May 14, 20251 yr Hello there! I have a generic S805 TV box which, I assume, has a dead NAND memory chip. It doesn't boot and only outputs the following message over UART: QA5:B;SVN:B72;POC:3FF;STS:0;BOOT:0;INIT:0;READ:82;BOOT:1;INIT:10;USB:3;SERIAL:4;STS:0;BOOT:0;INIT:0;READ:82;BOOT:1;INIT:10;USB:3; I found firmware for a similar TV box online and extracted the bootloader.bin file from it. I then wrote it to the beginning of an SD card using dd like this: sudo dd if=bootloader.bin of=/dev/sdX Where sdX is my SD card. Now, at least, the box is trying to boot from the SD card and I can get into U-Boot. Here are the logs I see now: Spoiler QA5:B;SVN:B72;POC:3FF;STS:0;BOOT:0;INIT:0;READ:82;BOOT:1;INIT:0;READ:0;CHECK:0;PASS:1; no sdio debug board detected TE : 197117 BT : 10:16:17 Mar 25 2015 PMU:NONE ##### VDDEE voltage = 0x044c CPU clock is 792MHz DDR mode: 32 bit mode DDR size: 1GB (auto) DDR check: Pass! DDR clock: 636MHz with 2T mode DDR pll bypass: Disabled DDR init use : 14843 us HHH SD_boot_type: 00000001 card_type: 00000001 0x0000009f check SD_boot_type:0x1 card_type:0x1 ucl decompress...pass 0x12345678 Boot from external device TE : 553106 System Started U-boot-00000-g27f8ec3(m8b_m201_v1@new_s85_netxeon) (Mar 25 2015 - 10:16:07) clr h-ram DRAM: 1 GiB relocation Offset is: 2fecc000 show partition table: part: 0, name : logo, size : 2000000 part: 1, name : recovery, size : 2000000 part: 2, name : misc, size : 2000000 part: 3, name : boot, size : 2000000 part: 4, name : system, size : 40000000 part: 5, name : cache, size : 20000000 part: 6, name : data, size : end aml_card_type=0x100 MMC: [mmc_register] add mmc dev_num=0, port=1, if_type=6 [mmc_register] add mmc dev_num=1, port=2, if_type=6 SDIO Port B: 0, SDIO Port C: 1 power init out reg=c110804c,value=dfffffff out reg=c8100024,value=bfff3fff IR init done! register usb cfg[0][1] = 3ff73894 register usb cfg[2][0] = 3ff76418 NAND: NAND BOOT: boot_device_flag 1 Nand PHY driver Version: 1.01.001.0004 (c) 2013 Amlogic Inc. amlnf_phy_init : amlnf init flag 0 NAND device id: ad 73 ad 73 ad 73 ad 73 no matched id get_chip_type and ret:fffffffd get_chip_type and ret:fffffffd chip detect failed and ret:fffffffd nandphy_init failed and ret=0xfffffff1 get_boot_device_flag: init_ret -1 get_boot_device_flag NAND BOOT: NAND BOOT,nand_env_relocate_spec : env_relocate_spec 49 uboot env amlnf_env_read : #### *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment NAND BOOT,nand_saveenv :saveenv 94 uboot env amlnf_env_save : #### nand_saveenv : Successful! set_storage_device_flag: store 0 set_storage_device_flag: set store to 1 NAND BOOT,nand_saveenv :saveenv 94 uboot env amlnf_env_save : #### nand_saveenv : Successful! nand get nftl dev boot failed nftl_dev be NULL nand cmd read failed nand cmd store failed Err imgread(L123):Fail to read 0x1000B from part[boot] at offset 0 check dts: FDT_ERR_BADMAGIC, load default vpu parameters vpu clk_level = 3 set vpu clk: 182150000Hz, readback: 182150000Hz(0x701) Net: Meson_Ethernet msg:====>upgrade_step=0<===== [mmc_init] SDIO Port B:0, if_type=7, initialized OK! Device: SDIO Port B Manufacturer ID: 0 OEM: 0 Name: Tran Speed: 20000000 Rd Block Len: 512 SD version 2.0 High Capacity: Yes Capacity: 7780433920 Boot Part Size: 0 Bus Width: 4-bit ** Unable to use mmc 0:1 for fatload ** init suspend firmware done. (ret:0) cvbs trimming.1.v5: 0xa0, 0x0 hdmi tx power init mode = 8 vic = 16 set HDMI vic: 16 mode is: 8 viu chan = 1 config HPLL config HPLL done reconfig packet setting done nand get nftl dev logo failed nftl_dev be NULL nand cmd read failed nand cmd store failed Err imgread(L448):Fail to read 0x100000B from part[logo] at offset 0 Err imgPack(L72):magic of oldest img not item header! Err imgPack(L115):Err res header. There is no valid bmp file at the given address reboot_mode=charging efuse version is not selected. Hit Enter key to stop autoboot -- : 1 tstc enter 0 exit abortboot: 0 Booting... error: image data is not a fdt key_unify_init:364,unify key config table parse fail Err key(L47):fail in key_drv_init nand get nftl dev boot failed nftl_dev be NULL nand cmd read failed nand cmd store failed Err imgread(L323):Fail to read 0x100000B from part[boot] at offset 0 Wrong Image Format for bootm command ERROR: can't get kernel image! enter recovery Device: SDIO Port B Manufacturer ID: 0 OEM: 0 Name: Tran Speed: 20000000 Rd Block Len: 512 SD version 2.0 High Capacity: Yes Capacity: 7780433920 Boot Part Size: 0 Bus Width: 4-bit ** Unable to use mmc 0:1 for fatload ** (Re)start USB(0)... USB: dwc_usb driver version: 2.94 6-June-2012 USB (1) peri reg base: c1108820 USB (1) use clock source: XTAL input USB (1) base addr: 0xc90c0000 dwc_otg: usb_lowlevel_init: Bad value for SNPSID: 0x00000000 Error, couldn't init Lowlevel part ** Invalid boot device ** nand get nftl dev recovery failed nftl_dev be NULL nand cmd read failed nand cmd store failed Err imgread(L323):Fail to read 0x100000B from part[recovery] at offset 0 no recovery in flash m8b_m201_1G# So, is it possible to run Armbian without a NAND chip? I can’t write the system image to the SD card because the bootloader has to be placed at the beginning of the card, and it’s quite large — it overwrites the partition table of the SD card. I tried writing the system image to a USB flash drive instead, but as you can see from the logs, U-Boot can’t initialize USB. (Re)start USB(0)... USB: dwc_usb driver version: 2.94 6-June-2012 USB (1) peri reg base: c1108820 USB (1) use clock source: XTAL input USB (1) base addr: 0xc90c0000 dwc_otg: usb_lowlevel_init: Bad value for SNPSID: 0x00000000 Error, couldn't init Lowlevel part Is this a problem with an incompatible U-Boot, or is the SoC already in very bad shape?
June 3, 20251 yr So when writing the u-boot to SD card, you need to follow a special process to "skip" over some bytes to prevent trashing the partition table. see https://www.cnx-software.com/2016/11/19/how-to-create-a-bootable-recovery-sd-card-for-amlogic-tv-boxes/ TLDR, something like: sudo umount /dev/sdX* sudo dd if=aml_sdc_burn.UBOOT of=/dev/sdX bs=1 count=442 sudo dd if=aml_sdc_burn.UBOOT of=/dev/sdX seek=1 skip=1 bs=512 sync Edited June 3, 20251 yr by Jens J.
June 3, 20251 yr Author Jens J, woah, I didn't know that you can just split bootloader like that! I did that, and so far, it looks good! TV Box boots into u-boot with this SD card, and it has a partition table. Thank you so much! Now I'll try to make an SD card with system on it
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