How to boot from my Android TV Box?

[Adan]

Hi, I would like to know if its possible to boot from SD card in my model of Android TV BOX. It does not have a reset button but has an update app.

 

Its a Giga TV Box HD890 4K. It has an Amlogic CPU

 

I do all the process of installing Armbian in the SD card, Android starts an update and it says:

 

"Map file is too short".

 

I really dont know what I have to do to enable multi boot. Installation is aborted.

 

Im getting really upset for not being able to install Armbian.

 

Any help to this issue would be really welcome.

 

Sorry for my bad english

 

[SteeMan]

moved to the correct forum

[SteeMan]

What build are you using?  What is the exact box you have? What steps have you taken to prepare your sd card?

[Adan]

Im using the generic "Armbian_23.02.2_Aml-s9xx-box_bullseye_current_6.1.11.img.xz" is that the correct one?

 

Its a Giga TV Box HD890 4K. Is it unsupported?

 

Flash the sd card with Ballena Etcher and load the image downloaded to create a bootable Armbian micro sd

Edited April 5, 2023 by Adan

[SteeMan]

48 minutes ago, Adan said:

Flash the sd card with Ballena Etcher and load the image downloaded to create a bootable Armbian micro sd

What dtb and u-boot are you using?

 

48 minutes ago, Adan said:

Its a Giga TV Box HD890 4K. Is it unsupported?

No TV boxes are supported.  Some work better than others, some not at all.

 

Are you following the instructions here: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17106-installation-instructions-for-tv-boxes-with-amlogic-cpus

 

[Adan]

Question, should I continue with this?

I cannot do the "toothpick" method, but I can try the "update" method.

 

My dtb is meson-gxl-s905x-p212.dtb

My u-boot is u-boot-s905x-s912

 

I also have changed the build, I use the "Armbian_23.02.2_Aml-s9xx-box_bullseye_current_6.1.11_xfce_desktop.img.xz" image.

 

And the result is: the update app cant even read the sd card.

 

Anyways, I follow the instructions download the image of this tutorial on the Internet

 

https://i12bretro.github.io/tutorials/0316.html

 

and I use this image "Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_focal_current_5.9.0_desktop.img.xz"

 

I get the "map file is too short" message

Edited April 8, 2023 by Adan
Added Image name

[Adan]

This is the error I get when using update app

 

Supported API: 3

charge_status 2, charged 1, status SUCCESS, capacity 100

Finding update package...

Opening update package...

E: Block map file is too short: 3

E: Map of "@/cache/recovery/block.map" failed

E failed to map file

Installation aborted

[SteeMan]

2 hours ago, Adan said:

I cannot do the "toothpick" method

Why?

[Adan]

I think it doesnt have a reset button. I have already contacted the company TvTech to ask them if the TV Box has a reset button or not. Waiting for an answer from them.

[SteeMan]

Have you opened the case and looked for one?

[Adan]

I think its imposible to open the case, but i have looked through the AV hole and i dont see a reset button.

 

I will try to open the case and see whats inside.

[Adan]

 

Can you see a reset button? I think there is no reset button

[SteeMan]

While unlikely, it could be on the other side of the motherboard.

[Adan]

No, its not. Should I quit trying to install Armbian?

[SteeMan]

From the picture your box is a rebranded m8s pro+, as indicated by the board markings.

In googling I have found the following like that shows someone being successful at installing Armbian (http://www.galipe.net/guide-mecool-m8sproplus-armbian/). (article in French, I used Google translate)

So it should be possible.

While those instructions are old, they show that it should work.

[SteeMan]

There are different types of update apps, so when you run the update app on the old 5.9.0 build do you see the same interface as this how to article shows?  

[SteeMan]

The current builds do not even include the aml_autoscript.zip file because it is rarely needed.  There is nothing special about this file it is a zero byte dummy file, that is supposed to trigger the loading of the aml_autoscript file via some update apps.

 

 

[SteeMan]

Another way of triggering the running of the aml_autoscript file is to issue a 'adb reboot update' command through adb.

 

[Adan]

Quote

Another way of triggering the running of the aml_autoscript file is to issue a 'adb reboot update' command through adb.

I do the ADB reboot update and the TV box bricks and image freezes. Im doing the ADB Wifi mode.

UPDATE: I doesnt brick, It just boots Android again

 

Quote

The current builds do not even include the aml_autoscript.zip file because it is rarely needed.  There is nothing special about this file it is a zero byte dummy file, that is supposed to trigger the loading of the aml_autoscript file via some update apps.

The problem is that I need that file to launch the "update". But it says that about map file too short.

 

Ill try the french tutorial.

 

Espero que el tutorial de mis vecinos galos me den buenos resultados, hahaha.

Translation "I hope that the tutorial of my neighbors the Gauls give me good results, hahaha."

 

Edited April 8, 2023 by Adan

[Adan]

Quote

There are different types of update apps, so when you run the update app on the old 5.9.0 build do you see the same interface as this how to article shows?  

It is the same interface like in the article but in Spanish.

 

This is what I get

 

 

 

[Adan]

Do you think the issue must be the SD card?

 

Quote

"Once the image is burned to the micro-SD card, two partitions/discs "BOOT" and "ROOTFS" will appear in your file explorer. Go to the BOOT party (tip in case of doubt between the two: this partition contains files but only one folder named "dtb")."

 

There is no "ROOTFS" partition. With other images I usually get it but not now.

Edited April 9, 2023 by Adan

[Adan]

Also tried flashing "Armbian_23.02.2_Aml-s9xx-box_bullseye_current_6.1.11.img.xz" into another SD card and the TV Box didnt even recognize the sd card. My computer does.

 

Tried the ADB method with the SD card inserted (not recognized) and it boots Android again.

 

Its Android 9 (Android Pie)

 

Can it be the bootloader? It is locked or something?

Edited April 9, 2023 by Adan

[SteeMan]

23 minutes ago, Adan said:

Also tried flashing "Armbian_23.02.2_Aml-s9xx-box_bullseye_current_6.1.11.img.xz" into another SD card and the TV Box didnt even recognize the sd card. My computer does.

What do you mean by "TV Box doesn't recognize the SD card"?  How is it different from before?

[Adan]

What I mean is that I have two Micro SD card, one with the "Armbian_23.02.2_Aml-s9xx-box_bullseye_current_6.1.11.img.xz" , I try the update app on Android but it says "No sd card".

 

The other is the one, is the one with another Armbian image, the result is this:

 

[SteeMan]

2 hours ago, Adan said:

What I mean is that I have two Micro SD card, one with the "Armbian_23.02.2_Aml-s9xx-box_bullseye_current_6.1.11.img.xz" , I try the update app on Android but it says "No sd card".

That is yo be expected.  As I said earlier:

 

18 hours ago, SteeMan said:

The current builds do not even include the aml_autoscript.zip file because it is rarely needed.  There is nothing special about this file it is a zero byte dummy file, that is supposed to trigger the loading of the aml_autoscript file via some update apps.

You would need to create the empty aml_autoscript.zip file on this build manually.

[Adan]

Yes but it simply doesnt read the SD card for some reason, I go to File Browser on Android and I dont see the Micro SD Card, like is unable to read it. My PC does read it.

[SteeMan]

OK now I understand.  It is common to have incompatibilities between older TV boxes and SD cards.

 

You also said you: 

3 hours ago, Adan said:

Tried the ADB method with the SD card inserted (not recognized) and it boots Android again

Which sd card was that with?  Obviously if the box can't read the one card, nothing is going to work with that card.

[Adan]

It was the "Armbian_23.02.2_Aml-s9xx-box_bullseye_current_6.1.11.img.xz image

 

For some reason the disk when mounted on pc  has the name "armboot" or something like that instead of "boot", like the other image.

Edited April 9, 2023 by Adan

[SteeMan]

Can you try the other SD card with the adb command?

[Adan]

Yes and the result is the same (it does read it but boots Android for some reason), they are both 128 GB SD card

 

Maybe im doing something wrong like I only put

"adb reboot update"

and the system reboots

 

Is that command correct?

 

UPDATE: BUT IT HAS AN IMAGE ARMBIAN IMAGE, AN OLDER ONE

Edited April 9, 2023 by Adan