Failed to Run LibreELEC on an S905D Box

  • Hello, Everyone,

    I'm a newbie on LibreELEC and really stuck in LibreELEC installation.

    My android box brand is PhiComm N1. It's a S905D box with 2G RAM / 8G ROM / Giga Network / 2 USB 2.0 / 1 HDMI port, with NO reset button, NO SD card reader.

    I tried to run LibreELEC on it but failed unfortunately.

    Here is what I tried.

    1. Downloaded LibreELEC 8.2.3.1 and created my USB drive by LivreELEC USB-SD Creator.
    2. ADB connected my box, run cmd adb shell cat /proc/device-tree/amlogic-dt-id, the device tree is gxl_p230_2g
    3. I didn't replace the dtd.img from USB drive as I opened the origin dtd.img by a HEX editor, it looks like support gxl_p230_2g by default.
    4. Then inserted USB drive to my box (there are 2 USB ports, I tried both).
    5. Giving there is no reset button, I restarted my box via cmd adb reboot update
    6. It reboot, judge from the LED on USB drive, I could see it was reading USB. But after that, it just stopped at PhiComm splash screen (I waited for 10 mins, no lucky).
    7. Then I download almost all device tree i can find for S905D, replaced dtd.img file of USB stick. They were either blank screen or stopped at PhiComm splash screen.
    8. Tried 2 USB drives, same results.

    I really have no clue now. Maybe I need to find the reset button? I attached the photo of circuit board here as well. Cant tell where the reset button is. :(

    Would you please give me some hints? Thanks.

    Front:

    Back:

  • Have you tried any 1GB dtb? Some manufacturer faking RAM amount...

    On the last picture you can see RX, TX, GND pads, you can solder a connector and watch debug info on it.

  • Have you tried any 1GB dtb? Some manufacturer faking RAM amount...

    On the last picture you can see RX, TX, GND pads, you can solder a connector and watch debug info on it.

    Hi, Pelican,

    Thank you for your information.

    Yeah, I tried 1G dtb. Unfortunately, same thing. There are not many selection for S905D device tree though.

    The RX, TX, GND pads look like TTL interface for me. I don't have much TTL experience on that either. :(

    I guess I need a USB-TTL line, and maybe software putty on my laptop?

    If I run adb reboot update like what I did above, do you know if it supposedly to run LibreELEC? or do I have to use reset button?

  • Can you look for the reset button / switch in the AV or SPDIF port? Some boxes had this weird implementation. Do you have such thing on the board?

    Try even in the power port, who knows? And this could be a solution: Reboot to LibreElec

    Edited once, last by garcea (April 17, 2018 at 1:01 PM).

  • Thanks, guys.

    There is no AV or SPDIF on my box either. :( Tried to find if anything behind power port, no lucky.

    I'll try the app - reboot to LibreELEC to see if it works. And another thing i'm going to try is run aml_autoscript.zip from backup&update, see if it could amend the uboot to multiple boot module. Hope they works.