https://www.ebay.ca/itm/M8S-PRO-L-Android-TV-Box-Amlogic-S912-OctaCore-64Bit-3GB-16GB-4K-WiFi-BT4-1-F7R7/202122787944 might want one with android > 7 to run newer linux kernels
i bought this one for $50 iirc
S905 / S905X / S912 Linux Image – – These are compatible with all 3 amlogic processors mentioned.
AMLogic_S905x_S912x_Backup___Root_Recovery.tar
- make a backup put recovery.img onto a fat32 formatted pendrive with 4+ gb
- backup the system select source and choose usb_otg or whatever its called.
- copy the twp backup folder to your computer
Optional – for watching video’s on android better
- i used kingoroot to root my android after and you’ll want an app called ezymount it you dont have experiance setting up busybox init script to get ext2 support (works better for copying large files.
installing linux
https://github.com/150balbes/Amlogic_s905/wiki/s905_multi_boot
download https://yadi.sk/d/bqV6MEL-sWKmv
- switch on the console and will load the regular firmware
- connect the flash drive or the card to the device
- select the update mode (Update&Backup)
- to select as an archive for the updates aml_autoscript.zip
- start update mode
get the images
https://yadi.sk/d/5_32km_EsCV2A/ARMBIAN
- i used startup disk creator on linux to burn the images after uncompressing
- i used Armbian_5.44_S9xxx_Ubuntu_bionic_3.14.29_mate_20180729.img
- if installing to a usb use kernel 3.14 otherwise use sd for 4.xx kernel (untested for me)
- once its done writing then insert into device and power on.
- login with user root , password 1234 setup user account once done it will reboot
- volia , ready to go should startup mate desktop.
mate linux image.
sound through hdmi, bluetooth and network working. had to use usb wifi stick
seems very responsive, 1.2 ghz x 8 cores
after system update i get black screen for 1+ish min on reboots now then init text appears.
vlc plays video’s fine, seems to not get very warm. will post updates if i need one.
set font size to 20 in appearence to make screen more readable
the gpu user space binary driver is available to download for linux
i was able to get full screen movie playback working without it. had to compile multithreaded ffmpeg 2.8 and i use “ffplay movie.m4v” might put my package list used to compile it here soon.
Mali OpenGL support on Allwinner platforms with mainline Linux
