Help with Booting Armbian on Super Console X2 Pro (S905L/S905X2 Chip)

[Lucas Vasconcelos]

Hello everyone, good morning!

 

I own a Super Console X2 Pro (https://a.aliexpress.com/_mNgWh7z) and I am trying to install Armbian on it to use it as a server.

 

I followed the tutorial from the forum, but I can't get it to boot into Armbian:

 

To attempt the boot, I am using an Android terminal app with the command:

su reboot update

But it always goes to the recovery screen. I also tried through the update app, but the USB drives or SD cards I used do not appear in the Android TV Box, even though their folders show up in the recovery menu.

 

I am attaching screenshots of all the information I found relevant to solving the problem, and I am willing to provide more if needed.

 

One note is that the chip is labeled S905L, even though the advertisement claims it's an S905X2, and the hardware verification app also indicates S905X2.

 

I tried using the Server images with Armbian Linux v6.6 for Ubuntu.

 

I am eager to make this work, and I appreciate any help from you all.

 

 

Edited November 26, 2024 by Lucas Vasconcelos

[SteeMan]

1 hour ago, Lucas Vasconcelos said:

To attempt the boot, I am using an Android terminal app with the command:

su reboot update

But it always goes to the recovery screen. I also tried through the update app, but the USB drives or SD cards I used do not appear in the Android TV Box, even though their folders show up in the recovery menu.

This isn't in the installation instructions you referenced.  Why are you trying to do this?

[SteeMan]

1 hour ago, Lucas Vasconcelos said:

One note is that the chip is labeled S905L, even though the advertisement claims it's an S905X2, and the hardware verification app also indicates S905X2.

Very common.  I'd bet it is an S905L and the Android firmware is reporting false information.  Happens all the time on cheap TV boxes.  They will also falsely report the RAM and storage amounts falsely too.

[Lucas Vasconcelos]

22 minutes ago, SteeMan said:

This isn't in the installation instructions you referenced.  Why are you trying to do this?

 

Let me explain why I took this approach. On my board, I couldn’t find any reset button, either near the AV port or in any small hole. The only button my TV Box has is the power button (on/off). So, I saw the option to use the su reboot reset command in a YouTube video. I also couldn’t use the update option through the Android app because the boot partition of the USB drive or SSD doesn’t show up in Android.

 

25 minutes ago, SteeMan said:

Very common.  I'd bet it is an S905L and the Android firmware is reporting false information.  Happens all the time on cheap TV boxes.  They will also falsely report the RAM and storage amounts falsely too.

 

After researching a bit more, I believe my TV Box is very similar to the E900V22D-2. I think it has an S905L3A chip, with 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage.

[SteeMan]

9 minutes ago, Lucas Vasconcelos said:

So, I saw the option to use the su reboot reset command in a YouTube video.

I honestly have no idea if the mechanism behind that android command will work in the current aml-s9xx-box Community Armbian builds.  I've never tested that method, nor have any familiarity with how it works.

[Lucas Vasconcelos]

8 minutes ago, SteeMan said:

I honestly have no idea if the mechanism behind that android command will work in the current aml-s9xx-box Community Armbian builds.  I've never tested that method, nor have any familiarity with how it works.

 

Do you have any other suggestions for methods I could try?

[Pita Bread]

On 11/26/2024 at 10:25 AM, Lucas Vasconcelos said:

methods I could try

Can Emuelec, Coreelec or Libreelec boot from flash drive in a USB port or from a SD card in the TF slot?

 

If so, then what version and edition of a given software boots? (example: Emuelec 4.7ng, or Emuelec 4.3 not ng).

 

If one of those can boot, then I am confident that you can get Armbian or an unofficial knockoff build here or here of it to also boot.

[rodomb]

Hi Lucas,

Have you found solution?? I have the same box and the same problem. I can not boot with SD or USB.

[Lucas Vasconcelos]

Guys,

 

I'm back to give my feedback on how I managed to solve the problem.

 

First, I couldn't solve it using the official Armbian images, I used an alternative image from the "amlogic-s9xxx-armbian" project maintained by ophub on GitHub.

 

In this project I used the version for the SOC s905l3a, more specifically the image "amlogic_s905l3a.img".

 

After using this specific image, I created the bootable SDCard, and then I inserted it into the box and used the remote control to be able to boot, you need to click the right arrow button while the box starts.

 

After that I was able to use the system directly from the SDCard, most things worked well, I just couldn't install the system on the internal memory, I had to continue using it directly from the SDCard.

 

From my research, this box is nothing more than a modified Chinese router, the router would be the e900v22c. It was by researching it that I was able to understand the procedure to install Armibian.

 

 

[SteeMan]

While normally we discourage references to ophub as they are a fork of Armbian  but continue to use the Armbian name without permission for their fork.  They also don't contribute back to Armbian nor do they participate in these forums, I think your post is helpful.  It would really be nice if someone were to dig into this and submit a PR back to Armbian to bring the support into the base code that is maintained here.

[rodomb]

Hi Lucas,

I did the same. But question ... is working Wifi on your box? I now that that do not work but maybe have you found any workaround??

[Lucas Vasconcelos]

Unfortunately I couldn't find a solution for the WiFi issue. It really doesn't work 😢