UGOOS AM6 S922X TV Box Android 9.0

[DEcosse]

And no you don't update the Kodi itself in CoreELEC, the whole CE revision as/when it's available as described above

[QT-Pro]

I haven't yet installed the card and flashed the box because I wanted to know if it will be possible to restore everything Kodi related from the latest backup I did last night? Please bear in mind that I have been using Kodi 18.7.2 and the version on the CoreElec install is 18.7.1.

I spent the last 3 weeks configuring and fine-tuning Kodi to include tons of add-ons. If I had to start all over again, I doubt I would be able to remember all I have installed, let alone the configurations I setup in each add-on.

[DEcosse]

First - by using an SD card you are not 'flashing your box' - your entire Android system, including your Kodi remains completely intact and there is nothing actually flashed to your box.
All that happens is that when your system powers up, IF there is an SD Card (or USB) detected with a Bootable image, it boots to that FIRST in preference over the internal EMMC Memory card where Android Image resides. (the order the boot manager looks is actually SD Card, USB, EMMC)

So you boot to CoreELEC image - then what? In the Quit Menu you will see an option that is not in Kodi that offers 'boot to Android' - if you select that, even though the SD Card remains inserted, it will ignore it on the reboot and now the box will boot to your previously configured Android which is unchanged in ANY way.
So regardless of what you do with your CoreELEC configuration, you can ALWAYS go back to your Android by either a) selecting Reboot to Android or b) just popping the SD Card out before you power up.
Sorry to re-hash that, I know that's not exactly what you asked, it's just that when you mention flashing your box, was not sure if you really understand the mechanism of how the systems co-exist and interplay. Your entire CoreELEC Operating System is contained on the SD Card and NONE of that is transferred at all to the box.


Your main question - the first good news is that no matter what you do with that CoreELEC image you will not lose the configuration you have created in the Android version.
Then Yes, you can use the back-up from your Android Kodi, to create the same configuration in CoreELEC (well except for all the existing CoreELEC stuff)
i.e. using the robweber Backup program in your Android Kodi, create your back-up file and save to external medium (have to be USB since you're going to be using the SD Card Slot).
Then power down your system and remove the power jack from the box and remove that USB stick with your backup.
Insert the Prepared CoreELEC SD Card in the slot
Invert the box and access the Reset Button with a paper clip or similar through the hole in the base (try operating the button a few times to be sure you are 'on it' - you will definitely feel a positive click as you operate it - it's quite easy to 'miss' the button, but it will be very clear when you are on it)
With the button held down you need to plug in the power jack (it's a bit tricky to juggle but you can do it)
Once the boot logo appears, you release the button
Then you just leave it alone to do its thing compiling the CoreELEC - it will reboot itself during this process but you do not need to do anything.
Once CoreELEC starts, it should walk you through the initial set-up features, incl WiFi etc

So now you have a basic CoreELEC system that looks for most part like a conventional Kodi with different colour scheme and additional CoreELEC programs in the Programs Section.
The first thing you will need is the Backup Program from the Kodi Repository
Install that, then install your Backup USB stick and you can run the restore function to load that backup file.
You WILL get a warning about being created on a different platform, just ignore that and confirm you wish to proceed.
(it may say you need to restart in order to proceed - if it does, just confirm - do not boot to Android, just 'reboot' and it should pick up the restore)
Once complete you should now have a CoreELEC configuration that mirrors your Android.

Going forward, with CoreELEC, you can use the CoreELEC backup, rather than the robweber version. You can set that up in the CoreELEC config program under programs.
Then with a CoreELEC backup it would be even easier if you wanted to create a brand new SD Card. (you could even try a bigger SD Card to see if you can use that)

And again, swapping between the two systems, I typically leave the card in place - if powering from 'off' I let it boot to CoreELEC and go back to Android from there from the Quit menu
To go back to CoreELEC from Android a reboot command will reboot it to CoreELEC.
You never have to repeat the 'reset button' process again - even when you do an Android upgrade or when you re-insert the card if it has been removed. That would only be required if you were creating a new virgin CoreELEC from a newly flashed SD Card

[QT-Pro]

Your main question - the first good news is that no matter what you do with that CoreELEC image you will not lose the configuration you have created in the Android version.

I thought that if you use the reset/restore button under the box it restores the factory default image which theoretically would mean the loss of all data added.

create your back-up file and save to external medium (have to be USB since you're going to be using the SD Card Slot).

After flashing CoreElec to my SD card, the card's properties were showing as unwritable and only 1.9 Gb in size but this is a 32 Gb card. So, I opened diskmgmt and created a new partition to make use of the unallocated 29+ Gb. Can I store my CoreElec Kodi backup on that?

[DEcosse]

It does not reset your box - it just accesses the recovery MENU
I've assured multiple times now, that the advantage of the SD Card process is that it does not affect your Android system and they co-exist as separate operating systems on completely separate storage media.

You should not have formatted the partition - you just cannot see it in Windows - as soon as you install in the box, it will be available
The process creates its own partitions but the program partition should not be 1.9GB, (normally is shown as a 512MB drive in Windows) and the rest is allocated for storage (which you will not see at this stage)


https://discourse.coreelec.org/t/how...l-coreelec/677




I just did this again for you (on a USB stick but that makes no difference - you will still end up with the same thing in Windows regarding seeing only a single drive of 512MB regardless of what size of medium you used to begin with)



You should re-make your SD Card again (you should not even have to reformat it first, but you can if you choose)

Use this link to get the correct image - https://coreelec.org/#download

The correct file should be CoreELEC-Amlogic-ng.arm-9.2.3-Generic.img

Use Rufus or Balena to re-flash the SD Card

Transfer the appropriate .dtb file from the Device Trees Folder to the root of the new drive and rename it dtb.img

Then just follow the instructions I provided above to use the reset button to boot the SD Card for the first time and compile the program

[QT-Pro]

I remade the SD card as you suggested and then went to try it following the instructions given in the Beelink GT video but it didn't work. All I got was an Android logo with 'UPDATING' underneath. In the video, it took only a few seconds before the CoreElec logo appeared. After 10 minutes and my wrist going into cramp status from holding the recovery button pressed, nothing had changed so I gave up.

I pulled the SD card out to see if it would still boot into Android and it does, so at least I haven't bricked it. Maybe g12b_s922x_ugoos_am6.dtb is not the correct file to copy over and convert to dtb.img? But there's only that and g12b_s922x_ugoos_am6_rev_a.dtb to choose from and you said not to use the REV A version. Any ideas where to go from here?

[DEcosse]

No, that is the correct dtb
Once the 'updating' appears under the Android logo just release the button and let it get on with it

[QT-Pro]

It never changes. It just stays on the Upgrading logo. I have left it like that for now but I already waited another 10 minutes with no change so I doubt it's going to work. Like I said earlier, in the Beelink video, the CoreElec logo came up after only 10 to 15 seconds.

Edit: I have it connected to my LAN network. Should I have removed the internet connection first?
2nd edit: More than half an hour and still no change. I don't know why it won't work but I'm about ready to surrender.

[DEcosse]

Show me image of your SD Card root menu

It should look like this

[QT-Pro]

Yours looks ever so slightly different to mine in that I do not have the System Volume Information folder. I would guess that is because it gets created once CoreElec is actually in use. And yes, g12b_s922x_ugoos_am6.dtb was the file I renamed to dtb.img.

Out of interest, I note that when you boot into CoreElec you are immediately presented with the Kodi interface. Does that mean that only Kodi and its add-ons can be run in CoreElec or can you also install other apps like VLC, Aptoide TV, Smart YouTube, etc. ?

[mo123]

Yours looks ever so slightly different to mine in that I do not have the System Volume Information folder. I would guess that is because it gets created once CoreElec is actually in use. And yes, g12b_s922x_ugoos_am6.dtb was the file I renamed to dtb.img.

Your's is exactly the same.
I would suggest you to format your micro-sd card with SD Memory Card Formatter
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/for...ows/index.html
Then write the CoreELEC image with Etcher, forget about Rufus as it's a tool to make bootable Windows images.

https://www.balena.io/etcher/

Copy and rename the AM6 dtb file to dtb.img to the root folder of the micro-sd card.
Make sure you enable show file extensions for known file type in your Windows Folder View Settings, to make sure the file extensions are correct.
Now insert the micro-sd card into the AM6 and power it on and wait for CoreELEC to start.

[QT-Pro]

I noted that your file sizes were different to mine so I rebuilt the SD card using Rufus instead of balenaEtcher, but the file sizes are still the same.

[QT-Pro]

Your's is exactly the same.
I would suggest you to format your micro-sd card with SD Memory Card Formatter
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/for...ows/index.html
Then write the CoreELEC image with Etcher, forget about Rufus as it's a tool to make bootable Windows images.

https://www.balena.io/etcher/

Copy and rename the AM6 dtb file to dtb.img to the root folder of the micro-sd card.
Make sure you enable show file extensions for known file type in your Windows Folder View Settings, to make sure the file extensions are correct.
Now insert the micro-sd card into the AM6 and power it on and wait for CoreELEC to start.

I'm surprised you prefer a 3rd party formatting application over simply using Windows own formatting option but, as you are obviously far more experienced in this than I am, I am doing as you suggested. I'm somewhat afraid of this formatting software because it is only a 6 Mb file but it took ages to install and almost as long to launch. I sort of wonder what else it may have installed?

Anyway, I chose the overwrite format option instead of quick format and it is currently at 28%. Once it has completed, I will follow your instructions to the 'T' and let you know how it goes later today.

[mo123]

The SD Memory Card Formatter comes from the official SDCard Foundation responsible for all the regulations regarding memory cards and it's the only way to fix a corrupted or faulty memory card or fully format it. Windows formatting tools only format the visible partition eg. FAT32, NTFS and not inaccessible partitions created by Linux images like Ext4, BTRFS etc. So using the Windows Disk formatting tool is not the correct way to erase/format a micro-sd card unless it only consists of a single Windows Exfat, Fat32 or NTFS partition.

[mo123]

I noted that your file sizes were different to mine so I rebuilt the SD card using Rufus instead of balenaEtcher, but the file sizes are still the same.

Yes, because your system shows the file sizes to 1 decimal while the other user's system rounds up the file sizes it shows on the screen.
But file sizes are technically still the same and use the same amount of space, just displayed differently on screen depending on which OS you use.
If you want to see the same file sizes as the other user, you need to use Windows 10 and Balena etcher to write, but which OS you use have no effect anyway if CoreELEC will boot or not.

CoreELEC is a Linux Operating System consisting entirely of Kodi and other Linux packages, it doesn't run any Android apps.

[QT-Pro]

The card has been rebuilt now but there are 2 strange anomalies:

1. I previously created a 2nd partition to use the unallocated space and labeled it P:. Despite having performed a full reformat, in Windows Explorer P: is still showing although unavailable if I try to view its contents. I opened diskmgmt and P: is nowhere to be found. I refreshed the tree in Explorer but P: is still there.

2. Wanting to eject the card, I opened my USB disk ejector but the card is not displayed so I then tried in Windows 'Safely Remove Hardware' and it isn't shown there either. Can I just pull it from the card reader without causing any damage?

Edit:
I checked diskmgmt again and found P:. It has been formatted and is unavailable. In H: it is shown as unallocated space. I fear this partition was the reason I couldn't get CoreElec to run and I'm worried that even though it is unallocated space, the fact that it still shows up as a partition may wreck the CoreElec booting procedure. If that is the case, I guess I will have to order a new SD card as I can't seem to get rid of this partition.



2nd edit:
I managed to get rid of the P: partition by going into diskmgmt and selecting Remove however, it still appears in Safely Remove Hardware as 0 - Mass Storage Device. This is in addition to H: COREELEC. But ejecting H: also removes 0:. I doubt there's any more I can do so the next thing will be to test it on the AM6 tonight.