Write to eMMC

[Tomas Catone]

I have got my T95Z Plus with S912 booting 6.12.24-current-meson64 just fine now.  Getting Jellyfin up and running with all my old DVDs and CDs.  Seems very capable.

 

When do I push the OS into the eMMC?  Is there a downside?  Are there only so many times I can do this safely?  If I chose to try the Debian builds - don't I just boot from a SD card and try it out?  If I like that one better - then don't I just repeat the process and push that onto the eMMC? 

 

I believe I have the Android Source - or more precisely - I have a rom called SuperCelleron that I installed almost 10 years ago...  That still boots when I don't have an SD card in. 

Also - visual inspection of this board proves I have an eMMC.  I have another box that is identical outside.  But on the inside it clearly has a NAND chip. 

 

I am sure this is a silly question - but just thought I'd ask.

 

Thanks all.

[SteeMan]

35 minutes ago, Tomas Catone said:

When do I push the OS into the eMMC? 

Whenever you are comfortable with that.

35 minutes ago, Tomas Catone said:

Is there a downside?

You could brick your box.  Unlikely, but there are so many different tv boxes out there that there is always a chance your box is somehow different than common ones.  Since the boot environment starts from what is on emmc, if you screw up the emmc completely, your box is bricked.  (You should still be able to recover by using amlogic tools to reinstall an android rom, but...)

38 minutes ago, Tomas Catone said:

Are there only so many times I can do this safely?

No limit that I can think of.

1 hour ago, Tomas Catone said:

If I chose to try the Debian builds - don't I just boot from a SD card and try it out?  If I like that one better - then don't I just repeat the process and push that onto the eMMC? 

You have that all correct.