H96 MAX X3 ARMBIAN INSTALL

[Yvan P.]

Hello !!

I ordered a box tv H96 MAX X3

 

With this configuration :
-CPU: Amlogic S905X3 quad core BRAS Cortex A55;
-GPU: ARM Mali-G31 MP2; - OS: Android 10.0;
-Memory: DDR3 4GB, eMMC 32/64GB/128GB
-Support: H.265, 8K @ 24fps, 4K @ 60fps, HD 2.1, USB3.0;
-Support 10/100M/1000M Ethernet, 2.4 and 5G dual Wifi,BT4.0;

I'd like to install Armbian on it to use it as a mini server.

Except that I'm a complete idiot when it comes to computers, and I've tried to follow tutorials I've already seen, but I can't get the hang of it.

I can't really find the right image and I don't really understand how to do it. 
When I try on my own and plug in my USB key, the box reboots in a loop and when I unplug it, it boots on Android.

Thank you, I'm also aware that I can "brick" it etc. .

[queeks]

NOTE: This will overwrite the Android ROM on the eMMC flash and attempt to install Armbian. Before beginning, make sure you have a backup of the stock Android ROM in the event the installation fails or you want to revert back to Android in the future. Proceed at your own risk.

 

You can copy the working Armbian environment from SD card/USB drive to eMMC using the install-aml.sh script. This file does a physical copy of whole system to eMMC. You can install Armbian to eMMC by running the shell script in the /root directory. Run the following commands in a terminal window:

 

Quote

sudo su; cd /root/; sudo ./install-aml.sh

 

Once the Armbian finishes copying to the eMMC, shutdown Armbian, unplug power from the box, remove the SD card/USB drive from the box, power the box back on to boot from the eMMC storage, if everything worked as expected, Armbian should boot from the internal eMMC storage and no longer require the SD/microSD card.

Edited December 13, 2023 by queeks

[alec]

On 12/12/2023 at 7:04 PM, Yvan P. said:

When I try on my own and plug in my USB key, the box reboots in a loop and when I unplug it, it boots on Android.

 

The same story with Armbian on SD or USB. How to fix it?

[SteeMan]

7 minutes ago, alec said:

The same story with Armbian on SD or USB. How to fix it?

What build are you using?  What instructions are you following?

[alec]

On 2/21/2024 at 9:18 PM, SteeMan said:

What build are you using?  What instructions are you following?

Tried the below options:

Images

Armbian_24.2.0_amlogic_s905_jammy_6.6.13_server_2024.01.25.img

Armbian_24.2.0_amlogic_s905_bookworm_6.6.13_server_2024.01.25.img

Armbian_23.11.1_Aml-s9xx-box_bookworm_current_6.1.63.img

 

FDT=/dtb/amlogic/meson-sm1-h96-max-x3.dtb

and

FDT=/dtb/amlogic/meson-sm1-h96-max-x3-oc.dtb

 

u-boot.ext copied from u-boot-x96max.bin and u-boot-x96maxplus.bin

 

Sold the box so cannot try more cases
But would be great to hear what I did wrong

[SteeMan]

1 hour ago, alec said:

Armbian_24.2.0_amlogic_s905_jammy_6.6.13_server_2024.01.25.img

Armbian_24.2.0_amlogic_s905_bookworm_6.6.13_server_2024.01.25.img

These are not Armbian images.  Where did you get them?

 

1 hour ago, alec said:

u-boot.ext copied from u-boot-x96max.bin and u-boot-x96maxplus.bin

This is not part of any Armbian image.

 

1 hour ago, alec said:

Armbian_23.11.1_Aml-s9xx-box_bookworm_current_6.1.63.img

Images prior to current nightlies and after 23.02 are known not to work with the s905x3 based boxes.  But current nightly builds should work.

[xuraax]

HI, I have installed Armbian_community_24.5.0-trunk.93_Aml-s9xx-box_jammy_current_6.6.18_cinnamon_desktop.img.xz from github on my H96 Max Plus 2 using  u-boot-s905x3 for u-boot.ext and meson-sm1-x96-max-plus-100m.dtb.

 

The installation goes on without a hitch and the OS runs almost perfectly.

 

However when I run sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade, upgrading appears to proceed properly but when I switch on the box again the software hangs and I have to start anew.

 

Any ideas please?

 

[SteeMan]

5 hours ago, xuraax said:

meson-sm1-x96-max-plus-100m.dtb

Something doesn't make sense as there is no such dtb in the release

[xuraax]

You are correct, none of the dtb's I tried from the release worked for me. Maybe I did not try them all!

 

That dtb had been downloaded and used by me about a year ago when I had made another attempt to install Armbian on my box. At the time installation process worked but the actual install was buggy.

 

Anyway I am happy to report that since yesterday's message, I made another attempt at installation and this time there were only minor issues whilst upgrading which were fairly easily resolved. I am sorry I cannot find the notes I took were I had recorded the actual error but I believe it was something about the system not able to register certain upgrades. These were then cleared and I had no further issues. I even went ahead and installed to EMMC with no issues whatsoever so now I don't need the SDcard anymore which I hope will improve the speed a bit as well as reliability. So far no more issues.

 

I have now only one question, given that I am now operating from EMMC, if in the future I would want to install a new upgrade how would I do it? Will installing from SDcard work or would it be sufficient to use the Upgrade Manager or sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade?

 

Thanks.

[SteeMan]

The entire system is now in your EMMC storage, so you just upgrade from there, no need for SD card going forward.  Although it can be convenient to boot front an SD card, use the ddbr command to make an image backup of the EMMC once you have everything configured that you can always rollback to if necessary 

[xuraax]

thank you SteeMan.

 

I am glad I don't need to go through the SDcard route for future upgrades but how does one transfer a .img version into the EMMC directly?

Can you also point me to a link where the use of the ddbr command is explained?

Also my box is supposed have the 1000G LAN but that dtb is actually intended for the 100G LAN which is to be found in some versions of the box. Therefore can I directly replace  the current dtb with a version suited to 1000G directly or will I be risking blocking everything?

[SteeMan]

You don't need to transfer a .img.  You use apt update/upgrade like any other Linux system.

 

You can test other dtb files, but I would recommend testing those from the SD card to verify they work.  If you test on the EMMC and you do something wrong, then it won't boot and it will be a pain to fix.  This the recommendation to do everything on SD card first to make sure you are happy with the system before moving that configuration to emmc as a last step.

 

ddbr is a very simple utility.  I don't know if it is properly documented anywhere, but you can do an internet search to see discussions about it.

[Pita Bread]

Howdy y'all. (It's something people in southern USA say). hehe. I want to eventually setup a mini NAS server via Gigabit ethernet using this device. So, I recently purchased this same tv box as @Yvan P. described and I successfully installed Armbian_community_24.11.0-trunk.273_Aml-s9xx-box_oracular_edge_6.11.3 (2.64 GB img file). It was more time consuming and challenging than I originally thought. I'll explain.

 

My box included Android firmware version PPR1.180610.11.20230208 and Kernel 4.9.113 built on 08FEB2023. Trying to boot any custom OS like Armbian via SD card in TF slot or USB flash drive in either 2.0 port or 3.0 just boot looped the H96 logo again 'n again. I had to downgrade the  firmware. I followed instructions that I found on github here and on xda-developers here, but I used an alternative method in TWRP. *The following is a LONG explanation. Get ready! ☺

 

Download the 2022 firmware file as a zip or img, (another copy here) the Amlogic Bootcard maker and TWRP.  Prepare a micro SD card with one partition, formatted as FAT32. Also prepare a USB flash drive (or USB card reader) with one partition, formatted as FAT32. Copy the 20220516 firmware file to the USB flash drive. Make the SD card bootable with Amlogic Bootcard maker or Burn card maker software. Copy recovery-twrp_x96max-20220601-1253.img to the root of the SD card and rename the file to recovery.img on the SD card. With power cord disconnected, tv box off, Insert SD card in TF slot of tv box, and insert USB flash into the USB 2.0 port. Connect a USB mouse to the blue USB 3.0 port so you can click on buttons. Use a toothpick to press and hold the reset button inside the 3.5mm AV port. Keep holding the AV button and connect the power cord. Keep holding button until TWRP appears on screen, and swipe right to allow modifications.

 

Recommended to backup all the partitions here to the SD card or USB flash drive, and keep a the second copy somewhere safe, especially Recovery.  Under "select partitions for backup" make sure they don't say "0MB". If they do, then there is a problem and you shouldn't continue - stop. Troubleshoot and fix the problem - ask questions online. Otherwise, continue... ☺

For backup of the existing firmware, click Backup, Select Storage and choose the Micro SD card or USB OTG (##MB). Select all partitions and swipe right to do the backup. No need for compression. Wait. Go back to the main menu with back (bottom left corner), and select Install. Click Select Storage then select USB OTG (##MB), and OK button. Depending on which firmware file you want to use, the "franklin-ota-eng.qmx_srv.zip" file should appear. Or click Install Image and the ""AML_user_H96MaxX3_9_20220516.1821.img" file should appear. Click on the file, and swipe right to do the install.   Wait, and do not do anything until you see IMAGE FLASH COMPLETED. After you see the COMPLETED message, remove the SD card and USB flash drive and go to the main menu and click Reboot, System. Let Android boot, and check the version of Android in the settings. It should be PPR1.180610.011.20220516 and kernel 4.9.113, May 16 2022.

 

Now we can boot Armbian from the SD card and make sure it works, updates and reboots properly. I used the standard instructions for writing an Armbian image to a SD card. I selected the server image "Armbian_community_24.11.0-trunk.273_Aml-s9xx-box_oracular_edge_6.11.3.img". Copied u-boot-s905x3 to u-boot.ext, and set /dtb/amlogic/meson-sm1-h96-max.dtb in extlinux.conf . I disconnected power cord, inserted SD card into TF, held reset button in the audio jack, and connected power cord still holding the button for 15 seconds. Armbian logo came up and I released the button. All 4GB RAM (3.69GB usable) is good, ethernet is good at 1 Gigabit, but there is no sound, no bluetooth and no wifi. That's alright because I will use this as a mini NAS server and maybe an ad blocking DNS server via Gigabit ethernet. I froze the kernel in armbian-config, ran "apt update" and rebooted. There were some error messages about initramfs but nothing bad. It rebooted and started alright. For smoother 'n faster data transfer, I should replace my cheap old cat5e cables and probably get a better and brand-name gigabit switch. I hope this helps future aml tv box enthusiasts 🐧.

 

Edited November 1 by Pita Bread
corrections

[Pita Bread]

On 10/31/2024 at 9:50 PM, Pita Bread said:

Download the 2022 firmware

 

A backup of all of the files mention in my previous post (above) is now on The Internet Archive. Either browse the web page and choose what you want to download https://archive.org/details/H96Max-X3-s905x3-tvbox-android-firmware-backup ,

 

Or just download the one 7z file and decompress it by using the latest version of 7zip or Winrar https://archive.org/download/H96Max-X3-s905x3-tvbox-android-firmware-backup/h96maxX3tvBox-files.7z

 

*edit: If you are unable to download files from the archive.org website, or that website is blocked, then first connect to a VPN (virtual private network) service such as Surfshark or TotalVPN and choose a server in USA.

 

Cheers ☺

Edited December 2 by Pita Bread
add more info

[DerDave]

Hi @Pita Bread, thanks for your input!
I've been struggling with this for two straigt days now.
I was *finally* able to downgrade my Vontar x3 (identical with the X96 Max) - it wasn't possible through TWRP or USB burner, but it did eventually work with the Burn Card Maker.

Anyway, so now I have the identical software version on it as you (AML_user_H96MaxX3_9_20220516.1821.img) and I created an SD card with a new armbian build with BalenaEtcher.
I selected the same dtb file as you and took care of the u-boot.ext.

But still, I just can't make the thing boot into Armbian and it's so frustrating.

As long as I keep the reset button pressed, the screen will just stay black - Armbian never shows up. When I release the button, after a while the H96max splash screen shows up, then it turns black and then the screen signal is lost. There is no boot loop or anything. It just get's stuck.

The same thing happens, no matter if I push the reset button or not, as long as the SD card is inserted.
What am I doing wrong? 
The only difference I see to you is that I'm using a more recent Armbian version (can't download the one you used, because the internet archive doesn't actually transfer any data).

Thanks a lot in advance for your help!


EDIT:
I just randomly tried inserting the SD Card in an USB adapter and plugged that into the USB2 port of the device. And it worked! Totally random, but it seems like that did the trick. Didn't see this documented anywhere so maybe the information is helpful to anyone!

Edited December 2 by DerDave

[Pita Bread]

6 hours ago, DerDave said:

I just randomly tried inserting the SD Card in an USB adapter and plugged that into the USB2 port of the device. And it worked! Totally random, but it seems like that did the trick. Didn't see this documented anywhere so maybe the information is helpful to anyone!

 

Great! I am glad it worked. Yeah, that Burn (not Boot) Card maker v2.0.3 is wonderful for easily flashing an img file of any Android firmware directly to the tv box without using TWRP or recovery. My T95 Max+Plus (S905x3) also requires booting 3rd party OS's like Armbian and Emuelec from one of the USB ports (I forgot if it was usb2.0 or usb3.0).
 

Quote

the internet archive doesn't actually transfer any data).

Try using a VPN like Surfshark or Nord and connect to a USA server. Also use a download manager (accelerator) such as FDM or JDownloader2. Cheers ☺

Edited December 2 by Pita Bread
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