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I am trying to install armbian on my Xiaomi mi tv box 3 I got the image on a flash drive it's a 16 gig USB 3 stick I got the files ready also but I don't know why it freezes when i enter the recovery screen and click on reboot to boatloader so If any on can help me fix this problem or start again that would be really useful thx

Hi, First of all, sorry for lengthy post and that I ask a lot of things at once, I am very new to linux and this would be my first real experience. I am trying to set up home automation and home assistant server. As I am just getting started to learn all the ropes, I thought about what could be used for sečrver and I remembered that I have an old T9 android TV box see the attachement, I read through this thread and tried to follow the instructions throughout the posts. I burned the armbian image to sd card, which insterted into the sd slot on the T9 board, however I am unable to get the board to boot from the sd card. The box boots normally into android, when no SD card is insterted. When the card is inserted, nothing happens and the box does not turn on at all. It may be a big ask, but would someone be able and willing to help me find out the next possible steps? I feel a bit overwhemed as I am not very knowledgable in this field and unsure how to follow the instructions, or better said, I am not sure if I am following the instructions right. Thank you!

Have you followed the information available on the download page? https://www.armbian.com/amlogic-s9xx-tv-box

Hello everyone, I have three Amlogic S905x TV boxes with a dead EMMC, and one with a desoldered EMMC (since I thought without it, they would boot from the microSD card). Is there a way to force them to boot into Armbian? Holding the power button doesn't work, and desoldering the EMMC didn't help either. I was able to boot Armbian using UART. A workaround is to use Ardruino, which sends commands to boot Armbian after a while, but that's a workaround, and I'd like a more elegant solution. 1) Download the *.img.gz image for the amlogic_s905x 2) Write the image to the microSD card using Rufus. 3) Connect the UART. Steps 2-6 in the brick instructions. 4) Insert the microSD card with Armbian into the console. 5) Turn on the console, close the testpoint, and at a certain point, the UART boot log will stop at gxl_p212_v1#. 6) Execute the following commands: mmc dev 1 env default -a -f;save setenv preboot 'if fatload mmc 0 1020000 aml_autoscript; then autoscr 1020000; fi; if fatload usb 0 1020000 aml_autoscript; then autoscr 1020000; fi; if fatload mmc 1 1020000 emmc_autoscript; then autoscr 1020000; fi;' save reboot Is there a simpler way to boot from a microSD card to default settings? Maybe I need to cleverly write a bootloader to it?

Hi all, I know this is a bit of a long shot given the age of the hardware, but I’m wondering if anyone here has ever experimented with running Armbian on an EVPad 2S (the old Android TV box). I’ve been tinkering with some older devices and thought it might be interesting to see if this one can be repurposed. I’ve attached a screenshot of the system info - unfortunately, it’s pretty sparse. The box is running Android 4.4.2 with kernel version 3.4.39, but the processor type is listed as “UNKNOWN,” and I haven’t found much documentation on the chipset or board layout. so before I dive deeper I wanted to ask: Has anyone managed to get Armbian (or any Linux distro) running on it? Are there known limitations with the chipset or bootloader that make it a dead end? Any tips, resources, or even “don’t bother” experiences would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any insights - sometimes these older boxes surprise us, but I realize support may be very limited.

A long time ago, I made an armbian guide, which included adding a kernel patch. Can you try this method? "Move them* to ~/armbian-2023.05/build/userpatches/kernel/archives/sunxi-6.1 (using the scp command or sshfs)" * would mean the cpio file (use diff3 to convert to patch file**) and any linux configuration patches needed to make your initramfs. ** diff3 linux_orig_source_folder linux_source_folder_with_cpio_file https://github.com/robertojguerra/orangepi-zero-full-setup/blob/main/README2.md#73-add-the-tv-encoder-driver-to-the-linux-kernel-source

I have a Magicsee N5 Max X4 TV box (Amlogic S905X4). Has anyone tried this with this model? I tried removing the # S905X4_Generic symbol, but it still gives an error when booting. Could you please help me? Thank you!

Hello!! I am looking for help to boot Armbian on a generic TV Box sold as "MXQ Pro 4K 5G". I have tried multiple images (including official and community builds from sicXnull), but I only get a black screen or signal loss immediately after the boot attempt. Device Specifications: Model on case: MXQ Pro 4K 5G Board ID: IK316Q-EMCP_V4.1 SoC: Allwinner H313 (identified as sun50iw9p1 in Android) RAM: 1GB (Single chip configuration) Storage: 8GB eMMC Current Status: I am able to boot into the stock Android. To attempt the Armbian boot, I've tryed the Power up method, the power up pressing the hidden AV switch, using the reboot update command from a terminal emulator within Android. The issue: Upon executing the reboot command, the Android system shuts down, the display signal cuts off (or stays black), and the device never initializes Armbian (no HDMI output, no LEDs blinking differently). What I have tried:

Hello community, I am looking for help to boot Armbian on a generic TV Box sold as "MXQ Pro 4K 5G". I have tried multiple images (including official and community builds from sicXnull), but I only get a black screen or signal loss immediately after the boot attempt. Device Specifications: Model on case: MXQ Pro 4K 5G Board ID: IK316Q-EMCP_V4.1 SoC: Allwinner H313 (identified as sun50iw9p1 in Android) RAM: 1GB (Single chip configuration) Storage: 8GB eMMC Current Status: I am able to boot into the stock Android. To attempt the Armbian boot, I am using the reboot update command from a terminal emulator within Android. The issue: Upon executing the reboot command, the Android system shuts down, the display signal cuts off (or stays black), and the device never initializes Armbian (no HDMI output, no LEDs blinking differently). What I have tried: Builds from sicXnull repository (Kernel 6.x). Ophub community builds (H616/H313 variants). I have updated the extlinux.conf / uEnv.txt to point to the sun50i-h313-x96-q-lpddr3.dtb (and others like x96-mate), but the result is always the same failure to initialize. Has anyone successfully booted this specific board revision (IK316Q_V4.1)? Is there a specific bootloader argument or a different DTB required for this MXQ clone? Photos of the board are attached. Thanks!

Armbian doesn't support TV Boxes, all Community Supported builds are given that description. Yes, per the instructions have you tried all the dtbs that might be relevant? In general, I'm not aware of any dtbs in mainline linux for the s905l3 cpu. I don't know what the closest might be. In general, due to lack of support by Amlogic, the efforts to support newer versions of their CPUs in mainline linux have essentially stopped. For example the project website that tracked progress on mainlining amlogic (https://linux-meson.com/mainlining.html) shows that efforts stopped around two years ago. Realistically only older amlogic cpus (i.e. cpus released at least 4 or more years ago) are going to be supported in mainline linux (and thus Armbian). And unfortunately I think the s905l3 falls into the newer category.

Ok. I read the posts you showed me. First off, I thought this was a pretty straightforward process - installing armbian to these chinese tv boxes; so thank you for the hard truth - expect nothing to work:( Anyway, as I mentioned before, my main issue was that there is no reset button on this thing, so I had no idea how to get anything to boot, which commands, which script to run. So, thank you again for pointing me to the file. I entered the u-boot shell from uart, loaded the aml_autocript to 0x20000000 fatload usb 0:1 0x20000000 aml_autoscript and run it with autosrc 0x20000000 (the equivalent of source command I believe). It changed the bootloader, as the other post suggested, and now it boots to usb if present (haven't tried if it falls back to android, but I don't care about that anymore). I'm really glad it boots to linux, but the thing is it always ends in kernel panic before it even boots completely. I tried turning it off and on, but I always got a different kernel panic. Here are some of the logs (I posted only the kernel panic lines, and a few before - to keep the post short, but I can add some of the complete logs if necessary). Notice: after entering the kernel panic the device just hangs - no reset or action whatsoever. So I just disconnected power, and turned it on again. Another notice: the logs may actually be incomplete, because I already faced issues with uart not printing the whole text, but only the first 40-50 lines or so (example: output of the command help in the u-boot shell showed only half of them, and the last line shown looked half-printed). Dunno why this happens, maybe the RP2040 zero (which I'm using as the uart bridge adapter, running micropython script) is causing it, or something else. boot1: [ 11.642441] systemd[1]: Found device dev-disk-by\x2duuid-3563\x2d67BF.device - ProductCode armbi_boot. [ 11.657680] systemd[1]: Starting systemd-fsck@dev-disk-by\x2duuid-3563\x2d67BF.service - File System Check on /dev/disk/by-uuid/3563-67BF... [ 11.673727] systemd[1]: Starting systemd-networkd-persistent-stor[ 11.689172] [drm] Initialized simpledrm 1.0.0 for 7fe5b000.framebuffer[ 11.717710] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 90x36 [ 11.731744] simple-framebuffer 7fe5b000.framebuffer: [drm] fb0: simpledrmdrmfb frame buffer device [ 11.835286] mc: Linux media interface: v0.10 [ 11.837173] Registered IR keymap rc-empty [ 11.852968] rc rc0: meson-ir as /devices/platform/soc/c8100000.bus/c8100580.ir/rc/rc0 [ 11.855991] rc rc0: lirc_dev: driver meson-ir registered at minor = 0, raw IR receiver, no transmitter [ 11.883334] input: meson-ir as /devices/platform/soc/c8100000.bus/c8100580.ir/rc/rc0/input0 [ 11.897040] rc rc0: sw decoder init [ 11.897461] meson-ir c8100580.ir: receiver initialized [ 11.923213] systemd[1]: Finished systemd-networkd-persistent-storage.service - Enable Persistent Storage in systemd-networkd. [ 11.959135] videodev: Linux video capture interface: v2.00 [ 12.038565] systemd[1]: Reached target usb-gadget.target - Hardware activated USB gadget. [ 12.122827] SError Interrupt on CPU3, code 0x00000000bf000002 -- SError [ 12.122857] CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 1158 Comm: (udev-worker) Tainted: G M 6.18.2-current-meson64 #1 PREEMPT [ 12.122869] Tainted: [M]=MACHINE_CHECK [ 12.122872] Hardware name: Amlogic Meson GXL (S905X) P212 Development Board (DT) [ 12.122878] pstate: 00000005 (nzcv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 12.122885] pc : el00 [ 12.122973] x11: 0000000000000006 x10: ffff8000812e5a60 x9 : 1fffe000007108c1 [ 12.122983] x8 : 0000000000000001 x7 : ffff000003884600 x6 : ffff000003884608 [ 12.122993] x5 : ffff8000829eb6b0 x4 : 0000000000000025 x3 : 0000000000000021 [ 12.123002] x2 : 000000000000003b x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : 0000000000000000 [ 12.123014] Kernel panic - not syncing: Asynchronou do_serror+0x3c/0x78 [ 12.123105] el1h_64_error_handler+0x34/0x50 [ 12.123114] el1h_64_error+0x6c/0x70 [ 12.123123] el1_abort+0x34/0x68 (P) [ 12.123130] el1h_64_sync_handler+0x50/0x104 [ 12.123138] el1h_64_sync+0x6c/0x70 [ 12.123145] lima_mmu_init+0x44/0x124 [lima] (P) [ 12.123186] lima_device_init+0x1ac/0x664 [lima] [ 12.123206] lima_pdev_probe+0xa4/do_init_module+0x58/0x23c [ 12.123364] load_module+0x1e78/0x1ed4 [ 12.123374] init_module_from_file+0x88/0xcc [ 12.123383] __arm64_sys_finit_module+0x1ec/0x300 [ 12.123393] invoke_syscall+0x48/0x10c [ 12.123408] el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0xc8/0xe8 [ 12.123418] do_el0_svc+0x20/0x2c [ 12.123428] el0_svc+0x34/0xf0 [ 12.123437] el0t_64_sync_handler+0xa0 boot2: [ 12.471539] Kernel panic - not syncing: Asynchel1h_64_error_handler+0x34/0x50 [ 12.471648] el1h_64_error+0x6c/0x70 [ 12.471656] el1_abort+0x34/0x68 (P) [ 12.471664] el1h_64_sync_handler+0x50/0x104 [ 12.471672] el1h_64_sync+0x6c/0x70 [ 12.471679] lima_mmu_init+0x44/0x124 [lima] (P) [ 12.471723] lima_device_init+0x1ac/0x664 [lima] [ 12.471744] lima_pdev_probe+0xa4/0x1bc [lima] [ 12.471764] platform1915] load_module+0x1e78/0x1ed4 [ 12.471924] init_module_from_file+0x88/0xcc [ 12.471934] __arm64_sys_finit_module+0x1ec/0x300 [ 12.471944] invoke_syscall+0x48/0x10c [ 12.471956] el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0xc8/0xe8 [ 12.471967] do_el0_svc+0x20/0x2c [ 12.471977] el0_svc+0x34/0xf0 [ 12.471988] el0t_64_sync_handler+0xa0/0xe4 [ 12.471996] el0t_64_sync+Traceback (most recent call last): boot3: [ 12.420984] Kernel panic - nx80 [ 12.421075] do_serror+0x3c/0x78 [ 12.421082] el1h_64_error_handler+0x34/0x50 [ 12.421091] el1h_64_error+0x6c/0x70 [ 12.421099] el1_abort+0x34/0x68 (P) [ 12.421107] el1h_64_sync_handler+0x50/0x104 [ 12.421115] el1h_64_sync+0x6c/0x70 [ 12.421121] lima_mmu_init+0x44/0x124 [lima] (P) [ 12.421165] lima_device_init+0x1ac/0x664 [lima] [ 12.421185] 0x200 [ 12.421335] do_init_module+0x58/0x23c [ 12.421348] load_module+0x1e78/0x1ed4 [ 12.421357] init_module_from_file+0x88/0xcc [ 12.421367] __arm64_sys_finit_module+0x1ec/0x300 [ 12.421376] invoke_syscall+0x48/0x10c [ 12.421388] el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0xc8/0xe8 [ 12.421399] do_el0_svc+0x20/0x2c [ 12.421409] el0_svc+0x34/0xf0 [ 12.421419] el0 boot4: [ 12.874949] SError Interrupt on CPU2, code 0x00000000bf000002 -- SError [ 12.874984] CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 1165 Comm: (udev-worker) Tainted: G M C 6.18.2-current-meson64 #1 PREEMPT [ 12.874999] Tainted: [M]=MACHINE_CHECK, [C]=CRAP [ 12.875003] Hardware name: 12.875086] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: ffff00000495fc00 x15: ffff000002098ea3 [ 12.875095] x14: 0000000000000001 x13: ffff000002098ea0 x12: ffff00000b244200 [ 12.875105] x11: 0000000000000006 x10: ffff8000812e5a60 x9 : 1fffe0000092e981 [ 12.875114] x8 : 0000000000000001 x7 : ffff000004974c00 x6 : ffff000004974c08 [ 12.875123] x5 : ffff800082a1b6b0 x4 : 0000000000000025 4 [ 12.875207] vpanic+0x320/0x364 [ 12.875215] nmi_panic+0x0/0x68 [ 12.875221] add_taint+0x0/0xbc [ 12.875227] arm64_serror_panic+0x70/0x80 [ 12.875235] do_serror+0x3c/0x78 [ 12.875242] el1h_64_error_handler+0x34/0x50 [ 12.875251] el1h_64_error+0x6c/0x70 [ 12.875260] el1_abort+0x34/0x68 (P) [ 12.875268] el1h_64_sync_handler+0x50/0x104 [ 12.875212.875453] __platform_driver_register+0x24/0x30 [ 12.875462] lima_platform_driver_init+0x20/0x1000 [lima] [ 12.875486] do_one_initcall+0x70/0x200 [ 12.875495] do_init_module+0x58/0x23c [ 12.875508] load_module+0x1e78/0x1ed4 [ 12.875516] init_module_from_file+0x88/0xcc [ 12.875526] __arm64_sys_finit_module+0x1ec/0x300 [ 12.875535] invoke_syscall+0x48/0x1

Specifically the file you want to look at is aml_autoscript What happens on a normal amlogic TV box is when the hidden reset button is pressed during boot, the boot loader looks for this file and runs it. This file then changes the stored uboot environment such that subsequent boots follow a new boot flow to boot first from sd or USB and fall back to android. If you follow the logic you can find the actual boot commands in the other files that get called.

If you are trying to run an Armbian build, first check out: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/16976-status-of-armbian-on-tv-boxes-please-read-first And

Hello, I'm new to embedded linux installation, so please bear with me. So I purchased an android tv box labeled h96max S905L3 from TEMU. Specifications (if the label is trustworthy): RAM: 2GB, ROM:16GB, running android 14.0. On the pcb it says: s905_zx02_v01. It features an ethernet port, 2 USB, HDMI, AV port (looks like a headphone jack) and no hidden reset button or sd card slot. I was trying to install any kind of linux to it using a bootable usb, I just need a simple shell capable of running an http server. I have tried using the remote control to trigger boot to linux, but nothing works. I have then opened the thing, and connected uart to a RP2040 and wrote a simple script as a uart bridge. I now have access to u-boot shell, interupted setup. So far I used chatgpt to guide me, but couldn't get it to boot properly. It told me how to boot manually the image from the usb, but it failed every time. It told me to set these env vars, and over time it showed me different addresses. It said the issues were related to overlapping of the addresses, or using address range that was reserved. It also said the dtb which I used, the meson-gxl-s905x-p212.dtb won't work, since the device always threw an error bad_magic, even though I checked fdt header, and the magic was correct. setenv kernel_addr_r 0x20000000 setenv ramdisk_addr_r 0x24000000 setenv fdt_addr_r 0x21000000 I would then load the files fatload usb 0:1 ${kernel_addr_r} linux-android.img fatload usb 0:1 ${ramdisk_addr_r} uInitrd fatload usb 0:1 ${fdt_addr_r} vendor-expanded.dtb Notice: I used different images, firstly the Image file, and the meson-gxl-s905x-p212.dtb. After failed boots, chatgpt told me to expand, i.e. add padding to the dtb (first with the meson...dtb, and after that with the vendor.dtb). It didn't work, so it told me to generate an android like image using mkbootimg \ --kernel Image \ --dtb vendor-expanded.dtb \ --cmdline "console=ttyAML0,115200 console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/sda1 rootwait rootdelay=10 rw" \ --base 0x0 \ --pagesize 2048 \ --kernel_offset 0x1080000 \ --dtb_offset 0x1000000 \ -o linux-android.img and boot using the extracted vendor.dtb (pulled from android) and using bootm ${kernel_addr_r} instead of booti ${kernel_addr_r} ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${fdt_addr_r} The bootargs I used are setenv bootargs "root=/dev/sda1 rootfstype=ext4 rw rootwait console=ttyAML0,115200n8 console=tty0" Please, any help would be appreciated as I already spent over 6 hours with this little cheap bastard that wouldn't boot anything but that chinese android. I will post output of anything, just let me know if something is needed. I'm sorry for the messiness of this post, but I tried a lot of things that chatgpt told me, explained the errors, and supplied commands for the u-boot shell.

Hi @sicxnull @Nick A, as mentioned by @ventara X96Q vs 5.1 image of sicxnull has direct ethernet port and wireless working fine instead the Nick A 'Armbian-unofficial_25.05.0-trunk_X96q-ddr3-v5-1_bookworm_edge_6.12.11_xfce_desktop.img' has no ethernet or wifi working. I'm totally a newbie on these things, but thanks to the comunity I was able to use an mxq mini (S905X) working with Armbian and home assistant (of course i just used an image with armbian and after I load HA and tailscale. Now I would like to use the X96Q vs 5.1 for the other house. I know that the image of sicxnull works but I prefer to use Nick A. because armbian config as well most of the things are like the one on the other working tv box instead on the sicxnull image there is mate and a lot of commands or gui function are so different. I tried to understand what is different between the two images and github repository to be able to fix almost the ethernet port problem but I do not have enough acknowledge. My unix experience was with the AT&T unix system 5 and Solaris so very old OS and many years ago. Only now I'm coming back to unix world and I don't know anything about git, patch and so on. I read in a post that someone was able applying a patch but it is not clear to me how and where to apply patch, I have already installed Ubuntu in a Virtualbox and prepare everything to compile Armbian and tested that initial script start, ask me for board and other staff but after I stopped because I realized that I didn't understand what I'm doing. Probably with a standard sbc was easier. I promise that I will go ahead studying but it is hard and confused at the moment. If I can do something to help of course when I'm at home I will do it. Please, when you have free time give me some info on how to fix at least the direct ethernet port. armbianEnv.txt and boot.cmd looks same file. In both dtb folder there are same namefile.dtb include the 5.1 where armbianEnv point out but I don't know if they are same file in both distribution or are different? Wifi chip is the XR819 like I saw in other image with the v 5,1 Thanks for the great job you and the comunity are doing!

I solved the issue ! I flashed the latest armbian release raw image to the sdcard and plugged it in the TV box. It magically booted from the SDCard and now I have mmcblk2 as a block device. Now I can run armbian-install command to get everything going correctly.

@Sergey LepeshkinThanks for the clarification. Could you please recommend a specific USB-to-UART (3.3V TTL) adapter model that you know works well with this TV box? A product name or chip (CP2102 / FT232RL / CH340, etc.) would be really helpful.

Ok, as promised with a report. Current setup - NanoPi R6S - Armbian Debian trixie minimal edition, with Kernel 6.1.115 - LXQT (using X11) - Jellyfin (installed via Jellyfin website instructions, NOT using armbian-config as that sets up docker and then makes it more opaque to run it with external media) - firefox Results - Jellyfin, accessed via apps for various SmartTVs (Google Chromecast, Amazon TV, etc), runs super smooth with 4K videos, indicating functioning hardware decoding. NanoPi stays very cool even for 4K transcodes. - Firefox video playback has to, like @eselarm already said, resort to software decode. NanoPi is able to play smooth up to HD level videos in firefox, but it gets pretty hot. Comments I suppose that getting firefox hardware accelerated video decode is further out of reach now that ffmpeg has DMCA-taken-down the rockchip-mpp github repository...but what do I know. I am wondering if running LXQT with wayland would offer improvements, but I am not sure it's worth the effort. I am a relatively happy camper with this setup.

https://forum.armbian.com/topic/16976-status-of-armbian-on-tv-boxes-please-read-first/#comment-199170

Hey i am looking for a suitable armbian distro for my tv box with the allwinner h313, 2gb ram and 8bg emmc.

Here is ukrainian forum with Android for this box: https://legione.name/upload/?dir=Smart-TV-Box/Q1/ Any chance to find linux for the same box? Android tv box q1 v3.0 Allwinner H313 If someone will find working version, please share

As I said above, there is no usb otg functionality. If you want shell as ordinary user - install any app which allows access to shell (I'm using "Admin hands" in local shell mode) on your tv box. In this mode 'su' refuses to escalate privileges. If you want root access, you should connect using uart (see my messages above). You will get access to u-boot and android console. There you can execute 'su' and it will give you root privileges.

I’ve been testing Armbian on an Amlogic-based TV box, and wanted to share a short user experience. The device originally runs Android, but thanks to the Amlogic S9xx platform, it can boot Armbian from an SD card without touching the internal firmware. In my case, the system booted reliably and was usable for basic tasks like SSH access, light services, and general Linux testing. Ethernet and USB worked out of the box, while Wi-Fi and power management still required some manual tweaks, which seems common for community-supported TV boxes. For reference, the hardware I used belongs to the category of Amlogic TV boxes that are widely available on the market. These devices are not officially supported by Armbian, but they can still be interesting low-cost platforms for learning, testing, or small home projects. I’m curious if others here have experience with Armbian on similar Amlogic TV boxes, and which SoCs or configurations worked best for you.

From what I know it isn't possible to boot without emmc on the amlogic TV boxes

Hi all, I have this Amlogic S905x2 (ddr3l) android tv box which I'm trying to boot Armbian on. Firstly, I was having issue with the default bootloader always booting into android, no matter if I used the sd card or usb. So then I lifted the emmc chip, in hope that it will then choose to boot from the sd card. However, I failed to notice that BL2 is stored in the emmc, and as you guessed, I need BL2 to boot into linux. Now I've read that you can use USB burning tool to send and start BL2 from RAM. However, I've no idea what to do next and what file am I even supposed to send via the USB Burning tool. I would be very thankful for any assistance.