My tv box: x96max 2+. Cpu: s905x3. Gpu: mali g31.

I found the suitable Armbian here: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/12162-single-armbian-image-for-rk-aml-aw-aarch64-armv8

I installed the Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_focal_current_5.9.0_desktop.img to tv box. It works.

But the picture quality is not good enough and hardware decoding is not used when playing video.

The panfrost driver is used for mali g31. I would like to try some other driver.

 

In the Ubuntu repository I found the following packages:

mali-midgard-dkms

mali-t62x-x11-driver

mali-t76x-x11-driver

 

The mali g31 family is bifrost. In the Debian wiki I had read that bifrost is compatible with midgard.

 

I tried to install the midgard kernel module:
sudo apt install mali-midgard-dkms

But I got a message “This package appears to be a binaries-only package.

You will not be able to build against kernel 5.9.0-arm-64

since the package source was not provided”.

That message means there is no kernel source code installed. Yes?

I can not find the right kernel source code. The armbian-config does not suggest to install it too.

 

I tried to build the midgard kernel module manually:

sudo dkms install mali-midgard/16.0

And got a message:

Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 5.9.0-arm-64 (aarch64).

Consult /var/lib/dkms/mali-midgard/16.0/build/make.log for more information.

make.log file: http://vps2.happyuser.info/make.log

 

Edited September 30, 20215 yr by sergiy

Moved thread to the proper TV Box area

First I suggest you read the following FAQ post:

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

 

Then the short answer is there isn't source for these no longer supported (technically never supported as TV Boxes have never been officially supported) builds.

However, you seem to have sufficient technical skills and therefore I will point you down the path of building your own kernel (and thus you will have everything you need).  Review the following thread: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/9625-compiling-and-booting-mainline-linux-for-your-s9xxx-tv-box

That is where I began my journey with armbian on amlogic TV Boxes.  I think everything in that thread, (mostly thinking about my post with instructions) is still valid, although I have moved on to doing things differently now days.  But I am running latest verisions of 5.4LTS, 5.10LTS and even 5.15.rc on various TV Boxes as I write this.  So if you have the proper skills, you are not stuck with the kernel you currently have running.

SteeMan thank you very much!

I learned how to build the kernel and I successfully did it.

The default configuration did not work normally but then I guessed to copy the configuration from current kernel.

 

Unfortunately I can not understand how to make the deb package with kernel source. I did not find in internet about it.

 

I tried the make -j4 deb-pkg command. It made some deb files but it placed the source in linux-5.10.71_5.10.71.orig.tar.gz archive.

I tried to unpack the linux-5.10.71_5.10.71.orig.tar.gz to the /usr/src directory. But the dkms did not see that source.

 

I also tried the command:

make -j4 BUILD_SOURCE=y deb-pkg

It did not work.

Some errors:

dpkg-source: error: cannot represent change to debian/linux-libc-dev/usr/share/doc/linux-libc-dev/changelog.Debian.gz: binary file contents changed

dpkg-source: error: unrepresentable changes to source

dpkg-buildpackage: error: dpkg-source -i.git -b . subprocess returned exit status 1

make[1]: *** [scripts/Makefile.package:77: deb-pkg] Error 1

make: *** [Makefile:1550: deb-pkg] Error 2

I executed the command:
make distclean

Then I restored the .config file from backup.

Then I executed again:

make -j4 BUILD_SOURCE=y deb-pkg

There was no error at this time. But the kernel source deb file was not generated.

The following files was generated:

linux-5.10.71_5.10.71-1_arm64.buildinfo

linux-5.10.71_5.10.71-1_arm64.changes

linux-5.10.71_5.10.71-1.diff.gz

linux-5.10.71_5.10.71-1.dsc

linux-5.10.71_5.10.71.orig.tar.gz

linux-headers-5.10.71_5.10.71-1_arm64.deb

linux-image-5.10.71_5.10.71-1_arm64.deb

linux-libc-dev_5.10.71-1_arm64.deb

 

So what is a standard way to make the kernel source deb file?

I'm not at my computer right now, but you should look at scripts/package/builddeb and mkdebian if I recall correctly

In rereading, your original post, I don't think you need the kernel sources.  The kernel headers should be sufficient to build against.  The error message you originally got was because you didn't have the source for the Mali module if I am reading that correctly

On 10/10/2021 at 11:58 PM, SteeMan said:

In rereading, your original post, I don't think you need the kernel sources.  The kernel headers should be sufficient to build against.  The error message you originally got was because you didn't have the source for the Mali module if I am reading that correctly

The source of mali midgard module was installed by the mali-midgard-dkms package and exists in the /usr/src/mali-midgard-16.0 directory. There are a many .c and .h files in that directory, so I thinks it is mali module source.

The kernel headers are installed.

 

Btw, the sudo apt install mali-midgard-dkms command shows the message:

This package appears to be a binaries-only package
 you will not be able to build against kernel 5.10.71
 since the package source was not provided.

I don't know for sure what that "package source" here really means. That "package source" may be kernel related or, as you though, mali module related.

I think it is kernel related.

On 10/10/2021 at 11:54 PM, SteeMan said:

I'm not at my computer right now, but you should look at scripts/package/builddeb and mkdebian if I recall correctly

sergiy@arm-64:~/kernel-dev/linux-5.10.71$ ./scripts/package/builddeb
cp: missing destination file operand after 'debian/linux-image/boot/config-'
Try 'cp --help' for more information.

I don't know how to use it.

 

The mkdebian file has the comment:

Simple script to generate a debian/ directory for a Linux kernel.

I think it will not help.

If that message is talking about the kernel source, you do have the kernel source, it should just be an issue of putting it where your module build process is expecting it to be (or a link in that location).  Between google and debugging the build process you should be able to figure this out.