Trying to boot Armbian on LinknLink iSG Box SE

[Sancho]

I recently did some trying to boot Armbian on this box and eventually got it not to recognize "Loader" mode using the reset button.

It was working before I eventually flashed an not so compatible u-boot. I knew the risks, sh1t happens

I was trying to boot Armbian from USB by the way, that is why I tried to do this.

 

I discovered that the original firmware is the same as a H96 Max M1 PLUS as we can see from the official firmware file naming: 

rk3528_l001_H96_Max_M1PLUS_6621_64BIT_TAR-20251112.2200.img

 

My question, as anyone had experience with this board?

The idea is to ditch the original firmware and run HA on Armbian (I previously did this with another box using docker).

 

I know the only option now is to "short" the eMMC in order to achieve "Maskrom" mode but there are no obvious pin points on the board.

 

Edited April 6 by Sancho
typo

[Sancho]

Finally managed to restore the box to stock official Android firmware, everything works as expected. I also tested a firmware for the H96 Max M1, with this one the WiFi is not working, they seem to use a different wifi chip.

Any recommendations on where to start with flashing Armbian on this device?

[rosic]

I got into similar situation and Loader mode is not working now. How did you manage to restore the box? Have you found the correct pins to short? Thank you a lot in advance :)

[Sancho]

Hello! @rosic

 

Yes I took a look at the components of the board and eventually managed to find the resistor that interferes with the emmc clock.

Shorting it will put the box in Maskrom mode and enable you to flash the original firmware using the official tutorial from the Linknlink wiki even if you cannot get into Loader mode by pressing the reset button insode the audio jack. I used a metal clamp to short it while I plugged the USB-A to USB-A cable into the 2nd usb port.

 

You can see images here

Official instruction here

Edited yesterday at 02:38 PM by Sancho

[rosic]

Hello, thank you for your response and findings. I eventually also managed to get into Maskrom and reflash it multiple times. I now managed to run a HomeAssistant supervised on it. I used different pins, not a resistor.

I flashed this on it: https://github.com/fensoft/dq08-haos/releases

Important note: update the box to the latest LinknLink image first. It probably updates also kernel. I couldn't boot HomeAssistant without it.

[Sancho]

Hey @rosic thank you for sharing, nice find as well.

What image did you use to flash to emmc?

After rebooting my filesystem is read only and I can't update packages.

[rosic]

I used the one from github link shared before - dq08_ha_supervised_3.0.0_r2.img

But wifi, bt and remote controler are not working afterwards. USBs seem to work fine - screenshots from HomeAssistant.

I have 3 of those LinknLink iSG boxes. First one went perfect, second one was flashing there and back, eventually got it working. 3rd one is still giving me troubles 🤷‍♂️😅