Installing Armbian on Buzz TV XPL 3000 (Amlogic S905X 2GiB/16GiB)

[crusherjoe2000]

For a beginner like me this is a difficult box to install Armbian on.  Before attempting the installation I had managed to install Armbian on a NexBox A95X (S905), and a M8S (S812).

 

I want to share my experience with others because even though every box is different, what I did to install Armbian may give other users ideas on what to try on their own boxes. It is also good to record what I did in case I have to do it again years down the road 😅

 

The problem with the unit is that it is heavily customized, specially the boot loader.  Even though it has a reset button, the usual toothpick method always result in the built-in rescue, i.e., it ignores aml_autoscript. The Android 6 that came with it is also heavily customized and does not have the usual "Update & Backup" app that can be used to trigger aml_autoscript.

 

Fortunately, the unit does have the JTAG connectors already soldered and ready to go, so I can see what is going on.

I remembered that on some S905 systems one can do a "recuscue" of a bricked unit via a bootable SD card, using a program called BootcardMaker.exe supplied by AMLogic, which is a way to basically mimicking USB burn but without a USB link: https://chinagadgetsreviews.com/download-amlogic-burn_card_maker-v2-0-2.html

 

For the burn to work one must use the correct u-boot.bin which I have obtained previously for when playing with the M8S from M8S_S812_2GB_26102015.zip via links I found in OTT M8 BCM4335 Bricked/Unbricked: 
https://forum.freaktab.com/node/550706
https://mega.nz/#!V08yhQ6C!e37b8y7F6mDCc_vQ0c_7IgNNeuHGhT1b5Ld2vwmTJa0

 

After all this work, I still cannot trigger aml_autoscript, but something did haapen and I see the following lines in the boot log:

   

[mmc_init] mmc init success
Device: SDIO Port B
Manufacturer ID: 3
OEM: 5344
Name: SU02G
Tran Speed: 25000000
Rd Block Len: 512
SD version 3.0
High Capacity: No
Capacity: 1.8 GiB
mmc clock: 25000000
Bus Width: 4-bit
reading auto_update.ubt
** Unable to read file auto_update.ubt **
wipe_data=successful
wipe_cache=successful

 

So it look like the bootloader is trying to load from a file called auto_update.ubt.

 

With nothing to lose, I simply copied aml_autoscript to auto_update.ubt and rebooted again.

 

Lo and behold, I got into TWRP.  By accident I left a copy of TWRP as recovery.img on the same SD card.  This recovery.img is from TWRP_S905X_V3020_generic_AndroidPC.zip download from 
https://androidpctv.com/tutorial-install-twrp-android-tvbox-amlogic/

http://uploaded.net/file/48zxgple

 

So I took the opportunity to backup my Buzz TV XPL3000.😁

 

After that I looked at the boot log again and I see that after loading auto_update.ubt it tried to look for a file called factory_update_param.ubt not finding it, it read recovery.img:

   

reading factory_update_param.ubt
** Unable to read file factory_update_param.ubt **
reading recovery.img

So I tried the same trick, this time copying the file s905_autoscript to factory_update_param.ubt and rebooted the unit.

 

Now I am able to boot into Armbian.  Victory!
 

Edited August 24, 2022 by crusherjoe2000
Minor formatting change

[Werner]

Moved to TV boxes

[Derrick Soares]

crusherjoe2000

 

You need to make a step by step in how you installed armbian on your BuzzTV

 

I can't understand the steps you took to install.

 

Thanks in advance

 

D.