Problem:

It starts to boot, I see the Armbian splash screen, it stays for around 10 seconds then goes back to console with the (initramfs) prompt.

Last 2 lines of boot process are:
 

Begin: Loading essential drivers . . . done.
Begin: Running /scripts/pre-mount . . . (initramfs) [   37.824201] random: crng init done
(initramfs)

 

I got it to boot once into GNOME by putting a USB flash drive with the burned image AND a SD card at the same time. But that was only once and I could never repeat it.

 

This happens on both versions of the X96 I have.

And

 

I've followed everything here:

 

I've tried bookworm and noble.

I've tried all 3 DTB files (meson-gxl-s905w-p281.dtb and meson-gxl-s905w-tx3-mini.dtb seem to "work")

Using u-boot-s905x2-s912 for the u-boot.ext file

Power supply is 2 amps.

 

The only thing I have left to try to now is that I'm using a very old 8gb SD card. I'll get a new 64gb class 10 SD card soon, but could this be the whole problem?

 

Appreciate any help. I'm really stuck at the moment.

 

 

 

Edited June 11, 20242 yr by cheeseburger

Okay, so it was my fault all along. 

 

When I copied the u-boot.ext file name it pasted as u'boot.ext in a 3rd party file manager and I never realized it

 

All working now

 

 

Edited June 12, 20242 yr by cheeseburger