Restore Bqeel M9C MAX

[peppezic]

Hi there,

I'm very knew to this forum. Yesterday I successfully installed armbian 20.10 on my bqeel M9C MAX on sd card following this thread (https://forum.armbian.com/topic/12162-single-armbian-image-for-rk-aml-aw-aarch64-armv8/page/48/)

I had no desktop manager available and tried several times to fix it by installing xfce4 and lightdm but with no success (I always had "xserverrc x not found" error). After that I accidentally run the script install-am.sh which properly completed the installation.

After removing the SD and reboot I can no longer access Android :-o

I surely went wrong running the script. The question is: there's any possibility to fix it and restore the access to android?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards.

[SteeMan]

As a new user, have you read:  https://forum.armbian.com/topic/16407-please-read-first

 

You haven't told us how you installed your system.  Lets start with some basics:  what build did you use?

[peppezic]

Hi SteeMan. Unfortunately I could not answer before than 24h from my last message because of the forum restrictions.

About your question: I just followed the thread I mentioned before. It means:

• I downloaded armbian bionic 20.10 from the repository linked in the thread
• I flashed it through balenaEtcher on my 64GB sd card.
• I renamed the correct e-boot-S905xxx file to e-boot.ext
• I edited /extlinux/extlinux.conf commented all the lines but FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxl-s905x-p212.dtb and APPEND root=LABEL=ROOTFS rootflags=data=writeback rw console=ttyAML0...
• Then I started the android box and manually update its firmware by selecting aml_autoscript.zip from the sd card
• The box restarted a couple of times, then I set the root password and that's all.

After a couple of failed attempts to start a desktop manager I accidentaly run the install-am.sh script which might have overridden the MBR and now I no longer can access android even with sd card removed.

 

Regards.

[SteeMan]

You still didn't answer the question of which build you are using, i.e. what is the full name of the file you downloaded.  Also what dtb files did you try, all of the s905x files or only the one you mentioned.

 

By running install-am.sh script you have erased your emmc internal storage and replaced it with a copy of your armbian install from the sd card.  So yes your android install is gone.  To restore you will need to find an android firmware for your box and use the appropriate tools to reinstall that firmware.

 

[peppezic]

I was using Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_bionic_current_5.9.0.

By the way I solved by flashing the original firmware through USB burning tool.

[SteeMan]

9 minutes ago, peppezic said:

I was using Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_bionic_current_5.9.0.

To your original question, you are not seeing desktop support because you have installed a server build with no desktop support.  You need to install a build that has 'desktop' in the file name to have desktop support.  In the last set of builds from balbes that includes amlogic support you have the following two desktop builds:

Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_bullseye_current_5.9.0_desktop.img.xz
Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_focal_current_5.9.0_desktop.img.xz

(note no bionic desktop build)

 

[peppezic]

Hi SteeMan,

I successfully installed Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_bullseye_current_5.9.0_desktop.img on my tv box. The desktop appeared with no problem.

The only problem now is the wifi adapter. I started, as I used to do on x86 linux desktops, to find out my hardware with lspci but I had no output :-/

Can you share a way to handle or analyze the wifi problem on armbian?

Edited January 15, 2021 by peppezic

[SteeMan]

As is stated in https://forum.armbian.com/topic/16407-please-read-first

which I linked to earlier:

"7. You really shouldn't expect things like Wi-Fi, bluetooth, remote control, etc. to work."

 

I have six different amlogic based TV boxes and wifi doesn't work on any of them.  If you really need wifi your best bet is to use a usb wifi adaptor.  Otherwise you can try different dtb files compatible with your cpu and see if you can find a better fit for your hardware or search the forums for others that have the same box as you and see if anyone has reported success in getting wifi working on a mainline kernel on your specific box.  Since I don't have your box, I can't provide any more guidance than that.

[peppezic]

Ok SteeMan. Thanks for your support. I'll try to use some old USB Realtek based wifi b/g adapter and load the proper module to let them work.

I let you know and thanks again for your kind support.

[peppezic]

Hi SteeMan,

my USB adapter is working fine and I'm running armbian quite fine

Thanks again.

[Byzor]

Hi peppezic!!

 

I know that this post is quite old, but I have the same TV BOX and I can't find the firmware anywhere.

Could you be so kind to tell me where you found it? Or if you still have it, please send to me.

 

Thanks!!

[SteeMan]

@Byzor  Please follow the instructions in the following FAQ entry: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17106-installation-instructions-for-tv-boxes-with-amlogic-cpus

The rest of the information in this thread should still be relevant.

[Byzor]

Hi SteeMan,

I did, without success. My problem is that I was previously running Coreelec, so according to the thread I have to flash the original firmware of the device which I don't have. That's why I am asking for the original android firmware of my device.

[s-petersen]

Maybe PM peppezic directly and ask him?

[SteeMan]

@Byzor Check out this post:  https://forum.armbian.com/topic/23632-mxq-max-4gb-32gb/?do=findComment&comment=147427

It has instructions on how to reset the environment after a coreelec install.  I would always recommend reflashing original firmware as the best option, but when that isn't possible, this should work.