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ARMBIAN for Amlogic S905 and S905X (ver 5.44 =<)


balbes150

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Version 20170705. Changed algorithm activation HDMI. It now runs in two stages. Pay attention, changed the kernel image to be installed in the internal memory. In the image name removed KODI, as all desktop images by default with KODI.

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I am installing a S905 box with the May 31st headless Debian Jessie server. In two days I have to leave this box abroad with family and go back home, running everything over SSH. Everything's running nicely with OpenVPN, as intended. I just tried out upgrading to Debian 9 / Stretch. One question, in that regards:


Since I have no physical access to the S905 Debian Stretch box and no one tech savvy enough to help out located near the box, should I stay with Debian 8 / Jessie? - Or is Debian 9 / Stretch equally "compatible" with the Balbes Debian Jessie headless server version of may 31st 2017? A bunch of files were obsoleted by the upgrade, such as "S905x Debian Jessie optimizations" and Uboot. So I'm curious if it is preferable with Amlogic boxes and Balbes to stick with Debian 8 or if I can "reliably" stay upgraded to Debian 9. Thanks in advance.

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On 07.07.2017 at 9:45 PM, fxfxfx said:

I am installing a S905 box with the May 31st headless Debian Jessie server. In two days I have to leave this box abroad with family and go back home, running everything over SSH. Everything's running nicely with OpenVPN, as intended. I just tried out upgrading to Debian 9 / Stretch. One question, in that regards:


Since I have no physical access to the S905 Debian Stretch box and no one tech savvy enough to help out located near the box, should I stay with Debian 8 / Jessie? - Or is Debian 9 / Stretch equally "compatible" with the Balbes Debian Jessie headless server version of may 31st 2017? A bunch of files were obsoleted by the upgrade, such as "S905x Debian Jessie optimizations" and Uboot. So I'm curious if it is preferable with Amlogic boxes and Balbes to stick with Debian 8 or if I can "reliably" stay upgraded to Debian 9. Thanks in advance.

If You are still running on the Debian version 8, I see no reason to rush to upgrade (when there is no access to the device).

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2 hours ago, balbes150 said:

If You are still running on the Debian version 8, I see no reason to rush to upgrade (when there is no access to the device).

Very practical approach. I will leave the box abroad at Debian 8. But I also understand from this, that the May 31st version is NOT tied to Debian 8 - there are no optimizations or required file modifications that will be over-written during an upgrade to Stretch and prevent me from upgrading my Amlogic boxes to Debian 9 back home.

 

Another question; I tried the 'nand-sata-install' in order to get my micro-SD card with me back home. But even though it was a successful transfer, according to the terminal output, the box fails on boot. I googled around, and I can't find any documentation of/experiences with Amlogic boxes automagically working with Balbes Armbian eMMC installs. Have I missed something, or is transferring to eMMC dependent on more than the nand-sata-install method? The box ran LibreElec prior to transferring Armbian/Debian, by the way.

 

EDIT: Seems I bricked the S905. It powers on, but nothing is output to screen, no DHCP attempt via ethernet is made. It's just...dead, except for the blue light :) Doesn't respond to tooth pick boot via USB/SD card, either. Does anyone have a link to a resurrection tutorial for unbricking the trusty S905 after eMMC install? I had no luck with the Amlogic burn tool - images don't 'stick'. Nor did TWRPing via USB  (before bricking). Can't even detect the device when USB connected to my Lubuntu PC. Guess U-boot or similar low-level requirement is gone. Luckily, I have extras brought along, but still want to revive the little trooper...

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1. To install in eMMC you need to use another command "/root/install.sh" (before running you need to switch to root "su -"). In this thread it was discussed many times.

2. Try to connect SD card with Armbian and run with it. If the system can be run in multi-boot mode, you can either completely erase the internal memory and then you can earn program the firmware via USB. Either you will be able to immediately perform the correct installation of the system in eMMC.

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6 hours ago, balbes150 said:

1. To install in eMMC you need to use another command "/root/install.sh" (before running you need to switch to root "su -"). In this thread it was discussed many times.

2. Try to connect SD card with Armbian and run with it. If the system can be run in multi-boot mode, you can either completely erase the internal memory and then you can earn program the firmware via USB. Either you will be able to immediately perform the correct installation of the system in eMMC.

 

Thanks. A lot.

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On 06/05/2016 at 6:59 AM, balbes150 said:
Image works with SD cards and USB drives.
Regular firmware in the device is NOT CHANGED.
When you replace the dtb file can be run on any device with Amlogic chip S905 s905x s912
 
The minimum media size - 4 GB
 
 
Wiki
 
 

 

Universal multi-boot.

 

https://yadi.sk/d/bqV6MEL-sWKmv

 

Install to eMMC (NAND)

 

1. Open the terminal

2. Run "sudo /root/install.sh"

 

Do not use other commands (nand-sata-install or etc) to install to eMMC. This will turn TV box into a brick.

 

****************************************************************************************************

Update 20170700705

add KODI

 

Update 20170531

add multiboot all USB

fix error

revert nodm

 

Update 2017\02\20

fix error

 

 

Update 2016\12\13

 

The new version (20161213) of images Armbian. In desktop versions of images added autologin and autostart the GUI after the initial configuration of the system and create a primary user (in the console there are no images of this). After creating the primary user, the system will automatically reboot and will automatically start the graphical interface (XFCE). Changed the algorithm for setting the video output. In this version of the configure script output (s905x_init.sh) reside in a directory on a FAT partition (on a running system, this partition is automatically mounted to the /boot directory). This script can be changed. To change the screen resolution from 720p to 1080p, you need to uncomment the line "#mode=1080p60hz" and comment out the line "mode=720h60hz". Similarly, you can change the color depth from the default 24 to 32 (bpp=24). Note that with 32 bit color significantly changes the desktop. In this script you can place the commands you want to run WebMin , Doker, ask line to run the USB port (if necessary), configure, sound card, etc.

 

 

p/s/ Other versions of images with different Linux systems.

 

https://yadi.sk/d/5_32km_EsCV2A

hi Balbes150, before hand i like to thank you for provide us with such a magnificent project, so i have bought 20 pieces of the MXQ 4k 1g/8g to make a project on a public school on Brazil and im having trouble with the current version of the Android they came,  the 6.0 dont have the app update&backup, i already try to install a lot os apks and cant make the program work and cant do the process of  Modifying u-boot to enable SD Card and/or Flash Drive booting.  Is there a way you can help me to solve this problem?

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11 hours ago, Raphael Allain said:

hi Balbes150, before hand i like to thank you for provide us with such a magnificent project, so i have bought 20 pieces of the MXQ 4k 1g/8g to make a project on a public school on Brazil and im having trouble with the current version of the Android they came,  the 6.0 dont have the app update&backup, i already try to install a lot os apks and cant make the program work and cant do the process of  Modifying u-boot to enable SD Card and/or Flash Drive booting.  Is there a way you can help me to solve this problem?

On this model TV box is the mode of "recovery" button translation in this mode ?

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A cheap TV box is a good pair for an old(and new) computer monitor. Unfortunately, there is a very limited list of supported video modes in Linux builds for S9xxx boxes. Obviously, it's not enough to have only two screen resolutions supported, especially for desktop builds. This narrows the range of possible use cases and limits the popularity of distribution.
Meanwhile, ODROID-C2 already supports a variety of screen resolutions: odroid_wiki. Hardkernel did a good job in this field. balbes150, can you dig in this direction? Of course if you have time for this. It would be nice to have all these screen resolutions supported in your builds on the TV boxes. I think many people here will be grateful.

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I'm struggling to get this installed on a Khadas Vim Pro.

I have armbian booting fine from the SD Card (debian jessie server).

But I want to transfer it to the eMMC.

I've logged in as a normal user, ran su - and then ran the install script but it doesn't get transferred to the eMMC.

Any suggestions for where i'm going wrong? 

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On 7/15/2017 at 1:22 AM, nylan said:

Meanwhile, ODROID-C2 already supports a variety of screen resolutions: odroid_wiki. Hardkernel did a good job in this field. balbes150, can you dig in this direction?

This stuff used to work fine in the now discontinued S905-only VegaS95 images with the 3.14.79 kernel.

Definitely worth bringing back, at least for S905 owners!

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I'm struggling to get this installed on a Khadas Vim Pro.
I have armbian booting fine from the SD Card (debian jessie server).
But I want to transfer it to the eMMC.
I've logged in as a normal user, ran su - and then ran the install script but it doesn't get transferred to the eMMC.
Any suggestions for where i'm going wrong? 

Managed to get it working.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

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Hi everyone,

let me try to speakEnglishhahaha

 

I tried all day to run Ubuntu xenial on my OTT x96 905x device... unfortunately doesn't happen

like my desire. I follow all the instructions, charge the os on my sd card, let multi-boot and boom, Ubuntu mate show up but in a not optimal performance at all.

but I did something obviously wrong. I don't have my .dtb image in the dtb (+kernel version) folder, I use belink and vega96, which at least let me boot Ubuntu. but like I say, the mp4 sample playback was horrible and wifi doesn't work, imagine that wifi is for other matters like drivers. I download my stock android ROM, but the .dtb in doesn't work, ubuntu doesn't boot at all. 

 

I expect any suggestion, please, I hate my fucking life hahaha hahaha

I need get work my original .dtb and get wifi works... because I have my stock ROM, I think the drivers are there... somewhere

I don't use Linux for a while.... long time ago 

 

Dear mates, Salvador

From Argentina, a nightmare country

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On 23/07/2017 at 7:23 AM, Salvador Liébana said:

Another thing, kodi doesnt work propperly, just open a console and the desktop, repetedly  3 times, like a resolution problem.

I have read from here that kodi has problems with mate. Use the Xfce desktop and  the lightdm display manager. Your box does have mali450 gpu, it does have a accelerated Linux gpu driver in the armbian kernel., but you need some special libdrm component (from librelec?). Your wifi module is from Realtek,  use the dmesg command to see if the firmware is missing and install firmware from ubuntu, debian or armbian repositories.

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For those of you using kodi. Here is a little script I made to auto switch terminals (tty1 then tty7) on exit. This way you won't be stuck on a black screen.

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/kodi-auto

paste the following

#!/bin/sh
kodi-standalone
sudo chvt 1
sleep 2
sudo chvt 7

ctrl+x to save, then hit y to confirm. Then go ahead and make it executable.

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/local/kodi-auto

You will need to add the chvt command to your suedors file, so you can use it without being prompted for password. 

su
nano /etc/sudoers

Paste in the following at the bottom of the file.  Be sure to replace "YOURUSERNAME" with your user name.

YOURUSERNAME ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /bin/chvt

Then if you want, update your kodi shortcuts to use the new script.

Shortcuts are stored in "/usr/share/applications".

sudo nano /usr/share/applications/kodi.desktop

Just change the "kodi" Exec to "kodi-auto".

 

 

 

Edit 1: Also a question. My wifi is very very unstable. What dtb are a95x 1GB S905 user's using? The included a95x S905 dtb does not work. I have been forced to try the gxbb_p201.dtb, which is not working all that well. Note, this is a SD install. I have not flashed to nand yet, as I wanted to get the wifi stable first. I would like to test a realtek 100M 1GB version if possible.

 

Edit 2: I figured out how to get my remote to work. You will need the following files from a libreelec install.

  • /usr/bin/remotecfg
  • /etc/amremote    //just copy the whole folder.
  • /storage/.config/remote.conf

 

Then it was just a matter of copying, fixing permissions and running "remotecfg ~/.config/remote.conf" on boot.

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On 15.07.2017 at 2:22 AM, nylan said:

A cheap TV box is a good pair for an old(and new) computer monitor. Unfortunately, there is a very limited list of supported video modes in Linux builds for S9xxx boxes. Obviously, it's not enough to have only two screen resolutions supported, especially for desktop builds. This narrows the range of possible use cases and limits the popularity of distribution.
Meanwhile, ODROID-C2 already supports a variety of screen resolutions: odroid_wiki. Hardkernel did a good job in this field. balbes150, can you dig in this direction? Of course if you have time for this. It would be nice to have all these screen resolutions supported in your builds on the TV boxes. I think many people here will be grateful.

There is a problem. In the Odroid kernel sources there is no support for the chips s905x and s912. No support for equipment parts (food, sound, etc.), which is used in TV boxes. To enable support for different video modes to the kernel from armbian, it takes time to analyze and create patches.

 

On 23.07.2017 at 6:49 AM, Salvador Liébana said:

I tried all day to run Ubuntu xenial on my OTT x96 905x device... unfortunately doesn't happen

like my desire. I follow all the instructions, charge the os on my sd card, let multi-boot and boom, Ubuntu mate show up but in a not optimal performance at all.

but I did something obviously wrong. I don't have my .dtb image in the dtb (+kernel version) folder, I use belink and vega96, which at least let me boot Ubuntu. but like I say, the mp4 sample playback was horrible and wifi doesn't work, imagine that wifi is for other matters like drivers. I download my stock android ROM, but the .dtb in doesn't work, ubuntu doesn't boot at all. 

 

I expect any suggestion, please, I hate my fucking life hahaha hahaha

I need get work my original .dtb and get wifi works... because I have my stock ROM, I think the drivers are there... somewhere

I don't use Linux for a while.... long time ago 

 

Dear mates, Salvador

From Argentina, a nightmare country

If you run your system with dtb from VegaS96 is a file to S912. Most likely You have a model not s905x.

 

On 28.07.2017 at 5:45 PM, Takenover83 said:

For those of you using kodi. Here is a little script I made to auto switch terminals (tty1 then tty7) on exit. This way you won't be stuck on a black screen.

In the last images to run KODI you need to use the standard selection menu of the graphic shell at the login screen the system (2 line KODI). In this case, no switching is required between the terminals. When you exit KODI, the system automatically returns to the login screen.

On 28.07.2017 at 5:45 PM, Takenover83 said:

I figured out how to get my remote to work. You will need the following files from a libreelec install.

This is good information, in the following images I will try to use it.

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Update images 20170803.

Added support for remote control. To use it you need to add the correct file "remote.conf" in the /boot directory or /etc/amremote. By default, a part of the image includes several predefined files (in the /boot directory). To use it you need to rename one of the files in "remote.conf". Additionally uploaded the site to the directory the deb package "amremote.deb" , which can be installed in the old system (do not download the whole image). After installing this package you need to run service "amlogic-remotecfg" and add (rename) the correct file 'remote.conf".

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Update. Version 20170808. The main change is the updated function of installation to the internal memory and replaced the script nand_sata_install a link to the installation script /root/install.sh. Now you can install using two commands : 

 

/root/install.sh 

 

or

 

nand_sata_install.

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On 11/08/2017 at 4:55 PM, simple74 said:

plz i can find tuner setting for ubuntu how can i configure it

if you mean a dvb-t tuner, install dvb-tools and dtv-scan-tables packages.
dvbv5-scan -O ZAP -o channels.conf /usr/share/dvb/dvb-t/yourcountrycode_yourtown

 

Open the channels.conf file with Vlc to watch tv.

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12 hours ago, Craig Procter said:

what is current status of desktop video acceleration please?  does it support 1080p video playback and openGL yet?  thank you.

 

There is mali 400 driver that should do that. You need libdrm and Mesa drivers for mali 400, I do not know if driver are included in the balbes150 distro. The kernel does have the mali 400 driver.

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I extracted the device tree binary from my Nexbox MXQ-Pro S905 (not X) device, which has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of eMMC and found that the file is exactly the same as the Nexbox-A95X shipped along with the images prepared by balbes150.

 

In my setup I used the "generic" gxbb_p201.dtb file: the device booted and it worked well enough, but the wifi (8192es) module didn't load automatically and also sometimes the audio over hdmi get stuck and I have to reboot.

 

I thought that nothing fit better than the dtb file from my own device, so I extracted it from the original android image which is still on the eMMC of the device. It ends up being exactly the same dtb as the Nexbox-A95x. When I try to use the dtb extracted from my own device, the device doesn't boot anymore: it stays stuck at boot with the Nexbox logo after reading some data from the USB hard drive.

 

I supposed that the original dtb file would fit perfectly in the process.

Can be a problem with a missing kernel module or what else?

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