I’ve looked at the Manjaro and Arch wikis and currently there is little to no info about running Manjaro on a (Amlogic) TV box so I’d like to fix that but I thought it would be best to consult the community first about how best to do this. All current TV box info is scattered across this forum and it would be much nicer if it was neatly collected together on the wiki.
This seems to be the main Manjaro ARM wiki page, which makes no mention of any TV boxes, because they’re not officially supported, most likely:
These are some of the things I will be covering:
(Working around) (the lack of) compatibility and support for TV boxes
Installing Manjaro ARM to an Amlogic TV box inc. onto USB disks
Overview of dtbs, recommended dtbs for specific models
Accelerated X, Wayland and updating mesa
Reflashing the Android ROM (from Linux)
Rooting Android using TWRP
Anything else useful and specific to Amlogic TV boxes eg cooling systems
I think I have three main options for creating such a wiki page, I could:
Create a new (Amlogic) TV box wiki page on the Manjaro wiki, I think this is probably the best option?
Extend the above linked Manjaro ARM wiki page to cover TV boxes. I don’t think this is a valid option really because there is no official Manjaro ARM release for TV boxes yet and maybe there won’t be.
Create a new page on the Arch wiki
If nobody likes any of those then I will write it anyway and just stick it on github for my own reference.
I own several ARM Linux devices going back as far as the Sharp Zaurus PDA and I have made hundreds of contributions to the Arch wiki over the years. I also own a couple of Allwinner H6 based TV boxes but I’m not interested in documenting them. They’re not as powerful as my Amlogic boxes with less hardware features and I haven’t worked out how to reflash them from Linux, if that is possible at all with existing tools?
Is there any interest in this? Your thoughts please.
I’ve signed up for the Manjaro wiki and submitted a small attempted change to the Manjaro ARM wiki page to add a new section for Android TV boxes with a link to a new, separate dedicated wiki page.
I feel that this amlogic TV box specific info should go on a separate, new wiki page to the ‘officially’ supported platforms, rather than sticking it onto the end of the vim section and/or modifying the other sections on the main Manjaro ARM wiki page to cover TV boxes. We’ve got too many models and corner cases we could potentially cover and so I’d rather not muddy up what is currently a nice and uncomplicated Manjaro ARM install page with all out talk of clones, DTBs, flashing, mismatching models and fakes etc.
Who is the main admin for the Manjaro wiki? My modification has still not been approved.
What are you thoughts about me adding some notes about AML TV boxes to the wiki? Do you agree it belongs on a separate page rather than being fully integrated into the existing one? I think I will easily (more than) double the length of the existing page if I add it there because I’m not just covering installation.
Do you plan to release aml builds soon, with the next release?
Is there a bug report open with u-boot for the eMMC install issue?
“aml build” - currently amlogic TV box users have to install a vim3 image. Post installation they can install the linux-aml kernel, either manually or from the repos after updating to unstable. Is there no plan for Manjaro ARM aml images that already contain the linux-aml kernel?
A95X F2 tv box with meson-g12a-u200.dtb works without ethernet and wifi/bluetooth. Great dtb for a newbie first trial with S905X2 socket because net adapters can easily make boot failing.
Soc and dtb compatibility.
gxbb → S905
gxl → S905X
g12a → S905X2
g12b → S922X
gxm → S912
sm1 → S905X3
-Software for image burning Balena Etcher because dd is too dangerous as just a wrong character can wipe your hard disk.
Thanks for your suggestions SickOS! I have added them all to the wiki page. If you can’t see my changes then they haven’t been approved yet.
You’re right about dd, I just use it out of habit and because its always installed on every Linux box by default but it is risky. The wiki now recommends balenaEtcher and gnome-disks.
Another hint,
“to write one of the vim3 Manjaro ARM images to a disk”
I think should be … to an SD card or USB flashdrive. Maybe disk will not be understood.
Beelink GT King Pro works with meson-g12b-gtkingpro-pro.dtb or meson-g12b-ugoos-am6.dtb.
My device GT King Pro seems to work well only with mainline linux 5.10.y, 5.11.y or 5.12.y. It does not seems to work well with current linux-vim 5.12.y or linux-vim 5.11.y (system freeze during boot up or right after boot up). It works with the older linux-vim 5.9.y or 5.10.y it did not work well after linux-vim switches to tobetter branch.
It does not boot with linux-aml 5.12.0-1 for whatever reason I/O error during boot process. Have tried it a by switching from mainline linux to linux-aml 5.12.0-1 a few times the same result, cannot boot up.
Updating mesa graphics drivers
The Mali graphics driver is still under quite heavy development and you may find you get much improved GPU performance by installing a newer build of mesa. The easiest way to update mesa is via the archlinuxdroid repo.
Download and install the latest archlinuxdroid-repo package then update to the latest daily mesa build by installing mesa-devel-git.
No need to follow archlinuxdroid, Please remove this as mesa-git is regularly built by @Strit and it is the same package, asking users to follow someone else’s repo is not a good advice on an official Wiki.
HDMI audio script
Some users have reported running g12_sound.sh from this repo has fixed their HDMI audio.
Point the link here so users can know who changes they have to make.
Beelink GT King Pro - meson-g12b-gtkingpro-pro.dtb or meson-g12b-ugoos-am6.dtb - works with the older linux-vim 5.9.y or 5.10.y and current mainline linux 5.12.y kernels.
FiberHome STB HG680P (s905x) works with meson-gxl-s905x-p212.dtb (vim3).
edit: Kernel, I recommend linux-aml.
No wifi driver. To fix this you need rtl8189fs from github jwrdegoede/rtl8189ES_linux or install from AUR (8189fs-git)