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

[albundy]

Hello,

Has anybody tried this method on a S905X based box?
I ordered mini m8s II, S905X 2 GB ram.
After i get the box i will try.

It is sligthly different from S905, how it affects linux i don't know.

Thanks for this great job balbes150 .

[balbes150]

IMHO is likely to work.
Perhaps I'll have finished the dtb to the new format.
A couple of weeks (I hope) I should receive a sample with S905X, then you will be able to debug it.

[albundy]

Are these s905 boards are same in respect to amlogic development board setups? It seems ram rom sizes and wifi/ethernet ( 100 vs 1000 mb ) solutions are changing only berween different vendors/boxes. So i assume dtb file is changing only about this issues. All peripherals internal to the chip should be same.

So all linux variants in yandex drive are using the same kernel image?

By the way s905x ethernet solution might be different. They embed ethernet phy and audio in the chip. Are existing s905 linux images be able to handle s905x' internal erhernet & audio ?

Amlogic S905x development board code is p212. Does anybody has its schematucs or documentation?

Thanks again

[balbes150]

In consoles there are differences in size of memory, its parameters, managing the internal GPIO, etc. All these differences are described in the dtb file. And the kernel itself, Yes , all have in common. I'm waiting for the arrival of the model S905X, then it will be an accurate answer on compatibility images. Detailed data for p212 me yet.

[botfap]

Hi All, this post isnt exactly relevant to this thread, but this thread seems to where the brains are and my problem is related.

Ive been given a batch of 40 A95X (S905X) boxes and been asked to convert them to Windows Terminal Server / Citrix Xen Desktop thin client devices. I have a mix of 1G/8G and 2G/16G units.

I have managed to put together an ubuntu 16.04 image based on the Odroid C2 official Ubuntu release. Ive built a new kernel and device tree to match the A95X (mesongxl_p212) and ive updated the network, wifi, bluetooth and gpu drivers so that all hardware is working and EGL 3D acceleration is functional.

Ive got the citrix and rdesktop software installed / compiled and functioning well. Performance is actually much better than I was expecting and these boxes make pretty good general purpose linux devices.

My problem is that I cant get it to boot from the eMMC, only from SD card using the AV/reset button method. I dont get any display output when trying to boot from eMMC. I have soldered wires to the board to access the serial console on one of the boxes but I dont get any serial console output either.

Obviously Im missing something with how these boxes boot, anyone got any ideas? My hardware knowledge of ARM devices is pretty limited, this is the first arm device I have played with. Im not a complete idiot though, I have 15+ years of Unix/Linux sysadmin experience and I dont mind experimenting or bricking a few of the boxes in the process.

[scooter2014]

Need the amilogic boot files to be included in build. I think Balbes can explain better he goohroo for this stuff. I try to see if i can get to boot on 905x too.

[balbes150]

The reason is different versions of the bootloader. For SD card and eMMC you need to use a different initial blocks and u-boot. This is the resulting binary file, which usually delivers Amlogic. If the console UART Your problem is solved. Make a copy / dump of the bootloader from eMMC memory. Create partitions on the eMMC. Restore bootloader (skip the table of partitions). Register in the loader to run Linux from eMMC. Please note that the default u-boot TV box, not integrated work team with ext4 partitions. This is solved either using additionally a partition from FAT and the primary booting the kernel with it, or to build a new u-boot c set the desired commands and immediately add all the variables to start Linux from eMMC.

[botfap]

The reason is different versions of the bootloader. For SD card and eMMC you need to use a different initial blocks and u-boot. This is the resulting binary file, which usually delivers Amlogic. If the console UART Your problem is solved. Make a copy / dump of the bootloader from eMMC memory. Create partitions on the eMMC. Restore bootloader (skip the table of partitions). Register in the loader to run Linux from eMMC. Please note that the default u-boot TV box, not integrated work team with ext4 partitions. This is solved either using additionally a partition from FAT and the primary booting the kernel with it, or to build a new u-boot c set the desired commands and immediately add all the variables to start Linux from eMMC.

Thanks for the guidance.

I had guessed that uboot only support fat so I created my file system (MBR not GPT) as:
1MB empty for bootloader - not sure how much is needed, I have never used u-boot before
100MB Boot Fat32
2GB Root Ext4 - ReadOnly with a tweak to apt-get to remount RW when updating
10GB Home Ext4 - Also contains /tmp, /var
2GB Recovery Fat32

Can I simply rip the original bootloader with dd? eg dd if=/dev/mmc of=boot.bin bs=1M count=1? is there an offset? do I need seek=x?

Is there a way to de-compile the dtb so that i can look at the hardware layout, mmc address, etc?

How do I register/config uboot to boot eMMC?

Sorry if these are noob questions, ive only ever worked with PowerPC, Sparc and X86 and have no knowledge of uboot or device trees for hardware config. I modified the LibreElec SD card boot process to get my SD card booting and i dont fully understand everything thats happening.

[balbes150]

Like You with the Russian language, will be able to understand the information on it ? Since, in computer translation often changes the meaning of the original information and it is difficult to convey the necessary information.

[nosmokingbandit]

Has anyone gotten the GPU to work correctly? I'd love to run plex on this box as well, but it can't handle video playback at the moment.

[sukanime]

Hi Balbes150,
I just buy Mini M8S, then i try LibreELEC 7.0.0.007 and it work flawless, the Wifi and my Mouse + Keyboard wireless Logitech MK260 is working.

but , when i try ubuntu_multi_dtb_v3_20160625.img
i have problem.

1) i have MicroSD 8GB, but i can not using it, your image to big.
can you resize the image to 7GB.
Here the DD Log:

root@Asus-X201EV:/MyFile/Android TV Box# dd if=ubuntu_multi_dtb_v3_20160625.img | pv | sudo dd of=/dev/sdb bs=4M
dd: writing ‘/dev/sdb’: No space left on device     <=>                                                                                                                                       ]
0+113214 records in
0+113213 records out
8026849280 bytes (8,0 GB) copied, 1195,02 s, 6,7 MB/s
7,48GB 0:19:55 [6,41MB/s] [                   <=>                                                                                                                                             ]
root@Asus-X201EV:/MyFile/Android TV Box#

so i have to using Micro SD 16GB.
then i burn it to MicroSD Card using DD, i can succes burn it.
and i can boot it and go to Mate Desktop.
But, my Wifi not working.
and Mouse + Keyboard wireless Logitech MK260 is not working.

i try modprobe hid, usb_hid and hid_generic
but still not working.

what should i do to make it working?

Thanks.
ps: sory for my bad english

[balbes150]

Try these options Armbian. Probably WiFi direct will not work. Probably need to rebuild the kernel and add the modules you need\settings. Logitech MK260 - have your USB module ?

https://yadi.sk/d/pHxaRAs-tZiei

To transfer your system from one storage device to another, you can simply copying all directories and files (under Linux, you can use MC) and assign the correct LABEL (as in the original system).

[sukanime]

thanks for the reply,
i should have the usb module, because i have wired usb mouse that work,
but not the usb dongle logitech MK260.

i will try Armbian, there is a lot of file, which one i should download?

[sukanime]

Hi Balbes,
I have try Armbian_5.20_Vegas95_Ubuntu_xenial_3.14.79_desktop _20160922.img
after i change dtb to mini-m8s, its run very nice, just the booting its much faster with ubuntu_multi_dtb_v3_20160625.img

My Logitech MK260 now working.
but Wifi not working.
if i see this http://www.aminhacasadigital.com/201...roid-mini.html
Mini M8S using Realtek RTL8723BS.
I just check with LibreELEC, with lsmod, it use 8723es module driver.

LibreELEC:~ # lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
hci_uart               21997  1
bluetooth             243164  2 hci_uart
6lowpan_iphc            5895  1 bluetooth
8723bs               1675347  0
cfg80211              359903  1 8723bs
8021q                  18309  0
wifi_dummy               806  0
aml_nftl_dev           82924  0
fbcon                  37385  0
bitblit                 4508  1 fbcon
softcursor              1200  1 bitblit
font                    7295  1 fbcon
LibreELEC:~ #

more info:

LibreELEC:~ # ls /sys/bus/sdio/drivers/
rtl8723bs
LibreELEC:~ # ls /sys/bus/sdio/drivers/rtl8723bs/
bind         sdio:0001:1  uevent       unbind
LibreELEC:~ #

##############################################
#                 LibreELEC                  #
#            http://libreelec.tv             #
##############################################

LibreELEC (community) Version: 7.0.2.007
LibreELEC:~ # cd /lib/modules/
LibreELEC:/lib/modules #
LibreELEC:/lib/modules # ls
3.14.29
LibreELEC:/lib/modules # find . | grep 8723
./3.14.29/kernel/drivers/amlogic/wifi/rtl8723AU
./3.14.29/kernel/drivers/amlogic/wifi/rtl8723AU/8723au.ko
./3.14.29/kernel/drivers/amlogic/wifi/rtl8723BS
./3.14.29/kernel/drivers/amlogic/wifi/rtl8723BS/8723bs.ko
LibreELEC:/lib/modules #

I want to ask, did Armbian or Ubuntu Multi DTB v3 inculude 8723bs module driver?

if not, how to compile it? where i can get the kernel source code?

Thanks.

[Reddwarf]

I have a Mini MX-III 2G/16G and have tried different images from sdcard, lately the Armbian_5.20_Vegas95_Ubuntu_xenial_3.14.79_desktop _20160922.img, boot is ok but the graphical desktop is very dark and there is no background image visible. I can see the desktop icons but if I open a terminal I am not able to see the text at all, just a black background. I have tried to replace the dtb.img with the one I believe is for this box but to no avail. Any ideas?