T95Z Plus 3GB/32GB - EMMC not found

[Ian Coelho]

Hello guys!

 

I have a T95Z Plus TV BOX with 3GB RAM, 32GB ROM, and an arm S912 CPU.

 

I can run Armbian just fine from the SD card, but when I try to install it on the eMMC, I get an error message saying something like, "You're already running from eMMC, or the eMMC was not found." And, obviously, I'm not running from eMMC, so it seems like the system just isn't detecting it.

 

I did some research, and it seems like there might be different eMMC manufacturers for the same T95Z Plus model. So, I might need to adjust the "Max frequency" parameter in the .DTB file for the T95Z Plus in order for Armbian to recognize the eMMC on my device.

Does that sound right?

 

If so, where should I start? Should I randomly change that parameter, or is there a table of parameters I can use to try different values until it works?

 

Thanks!

[SteeMan]

@Ian Coelho How about some basic information first.  What build are you running?  What dtb are you using?  What dtbs have you tried?  How are you attempting to install to emmc?

[Ian Coelho]

Apologies for my lack of basic information!
 

- I'm using the latest build from August 29th, specifically the server image for Ubuntu 24.04 Noble (Armbian_community_24.11.0-trunk.66_Aml-s9xx-box_noble_current_6.6.47.img).

 

- I'm using the DTB specific to the box I'm working with, which is the "meson-gxm-t95z-plus.dtb" for the T95z Plus.

 

- In addition to using the DTB I mentioned above, I also tried the only other available DTB in the DTB folder for the s912, which is the "meson-gxm-s912-libretech-pc.dtb". My third attempt was to do what I mentioned in the initial post: I unpacked the "meson-gxm-t95z-plus.dtb", edited the "meson-gxm-t95z-plus.dts", and changed the max-frequency of the "mmc@74000" block to another hex number, and then I compiled it and tried again. All three options allowed the T95z Plus box to boot Armbian normally, recognize the network, and everything seemed fine. However, the eMMC isn't recognized in any of these cases.

 

- I'm trying to install on the eMMC using the command ./install-aml.sh, and the message I'm getting is the one I mentioned in the initial post.

 

Thank you!

Edited September 6 by Ian Coelho

[SteeMan]

8 hours ago, Ian Coelho said:

"You're already running from eMMC, or the eMMC was not found."

That isn't a message produced by the install-aml.sh script. 

What does lsblk output?

[Ian Coelho]

32 minutes ago, SteeMan said:

That isn't a message produced by the install-aml.sh script. 

What does lsblk output?

 

aml-s9xx-box:~:# lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda           8:0    0 223.6G  0 disk
└─sda1        8:1    0 223.6G  0 part
sdb           8:16   1     0B  0 disk
mmcblk0     179:0    0 116.1G  0 disk
├─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0   512M  0 part /boot
└─mmcblk0p2 179:2    0 114.4G  0 part /
zram0       251:0    0   1.4G  0 disk [SWAP]
zram1       251:1    0    50M  0 disk /var/log
zram2       251:2    0     0B  0 disk
aml-s9xx-box:~:#

 

---

one more thing, tried dmesg:

[    3.780393] mmc1: tuning execution failed: -5
[    3.783045] mmc1: error -5 whilst initialising MMC card
[    3.788366] mmc1: Failed to initialize a non-removable card

---

 

 

This is the post I mentioned that talks about modifying the max-frequency:  

 

 

 

 

Edited September 6 by Ian Coelho

[SteeMan]

So yes the emmc isn't detected (there is no mmcblk1).  Are you sure you have emmc on the box?  (I have for example some TX3 boxes that have old style nand instead of emmc and mainline linux doesn't support nand.  TV Box manufacturers will cut costs in anyway possible and nand is cheaper than emmc)  You would need open the box and inspect what physical chips are installed.

 

Since I don't have your box, there is little I can do to debug this.  Have you looked at the full log of the boot process to look for any indication of issues reported during the boot?  (You would need to find the debug serial console pins on the mother board and hook up a usb serial reader to capture the boot messages)  (some of this information goes to HDMI, but some gets output before HDMI is initialized).

 

[Ian Coelho]

8 minutes ago, SteeMan said:

So yes the emmc isn't detected (there is no mmcblk1).  Are you sure you have emmc on the box?  (I have for example some TX3 boxes that have old style nand instead of emmc and mainline linux doesn't support nand.  TV Box manufacturers will cut costs in anyway possible and nand is cheaper than emmc)  You would need open the box and inspect what physical chips are installed.

 

Since I don't have your box, there is little I can do to debug this.  Have you looked at the full log of the boot process to look for any indication of issues reported during the boot?  (You would need to find the debug serial console pins on the mother board and hook up a usb serial reader to capture the boot messages)  (some of this information goes to HDMI, but some gets output before HDMI is initialized).

 

I really appreciate your help!

 

 

 

Couldn't the information provided by the user in this post be a possible solution?