S-Box, S905X, 2/32GB

[abc4512]

Yes, as I said the file is not in Amlogic Format, it's a raw DD image. Unfortunately, you cannot use it with the tool, you have to manually write it to the eMMC using dd.

Flash LibreELEC to a SD card, boot LibreELEC from the box, then using SSH, run the commands that I described above. This should work.

[robertoenr]

Yes, as I said the file is not in Amlogic Format, it's a raw DD image. Unfortunately, you cannot use it with the tool, you have to manually write it to the eMMC using dd.

Flash LibreELEC to a SD card, boot LibreELEC from the box, then using SSH, run the commands that I described above. This should work.

Thanks for your fast response abc4512 !

Now I have Coreelec installed on eMMC and works great (with wifi, impressive). Now I want to test armbian, but by following the steps of this forum https://forum.armbian.com/topic/1216...aarch64-armv8/ I can't boot the image. The post says that if you run Coreelec you will not be able to run Armbian if you don't restore the stock firmware with Amlogic USB Burning Tool. Do you think can it boot armbian with Coreelec installed? This is the steps I've followed to record the SD card:

• Download Armbian image "Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_focal_current_5.9.0_desktop.img.xz" and burn into SD card with "USB Imager" or "Balena Etcher".
• After this, go to SD card and edit the file /extlinux/extlinux.conf. Comment all lines and keep uncommented the following:

LABEL Armbian
LINUX /zImage
INITRD /uInitrd
FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxl-s905x-p212.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

• The previous step is necessary to get the correct DTB from "dtb/amlogic" folder. I'm sure it'is "meson-gxl-s905x-p212.dtb"
• Rename "u-boot-s905x-s912" to "u-boot.ext", in the root SD folder.
• Edit the "boot.ini" file and change the line:

if test "${devtype}" = ""; then setenv devtype "mmc"; fi

• to:

if test "${devtype}" = ""; then setenv devtype "/dtb/amlogic/meson-gxl-s905x-p212.dtb"; fi

After this I enter the SD card into TV Box, keep pressed the button between the 2 USB, and while plug power. It freezes on the Amlogic S905X logo. Also tested without pressing the button, but Coreelec installed in eMMC is started.

[abc4512]

No, do not edit the boot.ini. The default one was right (devtype mmc). Leave it as it is. Everything else you did correctly. But I do not understand why you installed CoreELEC on the eMMC, because if you restore the firmware, CoreELEC will be overwritten.

[robertoenr]

No, do not edit the boot.ini. The default one was right (devtype mmc). Leave it as it is. Everything else you did correctly. But I do not understand why you installed CoreELEC on the eMMC, because if you restore the firmware, CoreELEC will be overwritten.

I installed Coreelec several weeks ago, in order to check the linux based system performance and compatibility on this device. Now that I'm sure that can run it and wifi works ok, I want to test Armbian, but I have this problem: doesn't boot (freeze on boot Amlogic screen).

I'll try to keep the "mmc" device type on boot.ini. If still doesn't boot I think that Coreelec has overwritten something on the boot sector that makes not booting Armbian. The strange thing is that the Same SD with Coreelec (with the gxl_ p212_1g dtb) boots correctly from SD, but Armbian doesn't with the p212 dtb and the explained config.

This is the reason why I'm thinking about reflashing the stock firmware, but since your file is a "raw" dump, I'm afraid of bricking the S-Box...

[abc4512]

As mentioned in the Armbian thread, CoreELEC will not work with Armbian. You need to flash another firmware first, such as the Android TV rom, to restore the bootloader, then you will be able to run Armbian. Again, you can not "flash" the image I uploaded. It is not compatible with the Amlogic flash tool which uses its own proprietary format. This is a raw image and can only be written to the box using dd. You don't have to use Armbian to restore the image, you can also use CoreELEC as long as you boot it from an SD card. So if that works, try it first, it's one step less because you don't need a new firmware first.

[robertoenr]

As mentioned in the Armbian thread, CoreELEC will not work with Armbian. You need to flash another firmware first, such as the Android TV rom, to restore the bootloader, then you will be able to run Armbian. Again, you can not "flash" the image I uploaded. It is not compatible with the Amlogic flash tool which uses its own proprietary format. This is a raw image and can only be written to the box using dd. You don't have to use Armbian to restore the image, you can also use CoreELEC as long as you boot it from an SD card. So if that works, try it first, it's one step less because you don't need a new firmware first.

Thank you so much abc4512 I successfully restored the factory firmware with dd linux tool and your raw dump. In my case the emmc was "mmcblk0", instead of "mmcblk1", I think caused by Coreelec installation. It boots up perfectly the stock android, so great idea to dump the full stock emmc. Because we don't have the Amlogic USB Tool original stock firmware image.

After that Armbian boots OK from SD card and WIFI works out of the box. The only issues I found in Armbian are the following:

• When I power off armbian, it reboots instead.
• I can't change the language to spanish.
• Also I tried to execute the "install-aml.sh" script located in /root folder (in order to install armbian to emmc), and finished OK. But when it finished, and I boot the S-Box without SD card, it shows an infinite message "ethernet@01c50000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !" so doesn't boot from emmc.

[abc4512]

You could try flashing another Firmware (such as the Android TV one) using the Amlogic tool. The dd image cannot restore the original bootloader partitions (mmcblk1boot0 and mmcblk1boot1) because they are not exposed as writable when the system is running. So even after restoring the dd image, these partitions on your device still contain code from your prior CoreELEC installation. It's just a guess though, I have no idea if these partitions are being used in the boot process and if they play any role.

[abc4512]

Instructions to unbrick the box:

If something goes wrong when flashing an image, the box can get stuck in an infinite bootloop. When that happens, it is no longer possible to flash another firmware or boot from an SD card, because the bootloader code that controls these functions will become unreachable. The solution is to short two pins of the eMMC chip with the box turned on. This will prevent the box from detecting and booting from the memory chip, thus breaking the infinite boot loop and allow the rescue mode to be executed.

You need a USB A male-to-male cable, an USB A to USB C cable will also work if your computer/laptop has an USB C port, or use an USB A to USB C adapter. Remove the case from the box. Do not connect the power cable and the USB cable yet. Open the Amlogic USB Burning tool. In the tool, load a working image file (I have linked some working custom firmwares in my earlier post) and click start. While holding the reset button, connect the USB cable to the USB OTG port (the one next to the A/V port). This can be a bit tricky, the way I do it is that I put the USB cable halfway in so that it's almost connected, then it only needs a slight push while holding the reset button with the other hand. You don't need the power cable, the USB power is usually enough to turn the box on. If it does not turn on using USB alone, you also need to connect the power cable (again while holding reset). If the tool now gives you a message that the USB hub is connected, your box is not bricked and you don't need to follow this guide. If it does not detect the box, look at the motherboard and locate the pins on the memory chip that I have highlighted in the photo (download photo here). I can't tell you exactly which two pins it is (I have bad eyes, lol), but I have highlighted the area to give you an idea. Using a small screwdriver, try to short every two-pin combination in the given area for one second. You might hear a faint buzzing noise when you hit the right one. The tool should now detect the USB connection and begin flashing the image.

[douglasweaver]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum. I'm so surprised as I found this community.

Recently, I've replaced a new tv box for my grandparents, and I had access to this S-BOX since then. I found that the Google Play Services update will make the box laggy. A lot of apps cannot run smoothly and a lot of crashes. So I decided to find a workaround and the possible solution is to flash custom ROM.

However, I don't have the remote control of this device when I got the box. I had rebooted to stock recovery mode once, and I can't navigate the menu because I don't have the remote.

My questions are:
1. Is it still possible to flash a custom ROM without the remote control, or is there another way to navigate the recovery menu?
2. If so, do y'all know where to get a compatible replacement for it? (I know it may not worth it)

Any help will be appreciated.

Edit 1:
I have successfully installed Aidan's Custom ROM v7.4 (ATV 7.1.2) using USB burning tool.
Initially, I faced apps crash very frequently, even cannot open URL in the Chrome app. It seems that the 1GB (~800MB) RAM causes these issues. So, I tried to disable all the google apps such as google play services, play store, google etc.; then it finally went smoothly. However, it cannot do any background tasks.