Running Linux From SD Card or USB Flash Drive - Using Balbes150 Method And Files.

[Pauz]

Sorry, the problem persists. On SD there is dtb.img and in DTB folder there is vega_s95_telos.dtb. I suppose it is not similar I can not overwrite dtb.img with it. Am I right?

[balbes150]

DTB in the directory are the files for those models, which activate the multi-boot files, specially made for specific models. In these scripts added a new parameter in the boot loader configuration on which to perform model identification and select the desired dtb file. If the activation of multi-boot execution of the previous versions (universal), then you need to manually copy the relevant file dtb.img to the root of the FAT partition.

[nosmokingbandit]

Mine is finally working. I went through every dtb you had and none of them worked. Some would get me to a blank screen instead of the T95M logo, but thats as far as it would go.

So I started looking for other boxes with specs similar to mine. Turns out most of these boxes have 2gb of ram where the T95M has 1gb. That is fine with me since I'll mostly use this as a low-end web server and 1gb is plenty. I downloaded several GB worth of firmware before I got to the Justop T95n. IT WORKS!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0...TY5SkVHc3ItSTg
Please add this to your files, Balbes. The first one I gave you must have been for the 2gb model.

Openelec booted up fine, so I'll try getting the headles debian image running next.

Thanks again for all of the help, you're a pretty cool guy.

edit:

Maybe I spoke too soon. Hardware compatibility seems sporadic. In Armbian or Ubunutu I get no gpu acceleration, no wifi, no audio out. With OpenElec I wifi works, audio works, but I don't think the gpu does (openelec is hard to diagnose since so few tools are available).

When booting Ubuntu I get the message "Failed to start Load Kernel Modules." I believe Mali450 support is in the latest kernel, so that might explain why the gpu acceleration isn't working. Might explain audio as well, but I don't know why OpenElec has audio support. Is anyone having luck getting all their hardware to work?

[eldonT]

thx RISCy Dude for the tutorial, i also was not understanding how it worked.

balbes150
i'm trying to better understand what your multiboot "xx_autoscript" script does exactly.

1. For the moment i believe it only changes some existing uboot parameters and "functions", enabling the devices to boot from alternate devices like sd card or usb.
Or does it completely overwrite the existing uboot on the box ? (then should i make a backup of the stock uboot and how ?)

So far i've been using cnxsoft method (and olin etc) to add with a serial (physical adapter) console uboot functions to do the same, or with fm_setenv from android when available.

2. Then your script has some small differences with the functions i have been using, especially on the (kernel) loadaddr=1080000 parameter, your script use loadaddr=1100000, is it specific to boxes or kernel configurations or simply a value we can set in uboot ?
(dtb address is always dtb_mem_addr=0x1000000)

3. Finally i'm not sure you described which kernel (amlogic version) you have used in your linux images and what are their configurations (where does it come from).
One thing i don't know how to do, is to get a box (android) kernel config, and then build a kernel using that config.
I'm thinking of my old linux days when i used to build my kernels configuring everything to match my pc hardware, is it relevant with those arm boards or not really ? or not at all now that we're using dtb files ?

4. Also, it's not clear to me what's the status of the s805/s905(x) gpu/vpu hw support in your linux images.
For example if i'd like to use an ubuntu image and install or build kodi on it, would it be able to access aml_xx hw codecs for video decoding and so on ?
I know your openelec/libreelec probably do have hw accel, but i would like to use a full linux distro.

sorry for the many questions, i have more but i'll stop here =)

And i see you've started doing the same for s805, i have a few boxes here if you need to test i'd be glad to help.
I also have some dtb files for a few boxes you don't seem to have at the moment in your cloud, S905 T95 (not M) with antenna, S905 Nexbox A95X, S805 Beelink S85, S805 M8S (not mini) and a couple of others i don't remember about.
Let me know if you're interested in getting their dtb files.

thx again for your work and support.

[balbes150]

Mine is finally working. I went through every dtb you had and none of them worked. Some would get me to a blank screen instead of the T95M logo, but thats as far as it would go.

So I started looking for other boxes with specs similar to mine. Turns out most of these boxes have 2gb of ram where the T95M has 1gb. That is fine with me since I'll mostly use this as a low-end web server and 1gb is plenty. I downloaded several GB worth of firmware before I got to the Justop T95n. IT WORKS!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0...TY5SkVHc3ItSTg
Please add this to your files, Balbes. The first one I gave you must have been for the 2gb model.

Openelec booted up fine, so I'll try getting the headles debian image running next.

Thanks again for all of the help, you're a pretty cool guy.

edit:

Maybe I spoke too soon. Hardware compatibility seems sporadic. In Armbian or Ubunutu I get no gpu acceleration, no wifi, no audio out. With OpenElec I wifi works, audio works, but I don't think the gpu does (openelec is hard to diagnose since so few tools are available).

When booting Ubuntu I get the message "Failed to start Load Kernel Modules." I believe Mali450 support is in the latest kernel, so that might explain why the gpu acceleration isn't working. Might explain audio as well, but I don't know why OpenElec has audio support. Is anyone having luck getting all their hardware to work?

OE uses its own build of the kernel configuration, set the source for the drivers, the building environment, etc.), so it is already supported. Versions of the Linux images are based mostly on the images for Odroid C2 (the source code kernel and configuration) in which no devices that are in TV consoles. To enable this support you must recompile the kernel with the inclusion of the relevant options and the addition of source drivers. I now have no time to do it.

[balbes150]

eldonT


1. The script only adds the parameters in u-boot (env) additional values. These additional values allow you to test a condition (script s905_autoscript on external media). If available - execute it as a script.

2. To control the values of the parameters u-boot (env) through the scripts.
3. Address values, which are specified in the script dependent on a specific kernel and its requirements. For example, the OE kernel address need 1080000 start command bootm for Ubuntu - 1100000 and his team launch another booti. The command to start the kernel have differences, what kind of kernel they run. booti - used for the kernel aarch64 (takes into account its specificity). The transfer is set to boot from u-boot script s905_autoscript makes it easy to change values without affecting himself u-boot. This reduces the risk record is not the correct value in for internal memory and get the brick. The script is an external item which is easy to change and correct errors.

4. The kernel and the boot process of the OS from the firmware is very specific and we have much to clarify.

5. I am very interested in testing and participation in the development versions for the s805.

6. I will be grateful if You provide me with additional dtb files for different devices, I will include them in the images for testing other owners.

[eldonT]

balbes150
i'm sorting my files and dumping again some of the boxes i'm not sure about to get all the dtb files and i'll post a link here.
Do you need anything else from a box to configure your image ?

Another thing, i'm wondering if there's a way to print the uboot env when in adb and there's no fw_printenv binary available.
I have a /dev/block/env partition and i can print it to get the content but the ascii text seems to be in some unformated format (binary?, one line without spaces) and so it's hard to read.
thx

[Pauz]

Hi,
Dear balbes140,
Can you advise how I switch on the SATA drive on telos if I run OpenELEC, or any LINUX version?
Thx,

[balbes150]

balbes150
i'm sorting my files and dumping again some of the boxes i'm not sure about to get all the dtb files and i'll post a link here.
Do you need anything else from a box to configure your image ?

Another thing, i'm wondering if there's a way to print the uboot env when in adb and there's no fw_printenv binary available.
I have a /dev/block/env partition and i can print it to get the content but the ascii text seems to be in some unformated format (binary?, one line without spaces) and so it's hard to read.
thx

When they are ready links, let me know. Basically it is dtb file. Can still be useful.
1. The result of the output of the command cat /proc/config.gz > config.gz (output to file).
2. the file remote.conf (configuration remote).

Unload the data from the partition /dev/block/env to a file, I'll see what there is and how to use it.

[balbes150]

Hi,
Dear balbes140,
Can you advise how I switch on the SATA drive on telos if I run OpenELEC, or any LINUX version?
Thx,

While this feature does not work. I plan to enable SATA in the next version.

[Pauz]

While this feature does not work. I plan to enable SATA in the next version.

Thx a lot! Is there a linux command for switching on/off the sata port?

[balbes150]

Thx a lot! Is there a linux command for switching on/off the sata port?

In theory there is. In practice, we need to determine the availability of GPIO port (if enabled in the kernel), which is responsible for the SATA power and send the code include (1 enables 0 disables).

[jpearn]

eldonT Do you have the dtb for the Nexbox A95X to hand ? I've just got mine and haven't quite figured out how to extract it ! Thanks.

[eldonT]

jpearn
here's the Nexbox A95X S905 dtb : https://mega.nz/#F!7dMinTKD!U7bdMWPTmFyup-3LrtIGXw

go into boot_dtb/dtb/

i've started renaming those A95X files because i've discovered there's a Nexbox A95X S905X that just came out with the exact same model name "A95X", so mine is actually the "old" S905 one to be clear.

there's also a decompiled version (text) "dtd" in the boot directory, make sure you don't use that one.

balbes150
you will find a dd.dump of the a95x s905 on the link above, it includes the env partition i was talking about.
i'll extract and add the remote.conf but i've already noticed that it does not have the /proc/config.gz unfortunately.

Also i wanted to make a quick comment about the Libreelec images from kszaq available on their thread : https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread-524.html

it seems to use a very clever aml_autoscript (uboot config), taken from wetek i think, which loads the nand dtb "on the fly" making dtb extraction not required and some kind of universal image, did you have a chance to look at it and if so why did you decide not to use it that trick ?
here's the aml_autoscript source : https://github.com/kszaq/LibreELEC.t...autoscript.src

they also use the dbtTool binary to process something when building their kernel i don't quite understand what it does exactly, here's the patch related to that part :

https://github.com/kszaq/LibreELEC.tv/commit/2dfddd65a893d6eae265780e983a126ed14a1811

I was under the impression that you needed the device dtb file to build the kernel but maybe it was only to include it in the finale image and can be overridden/ignored by uboot ?

[balbes150]

eldonT
I considered using the built-in eMMC dtb file on the first stage of the multi-boot. But declined for a number of reasons. Built-in dtb file (data) is closely related to the core of the firmware (from one source). This interaction ensures the correct dtb file and kernel built-in firmware (OS). But makes it difficult to use the built-in dtb file with kernel versions on external media. Outer core (OE Linux etc) may significantly differ from the nucleus in the internal memory. In the external dtb files can be significant changes (patches) to correct or modify functionality. Built-in dtb file does not have these patches , so some functions (such as KODI) will not work correctly on external media. If you record to the internal memory of the new (corrected version of the dtb file) will cease to function properly - from the internal firmware. In the version of the script, the link You gave on Libreelec - used close to the kernel version for the internal memory and external media. For Android and for Libreelec - collect from closest source\patches, the game console manufacturer and developer libreelec closely.

At the moment I need the dtb files are not in order to gather kernel from source. I need it in order to record in the form of ready-made files in the same directory as the DTB in the multi-images Linux etc. What would the script autostart (s905_autoscript) at a special parameter in the ENV of u-boot (s905_dtb) determined the model of the TV box, and he chose the right dtb file. This is to ensure that users with multiboot enabled the appropriate script aml_autoscript with the support of a particular model, not to copy by the dtb file. The script itself can select from existing in the image. If the script autostart does not find the desired file or no models in the list, then use the existing universal (dtb.img) from the root directory, which the user can control myself (to copy your option file with this universal default filename).