x96mini (4gb ram 32gb disk) I can't boot from Armbian on my Smart TV Box

[Uraroga 0]

Hi All

 

Unable to start Armbian on my Smart TV Box, I would like to ask your opinion on the correct boot procedure.

I describe my test:

 

I took the file Armbian_5.87_Aml-s905_Ubuntu_bionic_default_5.1.0_desktop_20190521.img.xz
I took the Etcher program version 1.5.39.

 

With the program Etcher I flash the "file.Armbian_5.87...img.xz" in my SD (16 GB). 

 

in Windows 7 with notepad ++ I modified the uEnv.ini file as follows:

test 1
dtb_name=/dtb/meson-gxl-s905w-p281.dtb
test 2
dtb_name =/dtb/meson-gxl-s905w-tx3-mini.dtb

 

I left the other information written in the uEnv.ini file unchanged

I inserted the micro sd in the Smart Tv Box, I inserted the hdmi cable and I always pressed the reset button inside the AV hole, at the same time I inserted the power cable. The LED on my Smart TV Box has turned red several times and then turned blue. Unfortunately, Android always starts.

 

Key features
Amlogic S905W Quad Core ARM Cortex-A53cpu @ up to 2.0GHz with penta Core Mali-450 GPU. (4 GB of RAM and 32 GB disk) with Android version 8.1.0

 

Thanks for any reply.

Greetings

[Peyton 2]

You have to run update in your android and select to .zip file which is on the microsd of your linux to allow it to boot on your SD.

 

I have a x96 mini and it works on armbian headless with 4.20 kernel.

[Uraroga 0]

Thanks for your advice.

Unfortunately I have a x96 clone. This model with 4 GB of RAM does not allow other operating systems to start up and does not allow updates of any kind.
I can't delete emmc memory.

[DeltaLima 0]

Just to get sure, you have the "real" x96 mini - can you please post the output of cpu-z (you can download it from playstore) which SOC is identified? 

[stevenbox 0]

Maybe you can try to use the latest firmware? The latest X96 mini firmware is 20190301, you can download it from Vissontech blog. 

[Reflexiony 0]

Would I also be interested ok the 4Gb variant really has 4Gb RAM..or is a fake box, besides, what do you need 4GB for? Do you really get it full when you gamble?

 

I only use ~600MB RAM on the x96mini 2GB RAM with 4k files under coreELEC.

 

But now back to the topic, I have the same problem as Uraroga, the box doesn't boot, no matter if I rename the "meson-gxl-s905w-p281.dtb" to dtb.org and copy it into the root folder or also edit the newer form; uEnv .ini. Booting via toothpick or updating the autostart script from Android won't do anything.

 

Edited July 28, 2019 by Reflexiony

[Oussama 0]

Hi All, 

 

I have an X96 Max : With Amlogic S905W , 4G RAM & 32 Gb disk,  Quad Core ARM Cortex-A53cpu @ 1.2GHz with penta Core Mali-450 GPU. with Android version 7.1.2, 

 

I tried to update the firmware many times using SD Card using the X96 Mini Software , but failed :

Error Message : Warning : No file_contextsE3004: This package is for "ampere" devices; this is a p281