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

[etona]

I have nexboxa95x, with s905x 2ghz, and p212 board.

Not other two nexbox with aml. s905..

[xXx]

3 minutes ago, etona said:

I have nexboxa95x, with s905x 2ghz, and p212 board.

Not other two nexbox with aml. s905..

I'm sorry, but i can't help you any further, because i have MiniM8S only.
The other boxes i mentioned in an older post, was for donation ( not mine ).

[etona]

Tnx.

Now cant sawing with airmouse, have no usb keyboard..Sorry i am newbie, with linux..

[balbes150]

File

/boot/amlogics905x_init.sh

common to the entire line of devices s9xxx.

[etona]

I am solved firefox, and now audio work perfect, now video dont work...

I must learning too much.

Now Ill waiting some time, and try making a new sd card...

On my armbian i have "vim terminal", and "mate terminal".

Maibie i have wrong software?

This "odroid", I am never started, dont work by me.

[etona]

Tnx for help.

[balbes150]

Do not use versions of images from Odroid without special manual adjustments, You can turn TV box into a brick.

[mdel]

On 3/14/2017 at 8:01 AM, balbes150 said:

Judging by the output, the installation should work. Pay attention to matching the size of the partitions and installed system. That would be enough space to install.

 

i'm not sure what you mean by "matching the size" but i guess that you have to make sure that the size of the data in your "ROOTFS" partition is less than the size of the emmc data size. in my case the xenial server is less than 2GB so i guess it's okay.

 

Anyways i tried the install.sh script from your "5.27 (test 20170314)" xenial server image and it didn't work.

the 5.27 image runs fine on my a95x with p201 dtb, haven't tested anything beside first boot and reboot.

 

the install script runs ok, but then the box boots into a loop (display signal and eth link light loop, never reaches the nexbox logo).

Is there a way to debug that in some logs somewhere or do i have to solder a serial.

 

i can still boot from the sdcard so i'm currently also testing a restore with the latest xxx dd_backup script.

 

-- edit --

 

restore from failed emmc install worked fine with xxx script

Edited March 15, 2017 by mdel

[balbes150]

Without UART it is difficult to understand where start the problem. If possible, it is useful to see the output of fw_printenv from running from external media system.

[mdel]

@

30 minutes ago, balbes150 said:

Without UART it is difficult to understand where start the problem. If possible, it is useful to see the output of fw_printenv from running from external media system.

 

fw_printenv before install.sh

http://termbin.com/mohh

 

fw_printenv after install.sh (running from the external sd)

http://termbin.com/gwre

 

i will try to solder serial later today or in the a few days.

 

[balbes150]

Try to remove the output of fw_printenv after installation (after running the script install.sh) and system restart without pulling out the SD card. What would the system starts from the external media immediately after installation.

[mdel]

here's the serial output : http://termbin.com/1ng2

 

you'll see a loop ending i believe with "Resetting CPU ..."

 

then i halted by striking a key and added the output of "help" and "printenv"

 

i've started reading it but i can't really find out what's wrong or what's going on with the loading process..

[mdel]

sorry missed your answer :

what do you mean by "remove the output of fw_printenv after installation" ?

 

here's what i did exactly :

- run install.sh
- do a "shutdown -h now"

- unplug the power, remove the sd card

- plug the power back in, see the boot loop.

 

then i unplug power again, put the sd card back in and plug the power, then the system starts from the sdcard right away.

[balbes150]

I meant that after installing, restart TV box (with a connected SD card). To run the command fw_printenv. Something to watch, fixed the result of a change in ENV.

 

UPDATE

Show more the log output from UART when system starts with external media.

 

UPDATE2

I don't see in the log of boot from UART, that would be before the kernel is running from internal memory load dtb data from the internal memory. You can try hands prescribe the right option to ENV (using the console UART).

[mdel]

 

here's the fw_printenv after ./install.sh && reboot (with sdcard of course) :

http://termbin.com/cdot

 

here's the serial output for the normal sd card boot :

http://termbin.com/mpw9

 

one thing, there's a wireless "air keyboard+mouse" (one single device) plugged in the usb port if you see some usb devices in the logs.

and i also always connect the lan cable.

 

yes i know i can call dtb/kernel loading and boot from uboot serial prompt but i don't know too much about that so i'm searching at the moment.

 

-- edit --

 

i don't quite understand what are the command to boot from emmc, it's quite simple with the fatload commands from external storage.

 

Anyways i'm going to try loading from tftp, as i have a server running and that uboot seems to support tftp

and using the emmc "/data" rootfs .

 

-- edit 2 --

 

okay i can load uInitrd and zImage from my tftp server and then boot using the s905_autoscript booti command

so the system is running from the internal emmc and mount shows :

/dev/data on / type ext4 (rw,noatime,errors=remount-ro,data=writeback)

 

let me know if you find what's wrong with the boot command, i've tried to look again but i'm not seeing much that i can recognize and uboot documentation is not helping me, many commands are missing.

 

thx

Edited March 15, 2017 by mdel

[balbes150]

Perhaps the reason is not the correct file linux.img (which is automatically generated when you build the image, it is possible to rebuild manually and overwrite). I need time to check it out. I think You have the system does not start due to the fact that the team is the u-boot bootloader (bootm) can only run "old" versions of the kernel (processed with mkimage command or mkbootimg), and the eMMC will get the option to use booti command.

[mdel]

unrelated to the internal emmc boot.

 

running your Armbian_5.27_S9xxx_Ubuntu_xenial_3.14.29_server_20170314.img image, (on the internal emmc at the moment) i notice that the cpu temperature reported by armbianmonitor is much higher than on my other identical a95x running your Armbian_5.26_S9xxx_Ubuntu_xenial_3.14.29_server_20170302.img

 

the two boxes are NOT in the same location but still the heatsink is much hotter than usual :  

root@amlogic-s905x:~# armbianmonitor -m
Stop monitoring using [ctrl]-[c]
Time        CPU    load %cpu %sys %usr %nice %io %irq   CPU
16:24:19:  500MHz  0.38   4%   0%   0%   0%   2%   0% 61.0°C
16:24:25: 1000MHz  0.35   4%   0%   0%   0%   2%   0% 60.0°C
16:24:30:  500MHz  0.32   4%   0%   0%   0%   2%   0% 60.0°C
16:24:35:  250MHz  0.30   4%   0%   0%   0%   2%   0% 59.0°C
16:24:40:  100MHz  0.27   4%   0%   0%   0%   2%   0% 60.0°C
16:24:45:  500MHz  0.25   4%   0%   0%   0%   2%   0% 59.0°C
16:24:50:  250MHz  0.23   4%   0%   0%   0%   2%   0% 60.0°C
16:24:55:  100MHz  0.21   4%   0%   0%   0%   2%   0% 60.0°C
16:25:00: 1000MHz  0.20   4%   0%   0%   0%   2%   0% 60.0°C

other box (5.26) :

Time        CPU    load %cpu %sys %usr %nice %io %irq   CPU
16:31:43: 1000MHz  1.10   7%   1%   3%   0%   1%   0% 45.0°C
16:31:48: 1296MHz  1.09   7%   1%   3%   0%   1%   0% 45.0°C
16:31:53: 1000MHz  1.00   7%   1%   3%   0%   1%   0% 44.0°C
16:31:58: 1000MHz  1.00   7%   1%   3%   0%   1%   0% 45.0°C
16:32:03:  500MHz  1.16   7%   1%   3%   0%   1%   0% 44.0°C
16:32:08: 1000MHz  1.06   7%   1%   3%   0%   1%   0% 45.0°C

 

i will flash the same 5.26 image and run it on my "hot" box to see what happens.

 

-- edit --

 

i could not reproduce that behavior when booting from the sd card (same 5.27 image), i'll see what happens when i try to boot from emmc again.

Edited March 16, 2017 by mdel

[mdel]

okay i think i understand.

 

the final boot command is "storeboot" if nothing else is found :

storeboot=if imgread kernel boot ${loadaddr}; then store dtb read $dtb_mem_addr; bootm ${loadaddr}; fi;run update;

which loads your /boot/linux.img file that you have dd to /dev/boot in install.sh.

then bootm which fails to run that linux.img.. (for some reason loading that image is okay ?)

 

So as booti works fine, i was wondering if i could do something real ugly, which is :

(assuming that there's no fat partition already available on the flash)

 

format /dev/boot to fat32, copy uInitrd and zImage there, then change uboot env to run the fatload/booti sequence ?

 

would that work ? 

i'm a bit scared to brick my device by formatting /dev/boot directly, a bit stupid since you already dd the same block.

 

The idea is that since android is not present on the device anymore, it doesn't matter if storeboot is never reached or broken.. (which it is at the moment).

As long as we keep the bootcmd=run start_autoscript / start_autoscript / start_mmc_autoscript / start_usb_autoscript sequence in uboot env, right ?

 

-- edit --

 

correct me if i'm wrong but it looks like the emmc is not a regular mmc device so fatload can't be used to read form it ??

 

-- edit 2 --

i don't see how i can access a fat partition on my device emmc (it's supposed to work on some devices), so i'm back trying to use bootm with your linux kernel.

 

Edited March 16, 2017 by mdel

[mdel]

@balbes150

can you tell me how your /boot/linux.img (bootm image) is build and what's in it ?

 

here's the "help bootm" from my device :

 

Spoiler

gxb_p201_v1#help bootm
bootm - boot application image from memory

Usage:
bootm [addr [arg ...]]
    - boot application image stored in memory
        passing arguments 'arg ...'; when booting a Linux kernel,
        'arg' can be the address of an initrd image
        When booting a Linux kernel which requires a flat device-tree
        a third argument is required which is the address of the
        device-tree blob. To boot that kernel without an initrd image,
        use a '-' for the second argument. If you do not pass a third
        a bd_info struct will be passed instead

For the new multi component uImage format (FIT) addresses
        must be extened to include component or configuration unit name:
        addr:<subimg_uname> - direct component image specification
        addr#<conf_uname>   - configuration specification
        Use iminfo command to get the list of existing component
        images and configurations.

Sub-commands to do part of the bootm sequence.  The sub-commands must be
issued in the order below (it's ok to not issue all sub-commands):
        start [addr [arg ...]]
        loados  - load OS image
        ramdisk - relocate initrd, set env initrd_start/initrd_end
        fdt     - relocate flat device tree
        cmdline - OS specific command line processing/setup
        bdt     - OS specific bd_t processing
        prep    - OS specific prep before relocation or go
        go      - start OS

 

seeing how different that uboot is from the general documentation, i imagine it could be necessary to tweak the bootm command for my specific device.

[balbes150]

Wait not a lot, I found the cause, now working on a solution.

[balbes150]

To repair installation errors in the internal memory, replace the first partition (/boot) file "linux.img" on it.

 

https://yadi.sk/d/i8mKgFEi3BW24i

[mdel]

nice, works fine now.

can you tell me what was wrong ?

[balbes150]

I made a mistake in the build script (lost the third element dtb). Therefore, the kernel file (linux.img) had minimal data dtb and the kernel fell as erroneous.

 

 

Updated the images on the website (test 20170316). This hotfix installation functions to the internal memory eMMC.

Edited March 16, 2017 by balbes150

[jozicka]

Hi, I have A95X box  with s905x with last Armbian_5.26...  image.  It  is used as replacement for NAS pi server.  All is working nicely, only Samba speed is 11 MB/s (both upload and download).   It is still much better then Pi speed (2,5 MB upload), However I expected more... (just more and more, that is what they want..)First I thought it is because of ntfs format of drivers, so I moved files of one drive out, formated to ext4, and moved files back.  However the speed did not get any better.   And also I have noticed the transfer speed from one USB NTFS drive to second NTFS drive  is 22 MB/s (with cpu ussage 42%), so it looks the CPU is not the bottleneck.

Please do you have any tips, what can be set, to get the network speed UP?

 

[mdel]

11 hours ago, balbes150 said:

Updated the images on the website (test 20170316). This hotfix installation functions to the internal memory eMMC.

 

thx i'll test it again and please don't forget about adding my a95x dts 

[mdel]

34 minutes ago, jozicka said:

Please do you have any tips, what can be set, to get the network speed UP?

 

 

11 MB/s looks a lot like a max 100Mbps LAN speed.

check your box specs but if it doesn't have Gigabit ethernet (Gbe, sometime called 1000M) you won't get faster network speeds.

 

I don't remember if the s905x has better Gbe capabilities (MAC or PHY) than s905 but if it's not the case then those boxes will more likely have 10/100 and not Gbe LAN which will be available on some boxe and probably more on high end ones..

 

then you have too choices, get a Gbe box or board, or use an usb3.0 Gbe ethernet adapter (around 10e), but you won't get Gbe speeds with those adapters, usually 200-300Mbps and USB2.0 is limited to 480Mpbs (theorical) anyways.

 

Edited March 16, 2017 by mdel

[jozicka]

Oh, yes, you are right, it is only 100 Mbps box.   (I should go to S912 with 10/100/1000 LAN instead), At least now I know, there is no need to waste time to fix it :)..   Thank you very much for explanation.   I will first try to play with Ethernet adapter, as 200-300 Mbps would be just fine..  And we will see..

[balbes150]

10 hours ago, mdel said:

thx i'll test it again and please don't forget about adding my a95x dts

Don't hesitate to periodically remind me that I can miss important moments, which promised (a lot of things you have to keep in mind).

[mdel]

16 minutes ago, jozicka said:

 I will first try to play with Ethernet adapter, as 200-300 Mbps would be just fine..  And we will see..

 

if you're only doing some pure nas stuff (no video) you should check that board first : Nanopi Neo2

 

it'll cost barely more than an Gbe ethernet adapter and you'll get full Gbe speed.

The H5 is a quad core 64 bit arm, similar to the s905 but will run at much lower clock speeds, especially on that small board apparently.

It's not nearly as powerful as your s905x box but should not break a sweat reading your NTFS drives at full USB2 speed (around 35MB/s). Well actually it will sweat a little so make sure you get the heatsink for a couple dollars more.

 

 

 

[mdel]

@balbes150

 

i've tested your latest image on my a95x s905 box : Armbian_5.27_S9xxx_Ubuntu_xenial_3.14.29_server_20170316.img

install.sh worked fine this time.

 

i did not flash my recovery image before running install.sh again.

so i forgot to add my compatible dtb.img in /BOOT/ before running install.sh.

It was already flashed during the previous install.sh run, so the dtb was loaded from flash and sd card boot did not fail, so i forgot about the dtb.img..

 

Anyways it's very nice that this works, are there any things to check / test when running armbian from emmc ?

 

I'll try your desktop image now to see how it runs, hw accel and so on.