T95Z Plus (Second one) running great

[Tomas Catone]

TV Box Name: Sunvell T95Z plus Octagon shaped box (I wrote it before – but Beware – apparently a lot of variants)

 

CPU Amlogics S912

Armbian build file name: Armbian_community_25.8.0-trunk.277_Aml-s9xx-box_noble_current_6.12.34

DTB file used: meson-gxm-t95z-plus.dtb – (my other T95z uses meson-gxm-vega-s96.dtb)

Kernel Version: 6.12.34

Distribution Installed (focal, buster, etc): Noble

Working Ethernet (Yes/No): Yes

Max Ethernet Speed that works (100/1000): Not sure how to determine...

Does wifi work (Yes/No): No

Does bluetooth work (Yes/No): Not tested

Does HDMI audio work (Yes/No): Yes

 

Additional Comments (provide any additional information you feel is important):

This is my second T95z plus box build. Using as headless server and both seem solid. Confirming what others have said – the build is different inside. This has a different wifi card and eemc. I have a 3rd T95z plus that has the dreaded NAND chip too. Having fun and learning. Using as a simple NAS now with a ZFS pool and works just fine.

[Pita Bread]

On 7/2/2025 at 7:27 AM, Tomas Catone said:

Max Ethernet Speed that works (100/1000): Not sure how to determine...

you can install "ethtool" and run ethtool eth0 on the command line. look for the line that shows " Speed: "

 

On 7/2/2025 at 7:27 AM, Tomas Catone said:

Using as a simple NAS now with a ZFS pool

 

how did you install ZFS in Armbian?

[Tomas Catone]

Good to meet a fellow armbian android tv box fan.   We need a logo or shorthand alias for fans 🤣.

 

ZFS - was easy but not clear.  Inside armbian-config under System/Storage is a script to install ZFS support.  I did this and it didn't work... then undid it and then installed it a second time and it worked.  Somewhere in there I also ran the standard commands for install:

 

sudo apt install zfsutils-linux
sudo apt install zfs-fuse

 

Probably after the first uninstall... but the commands indicate failure.  But then installing the second time seemed to work.

 

Did that on both of these boxes I have working.  

 

Thanks for the ethtool command.  Here's my results on box1

 

ports auto-negotiation: Yes
	Supported FEC modes: Not reported
	Advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
	                        100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
	                        1000baseT/Full
	Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
	Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
	Advertised FEC modes: Not reported
	Link partner advertised link modes:  10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full
	                                     100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full
	                                     1000baseT/Full
	Link partner advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only
	Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes
	Link partner advertised FEC modes: Not reported
	Speed: 1000Mb/s
	Duplex: Full
	Auto-negotiation: on
	master-slave cfg: preferred slave
	master-slave status: slave
	Port: Twisted Pair
	PHYAD: 0
	Transceiver: external
	MDI-X: Unknown
netlink error: Operation not permitted
        Current message level: 0x0000003f (63)
                               drv probe link timer ifdown ifup
	Link detected: yes

 

Not an expert and first time reading this command but looks like 1000 is the answer.  Crazy thing - box 2 does not have the line "MDI-X: Unknown" shown towards the bottom and "Port: MII" instead of "Port: twisted pair" but is otherwise identical.  Posting in case it helps anyone else - but these are beyond me.  

 

If you confirm that the above = 1000 I will update both my box running posts.  

 

By the way - Another favorite is Software/Management/Cockpit.  Easy to see how the server is doing.  Plus it has a built in terminal and file manager. 

 

Add that to Tailscale and you can check on the server or grab a file while out of the house.  

curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh

 

Those are my favorites.  What are yours?

 

[Pita Bread]

On 7/4/2025 at 11:36 AM, Tomas Catone said:

sudo apt install zfsutils-linux
sudo apt install zfs-fuse

 

Hello. Thank you for your reply. In Ubuntu, I installed zfs as a kernel module by doing these commands:

 

sudo apt install dkms -y
sudo apt install zfs-dkms --no-install-recommends -y
sudo apt install zfsutils-linux -y

 

The contents of dkms packages had to be compiled. So, I saw installations of GNU C compiler, "make" and related toolchain packages, and saw source code being compiled on my monitor. Hm, that was interesting.

 

Is the "fuse" edition of zfs that you installed any different or slower than non-fuse zfs?

[Pita Bread]

On 7/4/2025 at 11:36 AM, Tomas Catone said:

 

If you confirm that the above = 1000 I will update both my box running posts.

 

Yes the text "Speed: 1000Mb/s" posted in the white box confirms the speed is 1 Gigabit. In my experience, actual transfer speed of data to/from a mechanical hard drive should be around 80 to 100 Megabytes (with a "y") per second. But the transfer speed can be faster if data is going to/come from a solid state drive or internal NAND/EMMC.

 

I have a 12 Terabyte hard drive in a budget USB external enclosure and it is connected to my amlogic tv box via USB 3.0, and the tv box is connected via Gigabit ethernet. I use it for backups and saving some large video files. The 80 to 90 Megabytes/sec speed over ethernet is fast enough for me. hehe ☺

 

On 7/4/2025 at 11:36 AM, Tomas Catone said:

By the way - Another favorite is Software/Management/Cockpit.  Easy to see how the server is doing.  Plus it has a built in terminal and file manager. 

 

Add that to Tailscale and you can check on the server or grab a file while out of the house.  

curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh

 

Those are my favorites.  What are yours?

 

I heard of Cockpit via youtube videos talking about remote administration. I was old-school and I had already install Webmin. But thanks for reminding me that Cockpit is another good option.

 

Oh Tailscale? It seems to be fancy VPN service with file transfer and other features. That's cool. I'll give those a try someday. ☺

 

For just tinkering, my favorites are "md" software raid, zfs and it's raid features, Pi-Hole... and I want to try Prometheus and Grafana.

 

But for everyday use, my favorites are straightforward Samba file server, rsync, vsftpd, xrdp remote desktop, and any remote administration that works, like Webmin. However, I want to try NFS file server on the tv box and NFS client in a Windows PC to determine if that is faster than Samba. Here is a video about that https://youtu.be/mOoO9mFE7BI

 

Cheers mate - Peter

Edited 17 hours ago by Pita Bread
corrections

[Tomas Catone]

Baaaahhhhahahahahahahah....

 

Sorry buddy - you have me confused with someone that understands much at all!!!

 

I am willing to help.  I COULD NOT get ZFS to work and had a zfs pool.   So I clicked and typed anything I could. 

 

I believe???  that what worked was multiple 

>sudo armbian-update

 

followed by 

> sudo armbian-config

    

Where I installed/uninstalled/reinstalled zfs file support. 

 

Also - I could not get it to work with the current armbian I am using  Kernel Version: 6.12.34 

[Tomas Catone]

Wow - thanks for Webmin.  I've never heard of that one but looks nifty.  I'm going to have to take a look at that.  Thanks

[Pita Bread]

26 minutes ago, Tomas Catone said:

I COULD NOT get ZFS to work

Did you check logs in the directory /var/log/  ?

 

Did you check kernel messages by running this command in a terminal and scrolling up/down and searching for text "zfs" by press slash / ?

 

sudo dmesg | less -I

 

 

Edited 17 hours ago by Pita Bread

[Tomas Catone]

Nope .  I will put that in my notes if I get there again.  What kernel are you running

[Pita Bread]

22 minutes ago, Tomas Catone said:

What kernel are you running

sh🤫, it's a secret. check your private messages.

[Tomas Catone]

Hey - thanks for Webmin.  That looks pretty slick.  Nice graphics.   I am going to have to do a deeper dive against cockpit but very nice.  

 

I bet both work with Tailscale which makes for nice for remote access.