Armbian for Amlogic S9xxx kernel 5.x

[guidol]

today I switched/reinstalled on my Sunvell T95K Pro 

from Armbian_5.72_Aml-s912_Debian_stretch_next_5.0.0-rc3-next-20190125-g494367cb5-dirty_desktop.img

to     Armbian_5.73_Aml-s912_Debian_stretch_next_5.0.0-rc4-next-20190130-g02495e76d-dirty.img

because I didnt use a desktop there and couldnt find a solution to "update" from 5.72 to 5.73

(Also couldnt find a higher version than 5.73 for next-Kernel 5.0 and debian stretch - only ubuntu....)

 

I "cleared" the normal "dmesg-problem" for the WiFi-regulatory.db and applied the 

nvram_ap6330.txt for the /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac4330-sdio.txt

copy nvram_ap6330.txt from NAS T95KPro directory to nvram_ap6330.txt

mv /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac4330-sdio.txt /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac4330-sdio.txt.old
cp /lib/firmware/brcm/nvram_ap6330.txt  /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac4330-sdio.txt

see

 

normally that would solve the WiFi-problem for wlan0, but at this time the follwing error popped up in the dmesg:
 

[    6.636506] brcmfmac: F1 signature read @0x18000000=0x16044330
[    6.638690] brcmfmac: brcmf_fw_alloc_request: using brcm/brcmfmac4330-sdio for chip BCM4330/4
[    6.638857] usbcore: registered new interface driver brcmfmac
[    6.652811] brcmfmac mmc2:0001:1: Direct firmware load for brcm/brcmfmac4330-sdio.amlogic,q201.txt failed with error -2

so I had to copy 

cp /lib/firmware/brcm/nvram_ap6330.txt  /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac4330-sdio.amlogic,q201.txt

 

Does anyone now why there is a "," in the filename and why file isnt named only brcmfmac4330-sdio.txt?

 

OK my .dtb is the gxm_q201 -  is the ",q201" named in the .dtb file?

 

[AndrewDB]

3 minutes ago, guidol said:

...

Does anyone now why there is a "," in the filename and why file isnt named only brcmfmac4330-sdio.txt?

 

Normally the character "," is not used in a filename, as far as I know.

[Reddwarf]

Just now, balbes150 said:

New version 5.75 (found in catalog 5.76). This confusion is due to the fact that this variant uses an Assembly from the tvboxes branch (the number has not changed there yet).

No USB on MXQ Pro+ 4k (S905x), does not boot on MiniM8S/Mini MXIII (S905)

[dbsharpe]

2 hours ago, guidol said:

today I switched/reinstalled on my Sunvell T95K Pro 

from Armbian_5.72_Aml-s912_Debian_stretch_next_5.0.0-rc3-next-20190125-g494367cb5-dirty_desktop.img

to     Armbian_5.73_Aml-s912_Debian_stretch_next_5.0.0-rc4-next-20190130-g02495e76d-dirty.img

because I didnt use a desktop there and couldnt find a solution to "update" from 5.72 to 5.73

(Also couldnt find a higher version than 5.73 for next-Kernel 5.0 and debian stretch - only ubuntu....)

 

I "cleared" the normal "dmesg-problem" for the WiFi-regulatory.db and applied the 

 

 

Can't help with the firmware problem as I've not run 5.0.0-rc4 but can you expand on the WiFi-regulatory.db issue and any fix. I've had intermittent issues with wifi AP's and this message in dmesg / syslog.

Thanks.

Edited February 22, 2019 by dbsharpe

[guidol]

13 hours ago, dbsharpe said:

Can't help with the firmware problem as I've not run 5.0.0-rc4 but can you expand on the WiFi-regulatory.db issue and any fix. I've had intermittent issues with wifi AP's and this message in dmesg / syslog.

Thanks.

see here

 

[balbes150]

Updated on the website of the version of images 5.76 (names of images correspond to version number). Please note that the new images are built using version GCC 7.3, you may receive unexpected features.

[amirul]

20 hours ago, balbes150 said:

Updated on the website of the version of images 5.76 (names of images correspond to version number). Please note that the new images are built using version GCC 7.3, you may receive unexpected features.

s912 desktop 

/etc/armbian-release shows VERSION=5.73

Edited February 25, 2019 by amirul
update

[Spout91]

Hi all,

 

I bought a MXQ Pro 4k S905X.  Amlogic p212, 6.0.1/MHC19J/20170422 (1+8g). (by the way, if you have a image for this model it will be nice since I have no backup, thank for that).

I working with the version armbian kernel 4.20.2 (5.73)

I follow the procedure to install Armbian on it, but I have various issues:

1- whatever the distribution (5.41.1 kernel 3.14.29 ; 5.75 kernel 4.20.5);I used, I can boot from SD card perfectly well (with p212.dtb) but cannot see the internal eMMC, so impossible to install armbian on eMMC. ddbr cannot find the eMMC.

I even recompile the kernel from the git (so 4.20.5). The driver eMMC is loaded but cannot see the eMMC with fdisk -l command.

2- If I remove my SD Card, the box block on logo display (cannot access anymore Android..look like bricked). it is like that since I installed "aml_autoscript.zip" from updage in android.

3- I have a SV6051P as wifi chip, is possible to install  it ?

 

I open the tv box, I have eMMC model 13T Essencore 8GQ8T2H5TARC.

 

Could you help me to understand what's happen and what to do to fix these issues ? 

Sorry so many questions, but I'm newbee on this.

[Reddwarf]

1 hour ago, Spout91 said:

Hi all,

 

I bought a MXQ Pro 4k S905X.  Amlogic p212, 6.0.1/MHC19J/20170422 (1+8g). (by the way, if you have a image for this model it will be nice since I have no backup, thank for that).

I working with the version armbian kernel 4.20.2 (5.73)

I follow the procedure to install Armbian on it, but I have various issues:

1- whatever the distribution (5.41.1 kernel 3.14.29 ; 5.75 kernel 4.20.5);I used, I can boot from SD card perfectly well (with p212.dtb) but cannot see the internal eMMC, so impossible to install armbian on eMMC. ddbr cannot find the eMMC.

I even recompile the kernel from the git (so 4.20.5). The driver eMMC is loaded but cannot see the eMMC with fdisk -l command.

2- If I remove my SD Card, the box block on logo display (cannot access anymore Android..look like bricked). it is like that since I installed "aml_autoscript.zip" from updage in android.

3- I have a SV6051P as wifi chip, is possible to install  it ?

 

I open the tv box, I have eMMC model 13T Essencore 8GQ8T2H5TARC.

 

Could you help me to understand what's happen and what to do to fix these issues ? 

Sorry so many questions, but I'm newbee on this.

I have a slightly newer model, board 213, and I'm seeing much of the same issues as you have except that booting Android works fine, and I can see no reason why installing aml_autoscript should prevent booting Android. Btw, you can download a new image fro your box from https://entertainmentbox.com

Please let us know if you find any solutions to the eMMC issue.

[AndrewDB]

7 hours ago, Spout91 said:

Hi all,

...

I open the tv box, I have eMMC model 13T Essencore 8GQ8T2H5TARC.

...

I have looked that up, it seems to be NAND Flash, not eMMC, which explains why ddbr is not detecting any eMMC.

 

If you cannot boot Android anymore then you can restore the original Android image using the SD Card Method or any other method. Check how to unbrick your TV box on Freaktab, there are many threads on the subject.

 

7 hours ago, Spout91 said:

3- I have a SV6051P as wifi chip, is possible to install  it ?

I don't think there is a driver for it, I suggest you buy a $5 WiFi dongle if you must absolutely use WiFi.

[Spout91]

Thanks for your reply,

 

So, I try the 5.41.1 (kernel 3.14.29) with the p212_nand.dtb. But unfortunatly "fdisk" do not see my internal 8gb.

 

In meantime, I also requested to my seller the exact image to recover my uboot and my android.

 

That's really a pity to buy and external wifi dongle since there is already a chip internally.

[AndrewDB]

12 minutes ago, Spout91 said:

Thanks for your reply,

...

That's really a pity to buy and external wifi dongle since there is already a chip internally.

Well, at the same time these TV boxes use really crappy WiFi chips, and the manufacturers refuse to release the source code for their Android drivers, so there is no way to support them. Any inexpensive Realtek wifi dongle is 10x better than those crappy WiFi modules we usually find in these TV boxes.

Please check this post: 

 

[Spout91]

Thank you,

 

I will focus on my problem of NAND and buy a chip like this. It will save definitevly my time.

The problem of the "invisble" Nand may be crazy already.

[AndrewDB]

The Linux kernel NAND driver is very much work in progress, I suggest you don't waste time with that and continue using an SD card as mass storage. A very good Sandisk A1 16GB (micro) SD card is just $5 (shipped), and probably as fast or almost as fast as the NAND Flash

[hexdump]

i assume that the box simply has nand and no emmc - i have a similar box (x96 mini): sold as s905w 2/16g box with emmc and in the end it is a s905x box with 1/8g and nand which fakes the 2/16g in its hacked android - your emmc chip printed name might simply be fake as well - the boot problem comes from the armbian boot script, it hangs when probing the (non existing) emmc i guess - i think i worked around it by 'setenv start_emmc_autoscript "echo hello"'' and then 'run bootcmd' on a serial console - in theory setting the start_emmc_autoscript to something not doing anything (or maybe even some cleaner solution) in some kind of alternative aml_autoscript should give you back a working android boot even without serial console ... good luck

[Spout91]

@AndrewDb: I understand, but it is a SD card not a microSD. I'm preparing the box for my kids and I'm afraid they will play with the SD card, which it is not good with linux. Next time, I will order a microSD, at least he card will be more hidden.

 

@hexdump: I will try that and see what will happen.

 

Thanks guys for your help.

[Turgus]

40 minutes ago, Spout91 said:

I'm preparing the box for my kids and I'm afraid they will play with the SD card

Okay, on his box it is an micro-sd-card with libreelec, but a friend of mine just taped the slot with some black duct tape after inserting the card. It is nearly unvisible but prevents the kids disturbing the system when using their tv-box unattended... Maybe you do also a backup from the card on PC/Laptop after setting up the system to easily restore it when needed because kids messed around with the card..

[AndrewDB]

2 hours ago, Turgus said:

Okay, on his box it is an micro-sd-card with libreelec, but a friend of mine just taped the slot with some black duct tape after inserting the card. It is nearly unvisible but prevents the kids disturbing the system when using their tv-box unattended... Maybe you do also a backup from the card on PC/Laptop after setting up the system to easily restore it when needed because kids messed around with the card..

And yet again, duct tape saves the day!   

[balbes150]

New image 5.76  kernel 5.0 .

 

[guidol]

5 hours ago, balbes150 said:

New image 5.76  kernel 5.0 .

mostly made for the RockPro64?  or ?
 

login as: root
root@192.168.6.62's password:
 ____            _    ____               __   _  _
|  _ \ ___   ___| | _|  _ \ _ __ ___    / /_ | || |
| |_) / _ \ / __| |/ / |_) | '__/ _ \  | '_ \| || |_
|  _ < (_) | (__|   <|  __/| | | (_) | | (_) |__   _|
|_| \_\___/ \___|_|\_\_|   |_|  \___/   \___/   |_|


Welcome to ARMBIAN 5.73 stable Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) 5.0.0-rc7-aml-s912-gb5aa11ceb-dirty


root@t95k-pro(192.168.6.62):/etc/apt# dpkg -l|grep 5.76
ii  armbian-config                  5.76                              all          Armbian configuration utility
ii  linux-dtb-aml-s912              5.76                              arm64        Linux DTB, version 5.0.0-rc7-aml-s912-gb5aa11ceb-dirty
ii  linux-image-aml-s912            5.76                              arm64        Linux kernel, version 5.0.0-rc7-aml-s912-gb5aa11ceb-dirty
ii  linux-u-boot-aml-s912-default   5.76                              arm64        Uboot loader 2018.11-rc3
root@t95k-pro(192.168.6.62):/etc/apt# dpkg -l|grep 5.73
ii  hostapd                         3:2.7-99~armbian5.73+1            arm64        IEEE 802.11 AP and IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2/EAP Authenticator
ii  linux-stretch-root-rockpro64    5.73                              arm64        Armbian tweaks for stretch on rockpro64 (default branch)
ii  sunxi-tools                     1.4.2-2~armbian5.73+1             arm64        tools for working with Allwinner (sunxi) ARM processors

but here I named it at the login

 _____ ___  ____  _  __  ____
|_   _/ _ \| ___|| |/ / |  _ \ _ __ ___
  | || (_) |___ \| ' /  | |_) | '__/ _ \
  | | \__, |___) | . \  |  __/| | | (_) |
  |_|   /_/|____/|_|\_\ |_|   |_|  \___/

 

[amirul]

4 hours ago, guidol said:

mostly made for the RockPro64?  or ?
 

login as: root
root@192.168.6.62's password:
 ____            _    ____               __   _  _
|  _ \ ___   ___| | _|  _ \ _ __ ___    / /_ | || |
| |_) / _ \ / __| |/ / |_) | '__/ _ \  | '_ \| || |_
|  _ < (_) | (__|   <|  __/| | | (_) | | (_) |__   _|
|_| \_\___/ \___|_|\_\_|   |_|  \___/   \___/   |_|


Welcome to ARMBIAN 5.73 stable Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) 5.0.0-rc7-aml-s912-gb5aa11ceb-dirty

s912 5.76 image does the same.

/etc/armbian-release:

# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
BOARD=rockpro64
BOARD_NAME="RockPro 64"
BOARDFAMILY=rockchip64
VERSION=5.73
LINUXFAMILY=rockchip64
BRANCH=default
ARCH=arm64
IMAGE_TYPE=stable
BOARD_TYPE=conf
INITRD_ARCH=arm64
KERNEL_IMAGE_TYPE=Image

 

 

[Seasalt]

11 hours ago, balbes150 said:

New image 5.76  kernel 5.0 .

What are the benefits of Kernel 5.0 vs the earlier 4.20 Kernel releases for s912 Armbian users?

 

I am on limited internet and have 3 KM8p Mecool 912  happily running Armbian 5.67 Kernel 4.19. So my feeling is I should wait a while until Kernel 5.0 matures BUT if there is a compelling reason or benefit to upgrade to Kernel 5.0 I will do it.

[guidol]

4 hours ago, Seasalt said:

What are the benefits of Kernel 5.0 vs the earlier 4.20 Kernel releases for s912 Armbian users?

So my feeling is I should wait a while until Kernel 5.0 matures BUT if there is a compelling reason

or benefit to upgrade to Kernel 5.0 I will do it.

for a s912-system there should no reason to switch to kernel 5.0 at this time.
Some year ago I was also short on internet, but now I only use 5.0 for playing around, because now I have volume-unlimited Internet (but 12MBit).

You could read about the new features at:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=linux-2019-features&num=1

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-5.0-Highlights-Recap

 

Funny thing : "The Cortex-A5-based RDA Micro RDA8810PL is another new ARM SoC now supported by the mainline kernel."
this is the CPU of the "old" Orange Pi ioT-2G / i96 which didnt get much love in the past

[balbes150]

11 hours ago, guidol said:

mostly made for the RockPro64?  or ?

This is the result of using the TVBOXES branch to build the image. There is not everything ready yet, additional work is needed.

 

 

[Sparkx]

 

On 8/12/2018 at 8:19 PM, balbes150 said:

Install Armbian to eMMC.

1. Be sure to activate multi-boot using the new image. If multiboot previously activated is required to repeat activation using files in a new image.

2. Run Armbian from external media, run "ddbr" and create full backup eMMC.

3. Execute script “/boot/create-mbr-linux.sh”

4. and install Armbian on eMMC execute script “/root/install.sh”.

 

Please note, this is a test installation, which was tested only on a few models. Possible errors (Armbian will not boot) when you are working on unverified models which used non-standard distribution of partitions in the eMMC. Therefore, be sure to back up the "ddbr" utility before running the scripts.

 

Nice work Balbes, hello everybody

 

Yesterday I tried to update my

ALFAWISE S92 - CPU S912 2Gb RAM 16Gb eMMC WiFi Bluetooth IR
    CPU               - AMLOGIC 912 Octa Core
    Ethernet chip     - RTL8211F Gigabit Ethernet
    RADIO chip        - Aigale AW-CM273SM => AP6355 as of Feb 2019 NO Linux SUPPORT
    eMMC chip         - FERESEE NCEMBSF9-16G
    IR chip                - 56526 TI 65A
    Board  version   - QII_V2.0_20160905

to the lastest build Armbian_5.76_Aml-s912_Debian_stretch_default_5.0.0-rc7-gb5aa11ceb-dirty_20190226 but I ran into some problems. Everiting is fine while booting from sdcard but when using armbian-config to write to emmc the system gets stuck in

Begin: Waiting for /scripts/local-bloc ... done

ALERT! LABEL=ROOTFS does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

 

Tried to follow your post above but:

Couldn't find any docs on how to activate the multi-boot using the new image.

Script “/boot/create-mbr-linux.sh” can't be found on system.

Also executed script “/root/install.sh” ... same behavior.

 

Files from /boot from sdcard

/armbianEnv.txt
    verbosity=1
    rootdev=UUID=e4f3cef1-6360-464a-a70d-21cfd96b763c
    rootfstype=BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.15.0-36-generic
    rootdev=LABEL=ROOTFS
    rootfstype=ext4
    usbstoragequirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u

 

/uEnv.ini
    dtb_name=/dtb/meson-gxm-khadas-vim2.dtb
    bootargs=root=LABEL=ROOTFS rootflags=data=writeback rw console=ttyAML0,115200n8 console=tty0 no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0
    
/extlinux/extlinux.conf
    LABEL Armbian
    LINUX /zImage
    INITRD /uInitrd
    FDTDIR /dtb
    #  FDT /dtb/meson-gxm-khadas-vim2.dtb
    APPEND root=LABEL=ROOTFS rootflags=data=writeback rw console=ttyAML0,115200n8 console=tty0 no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0

 

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 14.9 GiB, 15931539456 bytes, 31116288 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xc4e7c27a

Device         Boot  Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1        8192   270335   262144  128M  e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2      270336 30805119 30534784 14.6G 83 Linux

Disk /dev/mmcblk1: 14.5 GiB, 15518924800 bytes, 30310400 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x2975c27a

Device         Boot   Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk1p1      1368064  1617919   249856  122M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk1p2      1619968 30310399 28690432 13.7G 83 Linux

 

 

Kindly please update the documentation for installing to emmc or guide me to get it to boot from emmc.

Thank you.

 

WORKAROUND

Change partition LABEL sudo e2label /dev/mmcblk1p2 ROOTFS

Maybe this should be run from install script to avoid such problems.

 

INSTALL TO eMMC as of Feb 2019

While booting from SDCARD run /root/install.sh

check with blkid so that has the wright label /dev/mmcblk1p2: LABEL="ROOTFS"

otherwise correct it with sudo e2label /dev/mmcblk1p2 ROOTFS

Edited February 27, 2019 by Sparkx
Found a workarround

[Peyton]

Stupid remark but why don't you use meson-gxm-q201.dtb instead iof meson-gxm-khadas-vim2.dtb ?

 

I thought it was the file to use with s912 as i read about how AndrewDB made his tv boxes works. 

[balbes150]

1 hour ago, Sparkx said:

 

Yesterday I tried to update my

What is currently installed in eMMC ?

 

 

[borygo77]

Hi guys! Looking for some advice regarding s905x box :) Got proper image for it which I can flash at any time if anything breaks so no harm if we will break something ;) 

 

Is there a way to change partition table using armbian from ssd or usb in my nand memory the same way we can have it on eMMC ? 

 

What I got currently is 

(parted) print devices

print devices

/dev/rsv (8389kB)

/dev/tee (8389kB)

/dev/boot (33.6MB)

/dev/data (5067MB)

/dev/logo (33.6MB)

/dev/misc (33.6MB)

/dev/cache (537MB)

/dev/crypt (33.6MB)

/dev/system (1074MB)

/dev/instaboot (537MB)

/dev/recovery (33.6MB)

/dev/mmcblk0 (31.9GB)

 

Would really like to wipe everything in nand storage and have it properly installed :P

[AndrewDB]

1 hour ago, borygo77 said:

Would really like to wipe everything in nand storage and have it properly installed 

In my humble opinion, on S9XXX TV boxes that have NAND flash instead of eMMC, it's not a good idea to try and install Armbian on NAND, simply because the Linux kernel NAND drivers are very much work-in-progress (again, in my humble opinion). Also a good SD (Sandisk A1 16GB) card which you can get for $5 is just as fast as NAND flash, in most cases.

[borygo77]

Thank you for your reply Andrew. But this is not answer I was looking for 😉 What I'm asking is if there's a way to format/change partition tables on Nand from armbian 😊