TWRP for Amlogic devices.

[doktorspon]

Are you using the right version for your OS? https://github.com/rkhat2/android-rom-repacker/releases

Your suggestion of directly loading the ROM into the system partition seems like a great idea, but I am not set up to be able to use uncompiled material.

---

That's why I gave up with sagert's suggestions, another uncompiled pile from GitHub. There is very little Windows stuff for doing the job you've indicated I need to do to get the ROM into a state so I can dd it. I may as well throw this TV box out for all the wasted effort I've put into trying to make it functional for what I want.

(I'm tired of the obtuse lack of simplicity involved in Windows systems, but now this stuff is far worse. I don't understand why the development community hasn't forced the construction of a platform with a standard interface that all hardware must support, so that you don't have hundreds of little projects all struggling to deal with the diversity of Android devices, but one basic recovery and a far reduced set of parameters to consider for more significant development. Dealing with this unnecessary complexity is a terribly wasteful use of people's skills. And as a consequence those who don't have time to enter the arcane complexity are functionally excluded from having control over their own devices. Just consumers.)

Are you using the right version for your OS? https://github.com/rkhat2/android-rom-repacker/releases

[doktorspon]

You can convert it to raw using simg2img

simg2img system.ing new-system.img -> "Bad Magic"! Your guess is probably better than mine.

You can convert it to raw using simg2img and then flash using dd from TWRP Terminal.

[doktorspon]

Then why not stay with ViTMod and boot temporarily?

It seems that's what I have to do for the moment. I'd like a more stable option rather than having to load it from stock every time.

Having got everything ready to install a system image, I discovered that this version of TWRP doesn't give me the option to flash an .img file to the system partition!

[doktorspon]

Then why not stay with ViTMod and boot temporarily?

It seems that's what I have to do for the moment. I'd like a more stable option rather than having to load it from stock every time.

[soldiaz]

Then why not stay with ViTMod and boot temporarily?

[doktorspon]

Parenthesis:

I found a version TWRP 3.2.2.0 by ViT and it loaded directly from stock recovery into memory. I then tried to install the version from this thread, but TWRP 3.2.2.0 failed to flash saying the file was corrupt! (This may be the result of "footer is wrong". It didn't say.) If I had enough patience I'd try to swap the zImage, but I'll leave that to another day to think about.

Just looked inside ViT's TWRP with RAR and there was no recovery.img. Just a series of directories (etc, licence, res, sbin, system, twres).

Careful! That has some serious issues on Oreo and later. I've had better luck with mkbootimg and unpack_bootimg.

[doktorspon]

Abootimg github
https://github.com/ggrandou/abootimg

I feel I'm going ever deeper down the rabbit hole.

I'm learning very little for the growing complexity. For example, I don't know why the data I pulled out of /dev/block/boot was bad. It supplied what seems to be good info to unpackimg until it froze. I don't know what "footer is wrong" indicates exactly. I don't know why unpackimg gave an error on the functioning stock recovery.img. I don't know why the A95X MAX doesn't operate like other TV boxes, allowing communication via USB. I don't know why the manufacturer allowed the box to be rooted, but couldn't produce a box that allowed it to be modded. I don't know why I was pointed to an archive for an app I couldn't compile. And what I have learned from this experience I'm unlikely to use again.

I can only imagine more of the same, when all I was after was to be able to install TWRP.

Thanks for all your efforts, sagert, but I don't think I will be able to install this bloody thing. Best!

[sagert]

When I boot to (stock) recovery I get the recovery menu. It will go to directories I send it to. It will boot into system. Etc. (But won't flash TWRP )

What other programs is stock recovery able to open?

I pulled the boot.img from /dev/block/boot, but unpackimg froze and couldn't finish its job.

Abootimg github

https://github.com/ggrandou/abootimg

[doktorspon]

Does stock recovery work on the device? You can open other programs.You can pull out the zimage from boot.img .

When I boot to (stock) recovery I get the recovery menu. It will go to directories I send it to. It will boot into system. Etc. (But won't flash TWRP )

What other programs is stock recovery able to open?

I pulled the boot.img from /dev/block/boot, but unpackimg froze and couldn't finish its job.

[sagert]

I got as far as unpackimg.

TWRP recovery.img unpacked without problem.

BOARD_KERNEL_CMDLINE buildvariant=userdebug androidboot.selinux=permissive
BOARD_KERNEL_BASE 01078000
BOARD_NAME
BOARD_PAGE_SIZE 2048
BOARD_HASH_TYPE sha1
BOARD_KERNEL_OFFSET 00008000
BOARD_RAMDISK_OFFSET fff88000
BOARD_SECOND_OFFSET 00f00000
BOARD_TAGS_OFFSET fef88100
BOARD_HEADER_VERSION 0

Unpacking ramdisk to "ramdisk/" . . .

Compression used: gzip
29504 blocks

Done!

I then ran the stock recovery.img but the unpack failed. (Tried three times)

Splitting image to "split_img/" . . .

BOARD_KERNEL_CMDLINE buildvariant=userdebug
BOARD_KERNEL_BASE 01078000
BOARD_NAME
BOARD_PAGE_SIZE 2048
BOARD_HASH_TYPE sha1
BOARD_KERNEL_OFFSET 00008000
BOARD_RAMDISK_OFFSET fff88000
BOARD_SECOND_OFFSET ffe88000
BOARD_TAGS_OFFSET fef88100
BOARD_OS_VERSION 8.1.0
BOARD_OS_PATCH_LEVEL 2018-06
BOARD_HEADER_VERSION 0
1 [main] unpackbootimg 1232 cygwin_exception::open_stackdumpfile: Dumping stack trace to unpackbootimg.exe.stackdump
Error!

This suggests something deviant in the A95X MAX stock recovery.img. It functions as stock recovery, but can't be unpacked. Some check built in?

Does stock recovery work on the device? You can open other programs.You can pull out the zimage from boot.img .

[doktorspon]

I got as far as unpackimg.

TWRP recovery.img unpacked without problem.

BOARD_KERNEL_CMDLINE buildvariant=userdebug androidboot.selinux=permissive
BOARD_KERNEL_BASE 01078000
BOARD_NAME
BOARD_PAGE_SIZE 2048
BOARD_HASH_TYPE sha1
BOARD_KERNEL_OFFSET 00008000
BOARD_RAMDISK_OFFSET fff88000
BOARD_SECOND_OFFSET 00f00000
BOARD_TAGS_OFFSET fef88100
BOARD_HEADER_VERSION 0

Unpacking ramdisk to "ramdisk/" . . .

Compression used: gzip
29504 blocks

Done!

I then ran the stock recovery.img but the unpack failed. (Tried three times)

Splitting image to "split_img/" . . .

BOARD_KERNEL_CMDLINE buildvariant=userdebug
BOARD_KERNEL_BASE 01078000
BOARD_NAME
BOARD_PAGE_SIZE 2048
BOARD_HASH_TYPE sha1
BOARD_KERNEL_OFFSET 00008000
BOARD_RAMDISK_OFFSET fff88000
BOARD_SECOND_OFFSET ffe88000
BOARD_TAGS_OFFSET fef88100
BOARD_OS_VERSION 8.1.0
BOARD_OS_PATCH_LEVEL 2018-06
BOARD_HEADER_VERSION 0
      1 [main] unpackbootimg 1232 cygwin_exception::open_stackdumpfile: Dumping stack trace to unpackbootimg.exe.stackdump
Error!

This suggests something deviant in the A95X MAX stock recovery.img. It functions as stock recovery, but can't be unpacked. Some check built in?

Yes, it's the prebuilt kernel image.