Armbian for H313 X96-Q LPDDR3 TV-Box

[DrEaD]

Up!
I've forgot device in drawer until now, when my klipper host minipc died..

Got Klipper with CAN and Klipperscreen working great to run my Voron Trident.

Awesome work guys, thanks again!

[djoness]

Good evening everyone.

 

First of all, thank you for this forum and for any help you can provide.

 

I have an X96Q 2G/16G case with an Allwinner H313 chipset and I'm trying to install Armbian.

I first tested with the MiniArch-20231112-6.6.2-board-h313.x96_q-SD-Image.img image: it boots correctly.

However, when I try with the https://github.com/sicXnull/armbian-build/releases/download/v24.8.0-trunk.425/Armbian-unofficial_24.11.0-trunk_X96q-v5-1_bookworm_current_6.6.44_mate_desktop.img.xz 

the box doesn't boot and the LED remains red.

I'm not an expert in this area; I simply want to install Armbian on this box. If anyone can help me, that would be great.

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

 

Edited November 17 by djoness

[DrEaD]

Quote

 

You need the "normal" non 5-1 version: https://github.com/sicXnull/armbian-build/releases/download/v24.8.0-trunk.425/Armbian-unofficial_24.11.0-trunk_X96q_bookworm_current_6.6.44_mate_desktop.img.xz

[saf7001]

So I managed to get my hands on a v1.1 board version of this TV Box

So far https://github.com/sicXnull/armbian-build/releases/download/v24.8.0-trunk.425/Armbian-unofficial_24.11.0-trunk_X96q_bookworm_current_6.6.44_mate_desktop.img.xz doesnt seem to work and I havent found any mention of a v1.1 image

Any ideas?

[djoness]

Quote

 

 

Hi DrEaD.

 

Thanks for your reply.

I've already tested that version, but unfortunately it doesn't work.

Also, if there's a version without a graphical interface, I'd be interested, as I'd like to use it in server mode, like with Home Assistant.

 

Thanks.

[Nick A]

@djoness My build uses the miniarch patches. https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/releases/tag/20250306

 

Here's a direct link to X96q ddr3 server image.

https://github.com/NickAlilovic/build/releases/download/20250306/Armbian-unofficial_25.05.0-trunk_X96q-ddr3_bookworm_edge_6.12.11_server.img.xz

 

 

[djoness]

 

Hi @Nick A

Thanks for your feedback.

I've already tried that version, but it doesn't work either.

The motherboard says BA301_141 V4.1 20244; could that be related to compatibility?

Thanks

 

Edited November 18 by djoness

[Nick A]

@djonessIf you can find the source code for this image that would help. MiniArch-20231112-6.6.2-board-h313.x96_q-SD-Image.img 

 

Have you tried miniarch latest images?

[djoness]

Citation

 

For the source code, after a bit of searching, I found https://de3.mirror.archlinuxarm.org

I don't know if this will help you.

I also tried the MiniArch-20240715-6.17.1-board-a527.cubie_a5e-SD-Image.img image, but it doesn't work either.

 

[djoness]

Good evening everyone.

 

I acquired another X96Q TV Box with the same Armbian-H313 processor, but this time with revision V4.0.

I flashed an SD card with the following image:

Armbian-unofficial_25.05.0-trunk_X96q-ddr3_bookworm_edge_6.12.11_server.img.xz

Surprisingly, the box booted correctly with this version.

However, when I tried to install my server, the system prompted me to perform an update.

I ran the following command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

After rebooting, the box remained stuck on the red LEDE.

Luckily, I hadn't installed it in the internal memory.

 

Here is a photo of the two cases:

 

Here is a photo of the motherboards of both cases:

Here is a photo of the X96Q-Armbian-H313 V4.0 boot screen:

Here is a photo of the X96Q-Armbian-H313 V4.1 boot screen:

Here is the X96Q-Armbian-H313 V4.0 report file:

X96Q-Armbian-H313 V4.0.txt

 

 

Here is the X96Q-Armbian-H313 V4.1 report file:

X96Q-Armbian-H313 V4.1.txt

 

 

Question:
Could the difference between version V4.0 and V4.1 of X96Q explain the incompatibility during installation?

And how can this be resolved? I would like to use them as servers.

Is there any risk if I reinstall, but this time directly to the case's internal memory?

 

Thank you in advancur help.

 

Edited November 19 by djoness

[Nick A]

@djoness you need to Disable Armbian kernel/firmware upgrades using the armbian-config tool. System -> Updates -> UPD002   -  Disable Armbian firmware upgrades -> Disable Armbian kernel/firmware upgrades

  X96Q has many different variations of the same box. Read the bottom of this thread.

https://github.com/warpme/miniarch/issues/102

 

If you want a well supported box get a Transpeed 8K618-t. 

 

Edited November 19 by Nick A

[djoness]

I saw that the photos were deleted by mistake, so I added them back.

Here is a photo of the two cases:

 

Here is a photo of the motherboards of both cases:

 

Here is a photo of the X96Q-Armbian-H313 V4.0 boot screen:

 

Here is a photo of the X96Q-Armbian-H313 V4.1 boot screen:

Edited Sunday at 11:28 AM by djoness

[JackPipoka]

Did someone managed to make it work on this model below? I tried creating the image with different allwinner chips but its not booting when I burn the sd and insert on the device. 

 

The tv box is a Mortal T1 Android 13 2gb ram and 16gb rom

 

Edited yesterday at 01:53 AM by JackPipoka
Add another image

[Thịnh Nguyễn]

Thank you, it booted on tv98 pro clone 1gb ram with assembled +  1gb ram (256x4)

[JackPipoka]

@ARx8 @rafaeldavid

 

I was having this problem, and I just figured out that this is a cheat from the chip.
I don't know the details but basically they mark the memory as 2GB but it actually just have 512MB.
The Armbian sees 2GB but when you do a task that requires more that the actual 512MB it crashes.

To solve that I manually set the memory on the Armbian to be 512MB. 

Edit the file:
/boot/armbianEnv.txt

Add the line (or change if already exists): 

extraargs=mem=512M

On my case the device claimed 2GB of Ram. I reach the 512M testing.

 

To get to this number I ran:
free -h
This gave me the amount of memory the system was already using (230M).
 

After that I apt installed memtester and start testing the memory:
memtester 200M
I started at 200M and cancel the test (CTRL-C) on the firsts interaction after:
  Stuck Address       : ok
  Random Value        : ok
  Compare XOR         : ok
  Compare SUB         : ok
  Compare MUL         : ok
  Compare DIV         : ok
  Compare OR          : ok
  Compare AND         : ok
The other tests took too long and if the problem is the memory that didnt exist just the firsts test would be enough. 
I ran memtester increading by 50M, so 200,250,300... And on 300 the system crashed, so I assumed the real memory of the 

chip was 512 (the 230 from the system + the 250 from the memtester before it crashed). 

 

Edited 34 minutes ago by JackPipoka
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