Broken NAND? Your box is piece of junk? Try this! LibreELEC running from SD only.

[windziu]

Hi,
I got MiniM8S II with broken NAND, noone methods to write firmware works, I managed to run box using SD card made with amlogic sd card maker, and flash drive with LibreELEC fw.
But how merge two drives to one?
Guys from LibreELECs forum comes with help.

Thanks to balbes150, and kszaq!

They guide me how to.
If You have same problem as I do follow this guide:
1) Create LibreELEC (LE) micro sd card.
2) Run Linux (I used Mint).
3) Get sd U-Boot.
4) Place sd uboot to known location.
5) In Linux run terminal, mount location wher sd uboot is stored.
6) Check for devices using "lsblk", find Your LE sdcard device (mine was sdc)
7) umount LE sdcard (my case: umount /dev/sdc)
8) Execute commands [thanks to balbes150 and kszaq]:
sudo dd if=u-boot.bin.sd.bin of=/dev/sdc conv=fsync bs=1 count=442
sudo dd if=u-boot.bin.sd.bin of=/dev/sdc conv=fsync bs=512 skip=1 seek=1
NOTICE: mine sd card was "sdc" check Yours!
9)exit terminal, place sd to box and plug power cord in, done!

I'll provide links to files tomorrow.
Enjoy!

[ghanashyaml]

Is this AMLogic specific or will work for Rockchip as well? This is for only NAND and not eMMC chips, right?

[windziu]

I try to explain.
I got Mini M8S II (AML s905x) with broken internal memory. Any method to restore internal memory wasnt working (AML USB burning tool, SD recovery card or serial console).
So with help of guys I managed to fool box, and use LibreELEC from SD card instead of flashing it to internal memory.
Thats all, Im newbie here, maybe kszaq or balbes150 will know more about Your problem.

[scooter2014]

Is this AMLogic specific or will work for Rockchip as well? This is for only NAND and not eMMC chips, right?

Yes it will work for rockchip as long as boot still loads. Depending on device and loader used. Example 3288 need 2.17 loader to boot from sd card. You can read up in forum that your device is. Lots of devices now work with sd boot.

[ghanashyaml]

Yes it will work for rockchip as long as boot still loads. Depending on device and loader used. Example 3288 need 2.17 loader to boot from sd card. You can read up in forum that your device is. Lots of devices now work with sd boot.

My Tronsmart R68 (Rk3368) is the one screwed up and till today I am unable to get it identified in PC. It boots and am able to go into recovery but that's it. Mo said, this one uses uboot so eMMC is given preference while booting.

I have my older Rk3188 box boot via SD card; so am familiar with linumxium approach.

Do you think this is worth a try?