Posts by Jed

Quote from patomas

Hello everyone.

I have a MX III 2G (I think).

I've tried many images but I can't succeed to end a boot.

I have flashed the dualboot zip file successfully. It tries to boot from sd but or I have a blank screen or, with latest RC 2 , I have a message of corrupted fs:

Corrupt System/Repair Failed (and fails the check).

Any idea?

Can you confirm which is the correct image for my device?

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You might want to try it in USB (try all ports). Write a new version to SD and do the toothpick thing then reboot but don't let it do the file-check thing, which it seems to do because its not correctly set up to boot from SD for this particular box. Then reboot with it in USB (if you have a USB card-reader). Try all ports. Mine only works on one USB port.

Quote from kostaman

Thanks Jed

I tried but Black Screen. I believe this Box has a Non Standard Partition which is locked down. Way over my head but i am sure it is the issue.

I can Boot SD Card now which was half the battle. I may flash Android on it and try again.

I think the boot partition (that the android flash lays down) is important to have the right one. Perhaps after an android flash then a toothpick+normal-SD-boot from alexelec might be possible. The Dimitris build only boots USB (but needs SD toothpick first) for me.

kostaman PS to last message, you could also try the AlexElec build which I just tried today and it worked - booted from SD ! (on toothpicking with this same image). This is the first image I have ever had boot from SD on this box so I guess there is something in that image regarding the boot-from-SD mechanism that would be useful to put into Dimitris' build here. The version I used on my S802 MXiii was Alexelec MXIII-G V2.3.0 (the latest as of today).

Quote from kostaman

I think Demetris should look into that OpenELEC-MX3G.arm-DualBootSD.zip

That got my Box Booting off SD Card straight away.

Here's a couple of things you could try:

1. Toothpick with DualBootSD and then try SD-booting Demetris (without toothpick since that will overwrite UENV with its own variables)

2. Toothpick with Demetris but then try USB-booting (that same) Demetris that was used to toothpick (from SD)

Yeah, there is something weird with the script that sets up the multiboot for these boxes. Also, the one from the balbes150 image does not work with the demetris image and vice versa, so it looks like there is not a standard approach to applying the multi-boot ?

On a positive note, the new image did work on a MXiii (S802 chip) by using toothpick method by SD but then inserting into USB to boot up. However, as I said, after doing this, the Demetris image would no longer boot from USB and the whole SD/Toothpick/Then_USB_Boot process had to be done again.

So I am wondering if the multi-boot thing could be looked at to get the SD card booting up and perhaps at least the method could be standardised ?

Quote from polys

How do I confirm if the "multipoot file was actioned with toothpick"? Since I get a black screen when I boot with SD+toothpick, do I simply unplug the power, insert the SD in the USB adaptor, plug in the USB, boot with toothpick and that should open to Libreelec?

No, if it actioned it would boot to libreelec without toothpick if the USB port is supported (try all of them).

Quote from polys

Thanks for the reply. But the problem is that when I insert the SD card using toothpick method I get a blank screen. It won't go into recovery. Shall I just unplug the power, put the SD card in a USB adaptor, plug the adaptor to one of the two USB ports and plug in the power. Or do I have to use toothpick again?

If I don't manage to boot from SD or USB, what is the process of installing it to NAND?

You might still see a blank screen even if the multiboot file was actioned with toothpick. If you cant get it to boot from SD or USB then I would not even try to install to NAND. Usually you need it booted from SD (or USB) to be able to action the install script from SSH. I don't know another method but someone else might if you insisted on trying it.

Quote from polys

I have an M8N box and have tried the following:

1. Downloaded the M8 8.0.2b img.gz

2. Used rufus and created a bootable USB and another bootable SD card

3. With the box being turned off, USB plugged in and toothpick holding the reset button, I plugged in the power

4. Android recovery appeared and I let the toothpick go

5. Selected reboot

6. Box started in Android.

Repeated the same process with the USB in the other USB port, same result.

Repeated the above steps using the SD card until step 3 and the screen was blank (didn't get into Android recovery at all)

What am I doing wrong here?

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Probably nothing, the multi-boot doesn't seem well supported on these boxes. What worked for me was a hybrid approach. Use the toothpick method with SD to activate multiboot, then reboot with the same SD card as was used in the SD slot but now in a USB converter stick with that in the 1st USB port (and try all USB ports, perhaps only one will work).

Quote from kodlz

How you mean "...then retry it from SD (without toothpick)..."

I just mean reboot the box with the SD card in it without the toothpick.

Quote from gilcio

Hi guys... sorry to bother you again... but could anyone point me the right direction to follow?!?

gilcio you could try booting up first with SD image in using toothpick method to make it multiboot if you haven't done so already, then retry it from SD (without toothpick) and then if that still does not work then try with the USB port instead of SD. Try all ports and possibly only one (the OTG port perhaps) might work.

Does anyone have this working from SD card on an MX3 (S802, 2Gb, 100M Lan) ? I had it boot from USB only and it did not pick up my WiFi, so 2 issues really.

Quote from Demetris

I don't think thats even been used by our soc's bootloader

Will fix it on next release

Well it has enabled me to boot from 1st USB (only) it does not allow booting from SD card. I have a square MX-iii (2Gb, 802 chip, 100Mbit lan). It would be good if SD boot could be fixed ?

kostaman PS here is the file in question, extracted from Demetris lasest v8.0.2b build. Note that the real file has no extension, I have added the .txt extension to get it to upload.

Quote from kostaman

I used toothpick method but the box boots into Recovery Mode.

That is what i don't understand with Demetris builds.

I have used kszaq builds on old s805 chip boxes as well and they have a script to activate boot from SD Card during first install.

Demetris builds do not seem to have a script to activate SD Card booting when doing a first time install to run LE from SD Card.

That is what is not clear in everything I've read here to get LibreElec running from SD Card.

kostaman

So in Demetris build there is a file called aml_autoscript which on first boot (using toothpick method) seems to - rather invisibly - do something that allows booting from other than NAND. I say from other than NAND rather than from SD card as in my case (with an S82/MXiii) it only allows booting from the 1st USB and not from SD card.

I have not seen Demetris discuss this when folks have asked. I too have asked how to reverse it, without reply from anyone. I can only guess that no one knows the answers.

It would be good if there were more information and expertise on aml_autoscript and maybe a better version that could also support SD card. I understand from some folks posts that they have it working on SD card and I guess that is because the aml_autoscript better supports their particular box.

I have been trying also to get @balbes150's Armbian to work on my MXiii box and I suspect my lack of success is also due to aml_autoscript issues and from what I can gather there is a way to get the info needed to make the right aml_autoscript if you have soldered in a UART connection and dumped the boot process and device-seek-order.

For now, it remains a mystery. But the file is there in the Demetris image, it just may or may not work and no one seems to answer any questions about it.

Just wondering if there is a file to reverse the dual-boot script for 802 like kszaq had for 905 please ?

Thanks.

Quote from Demetris

Partition Labels are Libreelec&Libreelec_Disk

I see that. They used to be SYSTEM and STORAGE. Was that a change generally from Jarvis to Krypton or just for AMlogic or S802 ?
[hr]
So I thought I would try to clone the working 8rc4 onto another USB (actually an SD in a USB adapter) and so I managed to do that with Linux Mint and Clonezilla. I booted up the clone and it worked. Great. Next step to try resizing the 2nd partition (since the clone SD was 8Gb and the original was 2Gb). So I did that, again in Linux Mint with GParted and that booted fine.

Next step to "upgrade" the working 8rc4 (on USB) to 7.0.3 so I could use Kodi 16.1. So I copied the image file into the update share, as usual and rebooted. It found the image and did its thing but it failed with this 3-line message:

Error in prepare_sysroot: mount_common: Could not mount dev/SYSTEM ***
Starting debugging shell... type exit to quit ###
can't access tty: job control turned off

And so thats why I thought the problems might be due to the partitions, perhaps how they are named or mounted during the install/upgrade process.

So thats my report, best I can do. I have no knowledge to fix it.

Quote from Demetris

We might need to flash an S812 bootloader

Oh no - I feel a brick coming on - we went through all this before with 805s etc and i think thats why kszaq came up with environment variable way instead as people were bricking their boxes by flashing bootoladers. The other thing I noticed with the new builds is that they have non-standard partition labels - not SYSTEM and STORAGE anymore and I wondered if that was anything to do with partitions not being found. Just a thought.

Quote from Demetris

I will have a look if i can fix it for the final release.

Brilliant, thank you !