Installation on new tx3 mini fails

[Victorhtf]

Hello, I'm trying to start ARMbian in my new TX3 mini (Amlogic S902w)...but I'm always having trouble in ARMbian boot. It always says Kernel Panic - not syncing: Asynchronous SError Interrupt. Following by a message that says CPU: (u-dev-worker) Not tainted 6.1.63-current-meson64. I tried an old images of ARMbian that I found in YouTube videos, but without success. The error changes the way that the message appears but its always this Kernel Panic in CPU..

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, I'm trying so many DTB's with all these 3 u-boot.ext, but without success. I don't know if I should change the BOOT ARGS in extlinux.conf. There's so many doubts.

Does anyone having this issue? 

Edited December 29, 2023 by Victorhtf
Remaining information

[SteeMan]

2 hours ago, Victorhtf said:

my new TX3 mini (Amlogic S902w).

There is no such cpu.  Can you specify the cpu you have?  There are many different versions of boxes labeled tx3 mini, so you need to be specific.  Pictures of the motherboard would also be helpful.

[Victorhtf]

I'm sorry, i misspelt, mine cpu is s905w. Idk exactly which version, by the way. Here are some pictures of mb.

[SteeMan]

Can you capture a pic of the boot messages you are seeing?

[SteeMan]

Also, what image of Armbian are you trying?

[Victorhtf]

For sure. Here are some pictures of boot when I try to boot "Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_focal_current_5.9.0_desktop". Its shows error while inserting stdin before boot Armbian.

After that it shows 'Starting kernel...", and tries to boot Armbian, when the terminal is opened I get this Kernel panic bellow.

 

I was using some images that I found in the original topic and some images that I found in YouTube. All the images that I have used is in the screenshot.

NOTE: except by "Armbian_23.11.1_Aml-s9xx-box_jammy_current_6.1.63_xfce_desktop" that doesn't fit in my SDcard.

 

In this screenshot particularly I was using Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_focal_current_5.9.0_desktop with this extlinux.conf:

 

'FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxl-s905w-tx3-mini.dtb

APPEND root=LABEL=ROOTFS rootflags=data=writeback rw console=ttyAML0,115200n8 console=tty0 no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0'

 

But I tried also use other images with other extlinux confs.

Edited December 29, 2023 by Victorhtf
I forgot to add the images screenshot

[Victorhtf]

Update: I'm trying with every s905w images that I could find, I always get an error: Kernel panic or mainline 'bootfromsd not defined' and some PHY messages.

 

Well, at this point I'm about to forfeit. Tried many methods and didn't get at least login in armbian.

Edited January 8 by Victorhtf

[Khadas]

My recently purchased TX3 Mini has an S905L2-B soc and samsung eMMC

 

I was expecting to find the classic S905W and I think they are using this one lately.

 

I recommend you try the DTBs for the S905L2 CPU

 

meson-gxl-s905l2-ipbs9505.dtb

I have eMMC access

 

meson-gxl-s905l2-x7-5g.dtb

I DO NOT have eMMC access

 

trying to install on emmc I bricked the TV box so be very careful if you then intend to copy Armbian onto the emmc

 

[Victorhtf]

Well. I checked multiple times my CPU and its really a S905W in my case.

 

At this point I really dont know if the method that I'm doing is right. Here in armbian forums we have many deprecated tutorials, that versions from 2 or 3 years ago. I could not get this at the point.

I also visited amlogic-armbian repository in ophub's github, its more updated but there there's different tutorials, compile kernel, build armbian...there's so many steps, with a hundred of possible workarounds.

 

At the moment I'm basically flashing a .img in a sdcard, copy the name of my dtb (meson-gxl-s905w-tx3-mini) and paste in extlinux.conf and rename one file to u-boot.ext...nothing more than that.

In theory it should be ok and all should work as expected. But I really cannot understand why I'm always stuck in boot. Always with the same 'Kernel panic' message.

 

EDIT: After post my reply I tried to use the exactly same DTB as you said. And it worked.

I dont know why using a totally different DTB that my CPU should support worked. But now I'm logged in my root user, in armbian, thats awesome.
Possibly somethings will not work...but this is another trouble, I'll testing out this weekend and back here to give my feedback.

 

Thanks for your help @Khadas, I was trying for a whole month to make it work. You saved me.

 

 

 

Edited January 26 by Victorhtf

[SteeMan]

31 minutes ago, Victorhtf said:

EDIT: After post my reply I tried to use the exactly same DTB as you said. And it worked.

The reason this would work is that you really have a s905L2 cpu.  This wouldn't be the first time that a TV Box vendor and/or parts supplier changed the markings on a chip to give the impression it is something else.

[Victorhtf]

@Khadas did you managed to install correctly on EMMC? I'm testing for along these two weeks, everythings looks run fine. I'll try to perform a installation in EMMC also. 

[Khadas]

@Victorhtf I wanted to write to you these days for an update and to ask you something.

 

I have NEVER managed to boot from an SD card, I checked on Android and my SD card is recognized correctly. If I put the SD card in a USB adapter the boot happens correctly. Were you able to boot from the SD card?

 

Regarding the installation on eMMC, I bricked the tv box and since there is no way to find the firmware for this TV box, I sent it back with a free return (fortunately I always had time to do so).

 

With the armbian-ddbr command I made a backup before bricking it but the generated image is NOT compatible with the Amlogic USB Burning tool and without a firmware compatible with the TV box it remained bricked. I read various Chinese forums but I couldn't download anything compatible.

 

I tried the unofficial armbian fork and with kernel 6.6 on microSD everything was fine but I wasn't reading eMMC then I entered the dtb meson-gxl-s905l2-ipbs9505.dtb and confirmed access to the eMMC.

 

I tried to do an installation on eMMC from the fork, it booted but didn't load the kernel. Then I put that corrected dtb and uboot on a fresh armbian official s905 image and with the command armbian-install part 2 I bricked the tv box.

 

I'm waiting for the arrival of a second TV box and this time I'll pay more attention to installing it on eMMC

Edited February 5 by Khadas

[Khadas]

I think I have understood the problem that led to the bricking of my fake TX3 mini S905L2-B tx box.

 

From the UNofficial armbian fork image I had successfully flashed but it didn't load the kernel only error msg on boot but still boot with SD image.

 

The mistake was that I booted from the official Armbian SD with the right u-boot and dtb and tried to flash the eMMC again.

 

I had to bring the box back to the factory Android conditions on the eMMC before use the armbian script for emmc installation. Unfortunately, I hadn't read that the script that flashes the eMMC only works correctly if the Android image is on the eMMC, so be careful.

 

One thing I didn't understand is whether it is officially possible to install Armbian on eMMC on amlogic s905 tx boxes because on the help post here on the forum it says that installation on eMMC is NOT supported

[Victorhtf]

@Khadas Sorry for didn't read your messages, I was a quite away from this project for some days.

By the way, I was able to boot from SDcard just pressing the reset button under my TVBox while I energize it. Then it goes directly to boot from sd (if your u-boot could be read)....if you are trying that and even though you didn't boot and it goes directly to TVBox android its because the u-boot its not being detected as 'boot partition'. (Possibly by incompatibility of u-boot with your TVBox.

I have read some instructions, that doesn't seem very clear to me. I'll try my luck. Right now i'm running a backup of my system to perform a eMMC installation.  I'll back with results in a couple of days.

[Khadas]

I don't understand why I can also boot by pressing the reset hole while turning it on but only from USB with a USB micro SD adapter, basically the micro SD with which I can't boot if inserted in its slot on a USB adapter I can do the boot, I hope I was clearer. I'll try with a different micro SD.

[Khadas]

Good luck with your installation on emmc, I hope you have taken into consideration the risk of bricking the TV box without a firmware compatible with the amlogic usb burning tool.

 

The backup made with armbian ddbr cannot be used with the amlogic USB burning tool. The image file is not compatible.

 

If you manage to make the TV box work from emmc let me know which SD image you started from and all the steps, thanks

[Khadas]

To warn you that I tried again to install on emmc from the fork image with kernel 5.15.145 I chose "119 Wojia-TV-IPBS9505" from the list because it is the tx box most similar to our fake tx3 mini that dtb with access to eMMC and this time the installation on eMMC went smoothly.

 

Soon I will try the official Armbian release on a micro SD card and decide whether to flash the official Armbian release on eMMC.

[Victorhtf]

I still didnt tried to install armbian on eMMC. I know that could be a hard path if it not work, so I'm still using mine TX3 mini from SDCard. I was curious about how make it work properly in eMMC. Still doesnt sounds clear to me what could be wrong, I mean the problem is to use the wrong dtb installed when trying to perform a eMMC install?

By the way I dont remember to mention but I'm using a armbian fork from OPHUB. And the step-by-step to eMMC install is different from the one that I found here in official forums.

By the way @Khadas, at this point I know that you managed to solve the problem. But I still would like to install armbian in my eMMC and for' non-bricking purposes' I would like to know what you did to went everything ok with your new txbox, is it exactly the same model as the first one? I mean, TX3 with that fake S905W cpu?

 

[Khadas]

I didn't understand if the current official Armbian for S905 soc supports eMMC flashing, I read somewhere that it's not supported yet but I'm not sure.

[SteeMan]

6 hours ago, Khadas said:

didn't understand if the current official Armbian for S905 soc supports eMMC flashing, I read somewhere that it's not supported yet but I'm not sure.

It depends.  Generally if you follow the installations instructions posted in the FAQ section on this site, then yes it is supported in most cases.  The one case that is known not to work is for the first generation of the s905 CPUs.  Chips labeled s905.  The second, third and beyond generations should be fine.  So the s905x (w,d,l, etc), s905x2, etc should work.  Just the first gen s905 is known not to work.

[Khadas]

@Victorhtf if you have specific questions about installing on eMMC send me a private message because we're talking about an unofficial Armbian fork and we'll go off topic. I can only tell you that you choose option 119 Wojia-TV-IPBS9505(s905l2) in the script to install on eMMC.You can also start from an armbian image on micro sd and put the dtb meson-gxl-s905l2-ipbs9505 dtb, u-boot is fine uboot u-boot-s905x-s912 bin I noticed that ethernet doesn't work but wifi does because it is present the RTL8189ES driver in the armbian image.

 

If I find the time to make further attempts with the armbian image I'll keep you updated.

 

Unfortunately in case of bricking of the TV box I don't think anyone will be able to help you because we are talking about a fake Tanix TX3 mini clone.

[Khadas]

@Victorhtf https://forum.armbian.com/topic/33722-tx3-mini-s905l2-b-firmware-request/ in this other post where I was asking for the firmware they sent me the link to the factory android firmware relating to our fake tx3 mini