masteripper Posted May 8, 2021 Posted May 8, 2021 Hello to everybody I am trying to setup a brand new X96 max+ 4/64 Tv Box as a small linux machine but its simply doesn't work... I am using Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_bionic_current_5.9.0.img ...I think i have tried all the necessary .dtbs according to this guide : http://mrbluecoat.blogspot.com/2020/10/install-linux-on-x96-max-x96-max.html (i skipped the hk1box-bootloader.img cause I don't have a linux box handy) but nothing just about every time...not a single case where I saw something from Armbian. I have a Franklin9 (judging from the Android Recovery Screen) complaining that block is too short....so what is the deal...is it one way street to downgrade X96 or I am missing something trivial.
SteeMan Posted May 8, 2021 Posted May 8, 2021 First off start by reading the two TV Box FAQ items: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/16976-status-of-armbian-on-tv-boxes-please-read-first https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17106-installation-instructions-for-tv-boxes-with-amlogic-cpus Then it would be helpful to provide any additional information you have. Like what you are seeing happening when you boot with the armbian sd card and press and hold the reset button.
masteripper Posted May 10, 2021 Author Posted May 10, 2021 Thanks for replying @SteeMan Well it seems that almost nothing i do has an effect... At first I want to ask the "critical" question. If I enable the "multiboot" option via the toothpick should I do it everytime i test a new image ? the only "success" was with a Manjaro build but still I got quite a few issues. To be honest I tried to avoid the toothpick method (used the Update from Android) because I didn't like the idea of "hammering" the box with pulling and reinserting the power supply ...but anyway I have the following observations : As i said I tried many different configuration with Armbian and other distros and the only time i had some kind of "success" it was with the Manjaro but again i have severe Screen glitches and no LAN (maybe after an update I perform I suspect I lost Wifi...but anyway) The funny thing that makes me "thinking"....I installed Manjaro....pulled the SD card...tried Armbian (another SD)...nothing...reinserted the Manjaro ...it booted....this goes to the "critical" question. If the "multiboot" remains active i will try all available options till i get one that works...np on this. When I boot with the Armbian nothing happens regarding Armbian...it just goes to Android...suppose I have some error in whatever .dtb, u-ext...should I get something or is natural to have the TV box ignoring eveything and just booting the Android ?
SteeMan Posted May 10, 2021 Posted May 10, 2021 Since you mention attempting to install other distributions you need to follow the note in the instructions I pointed you to: "Note2: If you have previously run other distributions on the box such as coreelec the below installation will not work. You will need to restore the original android firmware before attemping the install. coreelec changes the boot environment in ways that are incompatible with these armbian builds." You need to restore a clean original android firmware before attempting to install the armbian build. Each distribution will change the boot environment in different and (unknown to us) ways. So in order to be successful you need to restore your box to a clean known state before attempting an armbian install.
masteripper Posted May 10, 2021 Author Posted May 10, 2021 2 hours ago, SteeMan said: Since you mention attempting to install other distributions you need to follow the note in the instructions I pointed you to: "Note2: If you have previously run other distributions on the box such as coreelec the below installation will not work. You will need to restore the original android firmware before attemping the install. coreelec changes the boot environment in ways that are incompatible with these armbian builds." You need to restore a clean original android firmware before attempting to install the armbian build. Each distribution will change the boot environment in different and (unknown to us) ways. So in order to be successful you need to restore your box to a clean known state before attempting an armbian install. I assume that when you run a - whatever - distribution from if you stay on the microsd no charges to the underlying system is performed...am I wrong ? How a modification could be possible without writing to the EMMC ? what about the subquestion...if the multi boot persists
SteeMan Posted May 10, 2021 Posted May 10, 2021 29 minutes ago, masteripper said: I assume that when you run a - whatever - distribution from if you stay on the microsd no charges to the underlying system is performed...am I wrong ? Your assumption is incorrect. The 'multiboot' changes the uboot environment stored on the emmc, even if you are trying to run something on sd. The is the whole point of 'enabling multiboot' without the changes to the base uboot environment the board doesn't know how to boot from the sd card. Those changes to the base uboot environment are different across different distributions and therefore the requirement to restore back to a known base with the original android firmware. 1
SteeMan Posted May 10, 2021 Posted May 10, 2021 33 minutes ago, masteripper said: what about the subquestion...if the multi boot persists Enabling multiboot is something that only should need to be done once, assuming it is done correctly. It is persisted in the uboot environment stored on emmc. Having said that, I have experienced cases where for some reason on some boxes the uboot environment gets reset to the default and multiboot does need to get re-enabled, but that is a rare occurrence, nothing I have ever seen happening on every boot. 1
masteripper Posted May 10, 2021 Author Posted May 10, 2021 Thanks @SteeMan for the assistance.. given the fact that I switch MicroSDs and the one holding the Manjaro each time boots multiboot is enabled... what do you think ?
SteeMan Posted May 10, 2021 Posted May 10, 2021 1 hour ago, masteripper said: Thanks @SteeMan for the assistance.. given the fact that I switch MicroSDs and the one holding the Manjaro each time boots multiboot is enabled... what do you think ? The manjaro version of multiboot is enabled but that has nothing to do with the armbian version of multiboot. Each distro does multiboot differently and they are not compatible. You must restore the base android firmware to get a good known environment before attempting armbian. I don't know how many times I have to say the same thing. If you want help, you need to follow the instructions.
masteripper Posted May 10, 2021 Author Posted May 10, 2021 27 minutes ago, SteeMan said: The manjaro version of multiboot is enabled but that has nothing to do with the armbian version of multiboot. Each distro does multiboot differently and they are not compatible. You must restore the base android firmware to get a good known environment before attempting armbian. I don't know how many times I have to say the same thing. If you want help, you need to follow the instructions. OK...restoring means flash ?
SteeMan Posted May 10, 2021 Posted May 10, 2021 14 minutes ago, masteripper said: OK...restoring means flash ? yes
masteripper Posted May 10, 2021 Author Posted May 10, 2021 13 minutes ago, SteeMan said: yes Ok....time to rethink a bit....thanks for your time
masteripper Posted May 11, 2021 Author Posted May 11, 2021 Returning to the original question : Has anyone with exactly the same specs (X96 Max+ 4/64, Android 9) managed to install Armbian successfully ? I feel thatI need to apologize - clarify a bit. Till now i never ever had issues with my 2 Tv Boxes (now 1 ) Especially the older Beelink X2 was kind of a Swiss Army Knife....whatever i threw it in the MicroSD it would boot no matter what (Armbian a lot of different versions , RetroOrangePi,OpenElec, DietPi,Batocera, i think LibreElec, Lakka ( a bit problematic if i recall) ...as long there was kind of "CPU" match it would boot without toothpicks or whatever) my other TV box S905 one day i decided that it was no good as Android, popped a LibreElec...presto...wanted something more ..CoreElec+EmuElec ...fine again....maybe i used the toothpick once) But i was completely unaware that the multiboot it's more than a temporary flag that is activated while the 1st boot is occured and if for any reason the machine would reboot hard it would loose it...i thought all the issues were due to the fact that some emmc flashing had occured....... So thanks for clarifying this.
masteripper Posted May 11, 2021 Author Posted May 11, 2021 Well ...... almost SUCCESS I was really ready to throw it out of the window when ...somehow I remembered that I read somewhere that USB 3.0 port is considered "hot" for updating.....so i burned the image to a usb drive....toothpicked (i hold it for quite a few seconds) ...and i had...almost success... for some unknown reason my screen is hoping endlessly Can someone give a helping hand... Screen_Jumping.mp4
RolKau Posted September 20, 2021 Posted September 20, 2021 I have one of "these" boxes. I put it in quotation marks because it really is a bunch of different hardware revisions that are all sold under the moniker X96Max+. To figure out exactly which one, you'll have to open the box; you cannot rely on what the software tells you. Mine has the imprint "Q5X3_141 V4.1 20112" on the motherboard, and I have not been able to boot newer Armbian 5.x kernels using any of the existing DTBs on it, although it can boot Debian using on older Amlogic kernel 4.x just fine. The version of Android that was installed on the box is not important; you may even erase the contents on the eMMC chip, as long as the U-Boot loader is configured to also look at the USB.
Houjimmy Posted October 27, 2021 Posted October 27, 2021 (edited) Hi. I've did as described in the link of "MrBlueCoat", but wasn't able to even boot into the shell. Actually, it frozes on the X96Max+ first load screen and don't go on. Edited October 27, 2021 by Houjimmy used the wrong word
SteeMan Posted October 27, 2021 Posted October 27, 2021 @Houjimmy At what step in the MrBlueCoat instructions are you seeing a failure?
Houjimmy Posted October 27, 2021 Posted October 27, 2021 2 minutes ago, SteeMan said: @Houjimmy At what step in the MrBlueCoat instructions are you seeing a failure? I've done exactly what is described until the 10th step, but I have no screen of bootload, just the fixed "x96 Max+" screen that never changes.
SteeMan Posted October 27, 2021 Posted October 27, 2021 @Houjimmy Can you attach a directory listing of the boot directory, the extlinux directory, and the dtb/amlogic directory. Also attach the extlinux.conf file.
Houjimmy Posted October 28, 2021 Posted October 28, 2021 /BOOT listing: aml_autoscript dtb u-boot.ext aml_autoscript.zip emmc_autoscript u-boot-s905 armbian_first_run.txt.template extlinux u-boot-s905x2-s922 boot.bmp initrd.img-5.9.0-arm-64 uInitrd boot.ini s905_autoscript zImage config-5.9.0-arm-64 System.map-5.9.0-arm-64 /extlinux listing: extlinux.conf extlinux.conf-menu /dtb/amblogic listing: meson-a1-ad401.dtb meson-gxl-s905d-libretech-pc.dtb meson-axg-s400.dtb meson-gxl-s905d-p230.dtb meson-g12a-gt1-mini-a.dtb meson-gxl-s905d-p231.dtb meson-g12a-rockpi-w2.dtb meson-gxl-s905d-phicomm-n1.dtb meson-g12a-sei510.dtb meson-gxl-s905d-sml5442tw.dtb meson-g12a-tanix-tx5max.dtb meson-gxl-s905w-p281.dtb meson-g12a-u200.dtb meson-gxl-s905w-tx3-mini.dtb meson-g12a-x96-max.dtb meson-gxl-s905x-hwacom-amazetv.dtb meson-g12a-x96-max-rmii.dtb meson-gxl-s905x-khadas-vim.dtb meson-g12b-a311d-khadas-vim3.dtb meson-gxl-s905x-libretech-cc.dtb meson-g12b-odroid-n2.dtb meson-gxl-s905x-libretech-cc-v2.dtb meson-g12b-s922x-khadas-vim3.dtb meson-gxl-s905x-nexbox-a95x.dtb meson-g12b-ugoos-am6.dtb meson-gxl-s905x-p212.dtb meson-gxbb-kii-pro.dtb meson-gxm-beelink-gt1.dtb meson-gxbb-nanopi-k2.dtb meson-gxm-khadas-vim2.dtb meson-gxbb-nexbox-a95x.dtb meson-gxm-nexbox-a1.dtb meson-gxbb-odroidc2.dtb meson-gxm-q200.dtb meson-gxbb-p200.dtb meson-gxm-q200-n1.dtb meson-gxbb-p201.dtb meson-gxm-q201.dtb meson-gxbb-vega-s95-meta.dtb meson-gxm-rbox-pro.dtb meson-gxbb-vega-s95-pro.dtb meson-gxm-s912-libretech-pc.dtb meson-gxbb-vega-s95-telos.dtb meson-gxm-vega-s96.dtb meson-gxbb-wetek-hub.dtb meson-gxm-wetek-core2.dtb meson-gxbb-wetek-play2.dtb meson-sm1-sei610.dtb meson-gxl-s805x-libretech-ac.dtb meson-sm1-x96-max-plus-100m.dtb meson-gxl-s805x-p241.dtb meson-sm1-x96-max-plus.dtb extlinux.conf: attached EDIT: Also, my board imprint on motherboard is also Q5X3_141 V4.1 20112 , I don't know if it helps somehow extlinux.conf
SteeMan Posted October 29, 2021 Posted October 29, 2021 @Houjimmy The APPEND line in your extlinux.conf file is messed up. I'm not sure that is the cause of your problem, but you should fix that first.
Houjimmy Posted October 29, 2021 Posted October 29, 2021 Why is it messed up? How it should be wrote instead?
curse Posted November 11, 2021 Posted November 11, 2021 On 10/29/2021 at 9:35 PM, Houjimmy said: Why is it messed up? How it should be wrote instead? Current: APPEND root=LABEL=ROOTFS rootflags=data=writeback rw console=ttyAML0,115200n8 console=tty0 no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0gs=data=writeback rw console=ttyAML0,115200n8 console=tty0 no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0 Fix after quick look: APPEND root=LABEL=ROOTFS rootflags=data=writeback rw console=ttyAML0,115200n8 console=tty0 no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0 It seems like you had everything after "APPEND root=LABEL=ROOTFS rootfla" copied and pasted after "net.ifnames=0" Is this the S905x3 version? I've been looking at one, but still not decided on it.
thierry69 Posted May 7, 2022 Posted May 7, 2022 Hi, sorry to reopen this topic. I have the same box. Is it possible to install Armbian on a box with Android 9.0? If not are there android 8 images for S905X3 ?
SteeMan Posted May 7, 2022 Posted May 7, 2022 @thierry69 I don't know. Have you tried it following the instructions in the tv box forum faq?
Houjimmy Posted October 11, 2022 Posted October 11, 2022 Thierry69, I've installed Armbian in X96 Max+ sucessfully in the end, it runs well but Ethernet and Wifi don't works. I also tried to change the dbt files in the boot reference, the sugested in MrBlueCoat tutorial and the other two ( meson-sm1-x96-max-plus-100m.dtb meson-sm1-x96-max-plus.dtb ) with absolute lack of success. I'm not sure if I broke the system files someway or if It is a firmware issue.
thierry69 Posted October 11, 2022 Posted October 11, 2022 For me, - Works with X96 mini - Works with X96 max+ with meson-sm1-x96-max-plus-100m.dtb and u-boot-s905x2-s922 copied to u-boot.ext in 100mb not 1Gb
LawrenceBoothby Posted January 18, 2023 Posted January 18, 2023 I have had success with installing Armbian on the x96max with the S905X2. Some of the download links in my documentation more recently fail, but how to do it may be helpful. Note that my security certificate is self-signed so your browser may complain, but I am the host of my own web page on Godaddy, so this link is not dangerous. https://raspiplayer.com/x96-max/
SteeMan Posted January 18, 2023 Posted January 18, 2023 @LawrenceBoothby Instead of posting links to instructions that are no longer valid (since those downloads no longer exist). It would be more useful for the community if you tried current builds and updated your site accordingly. https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17106-installation-instructions-for-tv-boxes-with-amlogic-cpus
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