Can't get Armbian to run on x96

[cheeseburger]

Problem:

It starts to boot, I see the Armbian splash screen, it stays for around 10 seconds then goes back to console with the (initramfs) prompt.

Last 2 lines of boot process are:
 

Begin: Loading essential drivers . . . done.
Begin: Running /scripts/pre-mount . . . (initramfs) [   37.824201] random: crng init done
(initramfs)

 

I got it to boot once into GNOME by putting a USB flash drive with the burned image AND a SD card at the same time. But that was only once and I could never repeat it.

 

This happens on both versions of the X96 I have.

And

 

I've followed everything here:

 

I've tried bookworm and noble.

I've tried all 3 DTB files (meson-gxl-s905w-p281.dtb and meson-gxl-s905w-tx3-mini.dtb seem to "work")

Using u-boot-s905x2-s912 for the u-boot.ext file

Power supply is 2 amps.

 

The only thing I have left to try to now is that I'm using a very old 8gb SD card. I'll get a new 64gb class 10 SD card soon, but could this be the whole problem?

 

Appreciate any help. I'm really stuck at the moment.

 

 

 

Edited June 11 by cheeseburger

[cheeseburger]

Okay, so it was my fault all along. 

 

When I copied the u-boot.ext file name it pasted as u'boot.ext in a 3rd party file manager and I never realized it

 

All working now

 

 

Edited June 12 by cheeseburger