vontar x3, S905x3 does not boot after apt upgrade

[gkamas]

Hello 

 

I have a vontar x3, S905x3 tv box and I have installed the latest Armbian 24.11.0-trunk.66 Noble Gnome version.

If I made an apt upgrade the box does not boot. If I freeze Armbian Kernel Update through armbian-config utility (freeze update of  armbian-firmware linux-dtb-current-meson64 linux-image-current-meson64
packages), I can make apt upgrade and the system boots and working fine.

 

Is the above behaviour normal or I am missing something?

 

Thank you in advance.

Edited September 4 by gkamas

[SteeMan]

What kernel version are you successfully running with?

What version is apt trying to upgrade to?

Are you running from SD card?

Is this a new install of 24.11.0-trunk that you are then immediately trying to apt upgrade?

[SteeMan]

Also, what dtb are you using and what uboot.bin file?

[gkamas]

Thank you for your reply.

 

-I running with kernel 6.6.47-current-meson64 (the one installed with "Armbian 24.11.0-trunk.66 Noble Gnome version").

-If I run apt-get update and apt-get upgrade (without freeze the packages armbian-firmware linux-dtb-current-meson64 linux-image-current-meson64 using armbian-config utility) the system can not boot

-I try both from SD card and eMMC and I faced the same behaviour

-I am using the attached h96max-x2-test-bus80-gpu-volt.dtb which is "compatible" with the hw of my box (everything is working, 1000Mb ethernet, WiFi, bluetooth, sound etc)

-About uboot.bin file, I am using u-boot-s905x3 following the relative instructions

h96max-x2-test-bus80-gpu-volt.dtb

[SteeMan]

1 hour ago, gkamas said:

-I am using the attached h96max-x2-test-bus80-gpu-volt.dtb

So this dtb is not part of the image?

Where are you placing the custom dtb?  Do not put it in the dtb directory as that entire directory is removed and replaced on a kernel update.  Put it in /boot or a custom subdirectory and adjust the extlinux file accordingly.

[gkamas]

Thank you very much! I put the dtb in /boot and everything is working!

[gkamas]

I have one more question. In the armbian-config utility I can switch from nightly to stable releases. Does this make sense for the Amlogic S9xx TV Box platform?

I switch to stable releases and there where not updates for the packages armbian-firmware linux-dtb-current-meson64 linux-image-current-meson64 using armbian-config utility.

I switch to nightly releases and I was getting daily updates for the packages armbian-firmware linux-dtb-current-meson64 linux-image-current-meson64 using armbian-config utility.

I have some days now that I am not getting daily updates for the packages armbian-firmware linux-dtb-current-meson64 linux-image-current-meson64 using armbian-config utility and I am in version “Armbian 24.11.0-trunk.91”.

Is this haviour correct or I have missed something?

Thank you in advance.

[SteeMan]

You are not missing anything.  Currently stable gets updated each Armbian release (so every three months) and nightly is a new build every day.

[gkamas]

Actually, I am in nightly releases and I am not getting updates. May I had a misconfiguration?

[SteeMan]

What is the contents of your /etc/apt/sources.list.d/armbian.list file?

and what is the output of:  sudo apt list --installed | grep linux

and:  sudo apt list --installed | grep armbian

[gkamas]

Hello,

 

Here is the output of the commands:

 

sudo more /etc/apt/sources.list.d/armbian.list
deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/armbian.gpg] http://beta.armbian.com noble main noble-utils noble-desktop

 

sudo apt list --installed | grep armbian

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

armbian-bsp-cli-aml-s9xx-box-current/now 24.11.0-trunk.91 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,τοπικά]
armbian-bsp-desktop-aml-s9xx-box-current/now 24.11.0-trunk.66 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,τοπικά]
armbian-config/now 24.11.0-trunk.91 all [εγκατεστημένα,τοπικά]
armbian-firmware/now 24.11.0-trunk.91 all [εγκατεστημένα,τοπικά]
armbian-noble-desktop-gnome/now 24.11.0-trunk.91 all [εγκατεστημένα,τοπικά]
armbian-plymouth-theme/now 24.11.0-trunk.91 all [εγκατεστημένα,τοπικά]
armbian-zsh/now 24.11.0-trunk.91 all [εγκατεστημένα,τοπικά]
firefox/now 9:129.0.2+build1-0ubuntu0.24.04.1~mt1armbian1 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,αναβαθμίσιμα σε: 9:130.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.24.04.1~mt1armbian1]
thunderbird/now 9:115.14.0+build1-0ubuntu0.24.04.1~mt1armbian1 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,αναβαθμίσιμα σε: 9:115.15.0+build1-0ubuntu0.24.04.1~mt1armbian1]
 

sudo apt list --installed | grep linux

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

binutils-aarch64-linux-gnu/noble,now 2.42-4ubuntu2 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,αυτόματα]
console-setup-linux/noble,now 1.226ubuntu1 all [εγκατεστημένα]
cpp-13-aarch64-linux-gnu/noble,now 13.2.0-23ubuntu4 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,αυτόματα]
cpp-aarch64-linux-gnu/noble,now 4:13.2.0-7ubuntu1 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,αυτόματα]
g++-13-aarch64-linux-gnu/noble,now 13.2.0-23ubuntu4 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,αυτόματα]
g++-aarch64-linux-gnu/noble,now 4:13.2.0-7ubuntu1 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,αυτόματα]
gcc-13-aarch64-linux-gnu/noble,now 13.2.0-23ubuntu4 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,αυτόματα]
gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu/noble,now 4:13.2.0-7ubuntu1 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,αυτόματα]
libselinux1-dev/noble,now 3.5-2ubuntu2 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,αυτόματα]
libselinux1/noble,now 3.5-2ubuntu2 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα]
linux-base/noble,now 4.5ubuntu9 all [εγκατεστημένα]
linux-dtb-current-meson64/now 24.11.0-trunk.91 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,τοπικά]
linux-image-current-meson64/now 24.11.0-trunk.91 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,τοπικά]
linux-libc-dev/now 6.8.0-41.41 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα,αναβαθμίσιμα σε: 6.8.0-45.45]
util-linux/noble-updates,now 2.39.3-9ubuntu6.1 arm64 [εγκατεστημένα]
 

But now I am getting updates to the packages armbian-firmware linux-dtb-current-meson64 linux-image-current-meson64 using armbian-config utility.

 

May it was a temporaly problem?

 

Is the above configuration correct?

 

Thank you in advance.

[SteeMan]

Everything looks correct if your intention is to be using the nightly repository for daily builds. 

 

You shouldn't need to use armbian-config for anything other than to switch from nightly to stable repositories.  Using standard 'apt update' and 'apt upgrade' should be what you use to update all packages (both armbian and ubuntu).

 

 

[DerDave]

I'm having trouble getting this box into multiboot.
Can anybody explain, how the procedure works for you?
Trying the lock-pick method. Having the reset button pressed, connect power and release the button (after varying time delays) but nothing works.
How did you do it? Thanks!

[Pita Bread]

On 11/30/2024 at 4:07 PM, DerDave said:

multiboot

 

what is multiboot?

[SteeMan]

multiboot means different things in different contexts.  But in this context it is the process that is used for amlogic based tv boxes to get the native Android uboot on the emmc to boot armbian from SD card.  The process is to press the reset button with the SD card inserted which causes the native uboot to look for a certain file on the SD card which is then read and adjusts the uboot environment so that future boots will first boot from the SD card.