307, PCF85063, and RV8803 RTC drivers, while SpacemiT received OpenSBI, U-Boot, and BPI-F3 DTS fixups. Smaller but user-visible improvements include NanoPi M5 second USB3 port exposure via DRD0 host-mode pinning, NORCO EMB-3531 LPDDR4X variants, RK3528 USB2 PHY corrections for high-speed NCM, and UEFI x86 images enabling iwlwifi MLD and Intel SOF audio for MTL, LNL, and PTL. Infrastructure work centered on self-hosted runner reliability and supply-chain hygiene. A new runner-cleanup module provides hourly disk and memory maintenance, skips busy runners, and ships via .deb, while a maintenance watchdog was added to the SDK repository. Multiple StepSecurity hardening passes landed across build and SDK workflows, though an overly strict egress-policy was subsequently reverted after breaking builds. #Armbian #EmbeddedLinux #Rockchip #RISCV #KernelDevelopment ChangesActions: Cleanup "Release" workflow. by @vidplace7 in armbian/MorseMicro-DKMS#4Actions: Create release workflow. by @vidplace7 in armbian/MorseMicro-DKMS#3Ayn Odin2 kernel 7.0 support. by @kasimling in armbian/build#9706Build for riscv64. by @vidplace7 in armbian/MorseMicro-DKMS#5Bump actions/download-artifact from 7 to 8. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/os#464Bump versions: stable 26.5.0, nightly 26.8.0-trunk.1. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/os#461bump bleedingedge to 7.1-rc3. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#9806cfg80211: fix API changes for Linux 7.1. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/wifi-rtl8852bs#5change recomputer rk35xx fan speed. by @ackPeng in armbian/linux-rockchip#472ci: add maintenance watchdog + rename action.yml → build-armbian-sdk.yml. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/sdk#25ci: drop step-security/harden-runner steps (egress-policy was breaking builds). by @igorpecovnik in armbian/sdk#26desktops: ship fprintd userspace at mid tier. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#918desktops: split light/dark wallpapers in gnome + bianbu postinsts. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#905Disable: SpacemiT: fix RX DMA params not set when TX is running. by @pyavitz in armbian/build#9808drivers_network: bump rtl8852bs commit ref to 35d3e266 (May 17). by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#9841drop old lcd_vk2c21 LCD driver that never worked; backport workingvinka,vk2c21 driver; fix Mekos DTs. by @rpardini in armbian/linux-rockchip#482ebyte-ecb41-pge: Add spidev overlays (RPi-compatible). by @vidplace7 in armbian/linux-rockchip#467firmware-sof-signed: move from cli/amd64 baseline to UEFI common. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#9857fix(deps): add Pygments to requirements.txt (rich.syntax dep). by @iav in armbian/build#9819luckfox-lyra-zero-w: Default to onboard wifi antenna, add ipex overlay. by @vidplace7 in armbian/linux-rockchip#468maintenance-watchdog: target the workflow that actually exists. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#915Mekotronics R58X-Pro (vendor): use mainline u-boot for vendor; use new LCD driver. by @rpardini in armbian/build#9836module_armbian_runners: skip busy runners + ship runner-cleanup assets via .deb. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#914module_qbittorrent: poll for temporary password before showing dialog. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#916nanopi-m5: pin DRD0 dwc3 to host mode to expose the second USB3 port. by @SuperKali in armbian/build#9844NORCO EMB-3531: Add LPDDR4X variants support. by @retro98boy in armbian/build#9823patch/sunxi-6.12: drop two Rockchip SPI patches (not applicable to sunxi). by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#9827postinst/gnome: enable tap-to-click + clickpad right-click out of the box. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#917Potential fix for code scanning alert no. 2: Code injection. by @iav in armbian/build#9799ptrace: backport upstream fix for CVE-2026-46333 (ssh-keysign-pwn). by @SuperKali in armbian/linux-rockchip#481restore backwards compatibility. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/wifi-rtl8852bs#6rockchip rk3566: h96-TVbox: bump to uboot v2026.04. by @hqnicolas in armbian/build#9807rockchip64-6.18: rebase rk3399 dwc3 phy-reset-quirk patch for 6.18.32. by @SuperKali in armbian/build#9847rockchip64: fix RK3528 USB2 PHY regmap split for high-speed NCM. by @rubycomm in armbian/build#9785rockchip64: opt-in helios64 CPU stability overlay (current + edge). by @iav in armbian/build#9822rockchip64: rewrite patches of current and edge. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#9829rtl8189fs: fix compilation for 7.1 and re-enable. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#9813rtl8852bs: re-enable for bleedingedge. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#9831runner-cleanup: drop redundant age-based _diag prune. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#921runner-cleanup: hourly disk + memory maintenance for self-hosted runner hosts. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#913runner-cleanup: wipe _diag/pages/ alongside _work/. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#919runner-cleanup: wipe ~/_diag/ on every runner each pass. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#920RV1106: add support for additional RTC drivers (DS1307, PCF85063, RV8803). by @vidplace7 in armbian/build#9812RV1106: Switch u-boot from extlinux to bootscript. by @vidplace7 in armbian/build#9801SpacemiT: Fixup OpenSBI, U-Boot and BPI-F3 DTS. by @pyavitz in armbian/build#9838sunxi: rewrite kernel patches of current and edge. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#9828uefi-x86: enable iwlwifi MLD + Intel SOF (MTL/LNL/PTL) audio. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#9846Update documentation / packaging URLs. by @vidplace7 in armbian/MorseMicro-DKMS#2Update MorseMicro suite to 1.17.8. by @vidplace7 in armbian/MorseMicro-DKMS#1Update nanopi r5s udev rule tweak for persistent net interface names. by @ruabmbua in armbian/build#9811Update odroidxu4-current to 6.6.139. by @belegdol in armbian/build#9837Workaround devcontainer/ci platform issues. by @vidplace7 in armbian/MorseMicro-DKMS#6[StepSecurity] Apply security best practices. by @step-security-bot in armbian/build#9833[StepSecurity] Apply security best practices. by @step-security-bot in armbian/build#9839[StepSecurity] Apply security best practices. by @step-security-bot in armbian/sdk#24[StepSecurity] ci: Harden GitHub Actions. by @step-security-bot in armbian/build#9803[StepSecurity] ci: Harden GitHub Actions. by @step-security-bot in armbian/build#9825View the full article

This week's work advances on three fronts: kernel and bleedingedge alignment across Rockchip and Sunxi trees, board and platform enablement spanning RV1106 to SpacemiT, and CI hardening with self-hosted runner maintenance. On the kernel side, bleedingedge was bumped to 7.1-rc3, accompanied by cfg80211 API fixes and re-enablement of the rtl8189fs and rtl8852bs drivers for the new release. Both the rockchip64 and sunxi patch stacks for current and edge were rewritten, an upstream ptrace fix for CVE-2026-46333 was backported to linux-rockchip, and the odroidxu4-current kernel moved to 6.6.139. Platform enablement was broad. The Ayn Odin2 gained 7.0 kernel support, the Mekotronics R58X-Pro switched its vendor build to mainline U-Boot with a corrected LCD driver, and the H96 TV box advanced to U-Boot v2026.04. RV1106 transitioned from extlinux to a bootscript and gained DS1307, PCF85063, and RV8803 RTC drivers, while SpacemiT received OpenSBI, U-Boot, and BPI-F3 DTS fixups. Smaller but user-visible improvements include NanoPi M5 second USB3 port exposure via DRD0 host-mode pinning, NORCO EMB-3531 LPDDR4X variants, RK3528 USB2 PHY corrections for high-speed NCM, and UEFI x86 images enabling iwlwifi MLD and Intel SOF audio for MTL, LNL, and PTL. Infrastructure work centered on self-hosted runner reliability and supply-chain hygiene. A new runner-cleanup module provides hourly disk and memory maintenance, skips busy runners, and ships via .deb, while a maintenance watchdog was added to the SDK repository. Multiple StepSecurity hardening passes landed across build and SDK workflows, though an overly strict egress-policy was subsequently reverted after breaking builds. #Armbian #EmbeddedLinux #Rockchip #RISCV #KernelDevelopment ChangesActions: Cleanup "Release" workflow. by @vidplace7 in armbian/MorseMicro-DKMS#4Actions: Create release workflow. by @vidplace7 in armbian/MorseMicro-DKMS#3Ayn Odin2 kernel 7.0 support. by @kasimling in armbian/build#9706Build for riscv64. by @vidplace7 in armbian/MorseMicro-DKMS#5Bump actions/download-artifact from 7 to 8. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/os#464Bump versions: stable 26.5.0, nightly 26.8.0-trunk.1. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/os#461bump bleedingedge to 7.1-rc3. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#9806cfg80211: fix API changes for Linux 7.1. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/wifi-rtl8852bs#5change recomputer rk35xx fan speed. by @ackPeng in armbian/linux-rockchip#472ci: add maintenance watchdog + rename action.yml → build-armbian-sdk.yml. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/sdk#25ci: drop step-security/harden-runner steps (egress-policy was breaking builds). by @igorpecovnik in armbian/sdk#26desktops: ship fprintd userspace at mid tier. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#918desktops: split light/dark wallpapers in gnome + bianbu postinsts. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#905Disable: SpacemiT: fix RX DMA params not set when TX is running. by @pyavitz in armbian/build#9808drivers_network: bump rtl8852bs commit ref to 35d3e266 (May 17). by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#9841drop old lcd_vk2c21 LCD driver that never worked; backport workingvinka,vk2c21 driver; fix Mekos DTs. by @rpardini in armbian/linux-rockchip#482ebyte-ecb41-pge: Add spidev overlays (RPi-compatible). by @vidplace7 in armbian/linux-rockchip#467firmware-sof-signed: move from cli/amd64 baseline to UEFI common. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#9857fix(deps): add Pygments to requirements.txt (rich.syntax dep). by @iav in armbian/build#9819luckfox-lyra-zero-w: Default to onboard wifi antenna, add ipex overlay. by @vidplace7 in armbian/linux-rockchip#468maintenance-watchdog: target the workflow that actually exists. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#915Mekotronics R58X-Pro (vendor): use mainline u-boot for vendor; use new LCD driver. by @rpardini in armbian/build#9836module_armbian_runners: skip busy runners + ship runner-cleanup assets via .deb. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#914module_qbittorrent: poll for temporary password before showing dialog. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#916nanopi-m5: pin DRD0 dwc3 to host mode to expose the second USB3 port. by @SuperKali in armbian/build#9844NORCO EMB-3531: Add LPDDR4X variants support. by @retro98boy in armbian/build#9823patch/sunxi-6.12: drop two Rockchip SPI patches (not applicable to sunxi). by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#9827postinst/gnome: enable tap-to-click + clickpad right-click out of the box. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#917Potential fix for code scanning alert no. 2: Code injection. by @iav in armbian/build#9799ptrace: backport upstream fix for CVE-2026-46333 (ssh-keysign-pwn). by @SuperKali in armbian/linux-rockchip#481restore backwards compatibility. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/wifi-rtl8852bs#6rockchip rk3566: h96-TVbox: bump to uboot v2026.04. by @hqnicolas in armbian/build#9807rockchip64-6.18: rebase rk3399 dwc3 phy-reset-quirk patch for 6.18.32. by @SuperKali in armbian/build#9847rockchip64: fix RK3528 USB2 PHY regmap split for high-speed NCM. by @rubycomm in armbian/build#9785rockchip64: opt-in helios64 CPU stability overlay (current + edge). by @iav in armbian/build#9822rockchip64: rewrite patches of current and edge. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#9829rtl8189fs: fix compilation for 7.1 and re-enable. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#9813rtl8852bs: re-enable for bleedingedge. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#9831runner-cleanup: drop redundant age-based _diag prune. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#921runner-cleanup: hourly disk + memory maintenance for self-hosted runner hosts. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#913runner-cleanup: wipe _diag/pages/ alongside _work/. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#919runner-cleanup: wipe ~/_diag/ on every runner each pass. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/configng#920RV1106: add support for additional RTC drivers (DS1307, PCF85063, RV8803). by @vidplace7 in armbian/build#9812RV1106: Switch u-boot from extlinux to bootscript. by @vidplace7 in armbian/build#9801SpacemiT: Fixup OpenSBI, U-Boot and BPI-F3 DTS. by @pyavitz in armbian/build#9838sunxi: rewrite kernel patches of current and edge. by @EvilOlaf in armbian/build#9828uefi-x86: enable iwlwifi MLD + Intel SOF (MTL/LNL/PTL) audio. by @igorpecovnik in armbian/build#9846Update documentation / packaging URLs. by @vidplace7 in armbian/MorseMicro-DKMS#2Update MorseMicro suite to 1.17.8. by @vidplace7 in armbian/MorseMicro-DKMS#1Update nanopi r5s udev rule tweak for persistent net interface names. by @ruabmbua in armbian/build#9811Update odroidxu4-current to 6.6.139. by @belegdol in armbian/build#9837Workaround devcontainer/ci platform issues. by @vidplace7 in armbian/MorseMicro-DKMS#6[StepSecurity] Apply security best practices. by @step-security-bot in armbian/build#9833[StepSecurity] Apply security best practices. by @step-security-bot in armbian/build#9839[StepSecurity] Apply security best practices. by @step-security-bot in armbian/sdk#24[StepSecurity] ci: Harden GitHub Actions. by @step-security-bot in armbian/build#9803[StepSecurity] ci: Harden GitHub Actions. by @step-security-bot in armbian/build#9825View the full article

I failed to flash the firmware of my TV box and it's now bricked. I need to re-flash it. Please tell me where the shorting point of this TV box is and how to flash it using the shorting point. Thank you.

Hello good people. I honestly had given up on that thing, until last weekend, where I set my mind to finally get it to work. And work, it does! eMMC works, display output works without a trouble, and only today I've seen @eloirotava's comment about the 6051. And I'm calling for help again on that one. I currently am using the kernel 7.0.8-meson64 (the current edge for the tv box) and no matter what i'm doing, there's no way for me to get the correct linux-header files, to compile and install that module. May a kind soul help me? I'll post a full documentation very soon, and will probably push my work to the armbian git, once everything is clean. Thank you very much in advance!

Hello everyone, I am reaching out to see if anyone in the community has successfully managed to get the internal Wi-Fi working on a box with the Realtek RTL8703bs chip. I have a MXQ Pro max (t9-RK3328) and I am using the latest Armbian build (Armbian_community_26.2.0-trunk.904_Rk3318-box_trixie_current_6.18.30_minimal.img.xz) provided by @jock for RK3318/RK3328 TV boxes. Here is the situation: 1. Using `rk3318-config` with `rk3318-box-led-conf1`, the chip is correctly powered and detected on the SDIO bus. 2. `dmesg` shows: `mmc1: new high speed SDIO card at address 0001`. 3. The hardware ID is confirmed as `024c:b703`. My questions : - Has anyone ever managed to make this specific chip (RTL8703bs) work on Armbian? - Does anyone have a patched driver (`.ko`), a specific `.dtbo` overlay, or a workaround that doesn't require recompiling the entire kernel from scratch? Here is my system log for reference: https://paste.armbian.com/ecadekazaz Thank you very much for your time and any advice you can share!

@ssdm2nvme Hi, whats up? I tried everything you recommended, including following some other tutorials beforehand, but I still can't get past the TV box's "BIOS" screen. It keeps restarting repeatedly, and I can never actually access the system. Do you have any idea what it could be?

Hi @Tavares R You should definetly check the "Media framework installer v0.1" by Jock, on this link -> https://forum.armbian.com/topic/34923-csc-armbian-for-rk322x-tv-box-boards/page/10/#comment-102655 Also, this other link contains a repo to install some patched libs to at least use decoded video -> https://forum.armbian.com/topic/32449-repository-for-v4l2request-hardware-video-decoding-rockchip-allwinner/ Hope it helps, but reality check is the rk3229 is just too weak to properly handle a full DE running a modern browser... Something also worth trying is to enable the "cpu-hs" overlay. it will "overclock" the rk3229 from 1200Mhz to 1400Mhz, giving some extra performance, but keep low expectations... PS: Are you brazillian by any means? Tavares is a very common last name in Brazil.

I created this account just to thank you, man. Thank you so much, it worked perfectly here. Finally, my old TV box has another use besides collecting dust.

TV Box Name: Intelbras IzyPlay Board name: DV8038 CPU: Amlogic S805X (GXL Meson, Rev D) Armbian build file name: Armbian_community_26.2.0-trunk.821_Aml-s9xx-box_trixie_current_6.18.26_minimal.img.xz DTB file used: meson-gxl-s805x-p241.dtb Kernel Version: 6.18.26-current-meson64 Distribution Installed: Debian 13 (Trixie) Working Ethernet: Yes Max Ethernet Speed that works: 100 Mbps Does wifi work: Yes Does bluetooth work: No Does HDMI audio work: Not tested (headless setup) Additional Comments: - Board has 1GB RAM (908MB available) and 7.3GB eMMC - HDMI output works (tested on a DELL P2219H) - Reset button is between USB1 and USB2 ports - USB2 port is required for booting (closest to power input) - To boot from USB: hold reset button while applying power, release after 15 seconds