Hello to all

January of 2020  I installed armbian on my Mini M8s (S905X). The installation is on e-MMc and I did not keep a backup of the original eMMc firmware. It is Debian Buster. So I am stuck on linux 5.3.0-aml-g12. What is the upgrade path to a more recent kerner and/or Debian version? If possible I would like to keep my root filesystem, I have some servers running on it.

Thanks for any help

There is no upgrade path.  Please read the FAQ items:

https://forum.armbian.com/topic/16976-status-of-armbian-on-tv-boxes-please-read-first

https://forum.armbian.com/topic/17106-installation-instructions-for-tv-boxes-with-amlogic-cpus

 

Your only realistic option is to reinstall a later version (5.9) but those builds are now a year old and unsupported as well.

 

Okay, got it. So I went for a full reinstall of the latest version of Debian Buster. I burned to SD, configured u-boot etc, worked great,apt-update completed okay, went to install to eMMC, finished with no issue, and when it was ready I issued a poweroff to remove the SDcard and restart from MMC. The box powered down and that's what I last heard from it. No blue light ever seen again. I tried reconnecting power,connecting a USB k/b , mouse, pressing the reset button, nothing.

How do I power it up without using the remote (I have misplaced it years ago)

It seeps like my only option to power it up is to short the pins and reset the NAND?

Maybe an IR remote control app on my phone (it is a xiaomi with IR led)?

 

halp.....

 

EDIT: The box is a Mini M8s II