Mini m8s ii S905x NAND deleted? Help needed please.

isidoros · March 17, 2021 at 10:46 AM

Hello to all.

I need some help please.

I was experimenting between Libreelec and Coreelec images on sd for many years now and somehow i must have deleted the partitions of the NAND. So the device doesn’t boot from NAND. I get a bootloop like this: GXL:BL1:9ac50e:a1974b;FEAT:ADFC318C;POC:3;RCY:0;EMMC:0;READ:0;CHK:AA;SD:0;READ:0;0.0;CHK:0;

The bootloader and partitions may have been deleted somehow. Booting from SD still works.

I booted Libreelec and tried installtointernal but i got:

One of BOOT, SYTEM, DATA or DTB partitions is missing. Make sure that you are using a correct device tree and a device with internal memory!

I think i have tried all simple recovery options. I tried with burn card maker and other card makers. I also tried AML burn tool 3.1 with “update_MINIM8SII_rv112_megabox_20170320.img” and other roms and i get at 9% 0x30405004 UBOOT/Partition boot/Verify partition/Error result. I see only HUB5-3!

UART log with aml burning tool and ATV rom

Below you can check the ssh and serial logs:

ssh log 4

Libreelec UART log

Armbian UART log

My experience with Linux and embedded devices is basic. Can you help me make the NAND functional again?

Thanks!

**chewitt** · March 17, 2021 at 11:38 AM Official Post

What SD card (or image) are you booting from? .. it obviously has u-boot on the card (else it wouldn't boot) but it would be good to know. The fact you can boot something is a good start. What distro do you want it to run? (LE/CE, Armbian, etc.)

isidoros · March 24, 2021 at 8:43 AM

Quote from chewitt

What SD card (or image) are you booting from? .. it obviously has u-boot on the card (else it wouldn't boot) but it would be good to know. The fact you can boot something is a good start. What distro do you want it to run? (LE/CE, Armbian, etc.)

Hi Chewitt. First of all, I'd like to thank you for your reply! You are like a god to me for all the work you have done. I follow your posts and work for many years now.

I can boot Libreelec (Libreelec log) and Armbian (Armbian log). I can't boot Coreelec. Also i can boot from sd with burn card maker/bootcardmaker but the flashing fails.

I'd like to flash any OS to the eMMC, just to make it work again without the SD. Preferably android (and i'll continue running Libreelec from SD). Otherwise i'll stick to running Libreelec from SD.

The above logs were from Libreelec boot.

I can't understand how this happened because i have been running only Libreelec and Coreelec from SD. I haven't been using the eMMC. But i have used also nightly versions. This happened before about a year but i couldn't find time to unbrick the device before. And often i selected Lepotato images.

**chewitt** · March 24, 2021 at 11:54 AM Official Post

If you're able to boot one of the mainline u-boot-using LE or Armbian images from SD card, installing them to eMMC is as simple as dd'ing the .img file to the eMMC /dev/mmcblkX device the same as you'd write an SD card under Linux. GXL and newer boards look for the Amlogic signed boot header in the same places on both SD and eMMC so the images will (or should) boot from either.

If you want Android on eMMC you'll need to track down either a more recent version of the Amlogic burning tool (or an older era-appropriate one that matches the image age) and a "ROM" image from somewhere like Freaktab. The ROM image format uses .img file extension but this is an Amlogic proprietary format so you cannot simply dd it to the eMMC device.