herpez Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 Hello everyone. No matter how much I try, i can't find any combination capable of successfully flash armbian to my emmc. I have a 16Gb ROM 2Gb Ram nexbox a95x. I am using balbes150 images from https://users.armbian.com/balbes150/arm-64/ And i try to follow this manual https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17106-installation-instructions-for-tv-boxes-with-amlogic-cpus . So, we have 3 vars that i must find the perfect combo to work and I am here asking for help on those, assuming i am trying with the right armbian images.and this 1 - what uboot.ext shall i use? » u-boot-s905, u-boot-s905x-s912, u-boot-s905x2-s922 » » I ask this because on nexbox a95x it looks not so clear if the CPU is s905 or s905x, and i tried to use CPU-Z and even so it did not helped. 2 - what dtb? 3 - what install script? /root/install-aml-s905-emmc.sh or /root/install-aml.sh ? (this question related to #1 because i am not 100% assured that i have either the s905 or the s905x) So, i tried a lot of combos on those 3 vars with no success form more than 3 weeks, thats why i am here asking for help. I can imagine the dtb will be the hardest to find and the most prone to try and see, but at least if i can be sure of the #1 and #3, that would help me a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteeMan Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 It could be either CPU. Manufacturers produce many varients of a tv box over time, changing the components to what's cheapest at the moment. So two identically labeled tv boxes can have different components. I would recommend opening the box and looking at the physical CPU to get your answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herpez Posted January 17, 2022 Author Share Posted January 17, 2022 1 hour ago, SteeMan said: It could be either CPU. Manufacturers produce many varients of a tv box over time, changing the components to what's cheapest at the moment. So two identically labeled tv boxes can have different components. I would recommend opening the box and looking at the physical CPU to get your answer. I did open, also to check the Wifi card but didn't find the processor named. Any idea of how can i know the processor ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteeMan Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 Attach a picture of both sides of the board to this thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herpez Posted January 17, 2022 Author Share Posted January 17, 2022 16 minutes ago, SteeMan said: Attach a picture of both sides of the board to this thread Can't leave the room for 5 days to to COVID isolation. Will attach in 5 days. Please don't close the topic :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herpez Posted January 18, 2022 Author Share Posted January 18, 2022 While i am waiting for covid to go away, a friend that also bought a Nexbox A95x sent me his images so i can help him. I know hardwares can be different even when labeled both A95x, but while i wait for mine, i would like to ask help for the best: - u-boot - dtb - install The photo of the box is attached and in the board says A7_S905X_V2_3 So, shall he try with: - u-boot: u-boot-s905x-s912 or u-boot-s905x2-s922 ? - dtb: any suggestions? - install: install-aml.sh ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteeMan Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 Assuming the label is correct this is an s905x cpu (would have to remove the heat sink from the CPU to be 100% certain). Then you should use: u-boot-s905x-s912 and try all the meson-gxl-s905x-* dtbs (but start with meson-gxl-s905x-nexbox-a95x). Don't worry about the install to emmc yet, make sure everything else is running fine first. But if you eventually do want to try it would be: install-aml.sh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herpez Posted January 19, 2022 Author Share Posted January 19, 2022 17 hours ago, SteeMan said: Assuming the label is correct this is an s905x cpu (would have to remove the heat sink from the CPU to be 100% certain). Then you should use: u-boot-s905x-s912 and try all the meson-gxl-s905x-* dtbs (but start with meson-gxl-s905x-nexbox-a95x). Don't worry about the install to emmc yet, make sure everything else is running fine first. But if you eventually do want to try it would be: install-aml.sh I am trying with different dtbs but the pain is that for every time it don't work (normally it fails and the light turns red and don't boot), i must flash the original firmware with the usb-usb cable and amlogic burn tool, and do the backup and restore thing (in mine, the boot with reset hidden button don't work), so it takes about 30min to flash with each dtb. Any way to make this process less painful? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteeMan Posted January 21, 2022 Share Posted January 21, 2022 What you are reporting doesn't make sense. There isn't anything that should be preventing the android os from booting after you enable multiboot. Let alone needing to reinstall the android firmware. When you say the 'backup and restore thing' what exactly are you doing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herpez Posted January 21, 2022 Author Share Posted January 21, 2022 So, Everytime something goes wrong, my box gets bricked-like and the only way to make it work is to use USB burning tool from amlogic and flash original firmware via usb-usb cable. Then i need to boot, wait for the full boot, go to settings - backup and restore and select the aml script/zip so it boots from the SD card. Everytime I execute the write to emmc script, it gets bricked and i need to do this. The reset button trick don't work on my box Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteeMan Posted January 21, 2022 Share Posted January 21, 2022 So you can run from SD fine. That may be the best you can do. The various boxes can have very different ways they setup their emmc and it may not be possible to run your box from emmc. A log from running the install_aml.sh script would be helpful to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herpez Posted January 21, 2022 Author Share Posted January 21, 2022 Yes, i guess that will be my stop point, to use by SD and that's it. How can I have that log? Maybe journalctl -f ? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteeMan Posted January 21, 2022 Share Posted January 21, 2022 Since it is just a shell script, you can pipe the output to a file Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herpez Posted January 23, 2022 Author Share Posted January 23, 2022 Btw, what image shall i choose ? i am indiferent to ubuntu or debian, and i preffer stable and durable versions, but of course, updatable. Bionic / Bullseye / Buster / Focal ? (non-desktop version) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herpez Posted January 23, 2022 Author Share Posted January 23, 2022 Using a old image (armbian) i got from a forum that was compiled to nexbox a95x, and i was able to boot, and to write to emmc. Unfortunatly its kernel is too old so i don't pretend to keep it. Since its already written in my emmc, is there a way to try to understand the emmc partitions so i can use it to find the write parameters to wirte a newer armbian image? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herpez Posted January 23, 2022 Author Share Posted January 23, 2022 Using a old image (armbian) i got from a forum that was compiled to nexbox a95x, and i was able to boot, and to write to emmc. Unfortunatly its kernel is too old so i don't pretend to keep it. Since its already written in my emmc, is there a way to try to understand the emmc partitions so i can use it to find the write parameters to wirte a newer armbian image? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteeMan Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 install-aml.sh is a pretty simple shell script. Just look at what it does and compare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herpez Posted January 24, 2022 Author Share Posted January 24, 2022 So, the one that works, from and old image: and the actual install_aml.sh Anyone with codding skills can update me the actua script with the old one settings so it may work? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herpez Posted January 24, 2022 Author Share Posted January 24, 2022 The code i pasted from both scripts was removed from my last post. Where can I post it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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