# android tv/multimedia boxes



## covacat (Jan 4, 2022)

did anybody try to install freebsd on such a thing ?
they have various arm socks from amlogic/allwinner/rockchip
1-2-4 ram,mmc , sd card , usb ,ethernet and wifi
most if not all have various mali gpus


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## blind0ne (Jan 5, 2022)

I'm also interested, tried to run some kind of android box with android 2.X or something very old. Now it's really outdated. Even browser don't want to start. The only way is to through this box to the garbage.


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## Menelkir (Jan 5, 2022)

The major problem here is the bootloader, an android-oriented bootloader isn't even capable of running vanilla linux kernel (unless it gets some sort of contraption). Check if the device is able to run vanilla linux such as postmarketOS and such (I mean pure linux, not some sort of chroot or libhybris), so we'll know the bootloader is capable of loading something else than android.


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## covacat (Jan 5, 2022)

many can run armbian with various degree of support in the mainline kernel and can boot from sdcard / usb / mmc
they are not officially supported but various "community supported" images exist (all linux)
most have uart pins exposed on the pcb so serial console should work
i have my expectations pretty low: serial console access
if any other devices work it's a bonus


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## Menelkir (Jan 5, 2022)

covacat said:


> many can run armbian with various degree of support in the mainline kernel and can boot from sdcard / usb / mmc


That's a contraption, it reboots the device and reload a different kernel in-place, some smartphones can do that, but this doesn't have an use for FreeBSD since it's a feature of linux, so you're only able to run another linux kernel.


covacat said:


> most have uart pins exposed on the pcb so serial console should work


That's a good start. Even better if the device supports something like u-boot so you can dump logs and such. It'll be helpful if you're able to report upstream.


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## covacat (Jan 5, 2022)

they use u-boot , dtbs so i can't see why a bsd kernel can't be booted. same SOC's are used in different development boards


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## Menelkir (Jan 5, 2022)

covacat said:


> they use u-boot , dtbs so i can't see why a bsd kernel can't be booted. same SOC's are used in different development boards


Because most android bootloaders have a specific way of loading the kernel (parameters, kernel specifications, etc. some android bootloaders even have a specific kernel version inside the bootloader), even so, most android bootloaders can't boot a vanilla linux kernel for the same reason, you can't just boot a kernel like rEFInd or grub do.


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## covacat (Jan 5, 2022)

Running Debian Buster on Tanix TX6
					

Since Debian started supporting arm64 (aarch64) platform several years ago many new cheap devices have come to the market. One of them is…




					medium.com
				



this is as vanilla as it gets
an arm development board / sbc is not much different


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## Andriy (Jan 5, 2022)

covacat said:


> did anybody try to install freebsd on such a thing ?
> they have various arm socks from amlogic/allwinner/rockchip
> 1-2-4 ram,mmc , sd card , usb ,ethernet and wifi
> most if not all have various mali gpus


What is you _real_ question?
E.g., RockPro64 is considered by many to a be multimedia box.
People certainly run FreeBSD on it.


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## covacat (Jan 5, 2022)

i was just curious if anybody booted freebsd on android tv box (not a development board / sbc)


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## Phishfry (Jan 5, 2022)

I am working on a Aopen ChromeBox Commercial. To defang it for FreeBSD is a real pain.





						MrChromebox.tech
					

MrChromebox.tech : Custom coreboot firmware and firmware utilities for your Chromebook/Chromebox



					mrchromebox.tech
				



The raw hardware is amd64 but encumbered. There is a tiny screw onboard you must remove to get to debug mode.


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## covacat (Jan 7, 2022)

ok i bought one of these https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32997899537.html
the good part:
it boots other oses directly from the sd card without any custom firmware, or special 'reset' procedure
same boot image style like pine-h64
most of the hardware works (in linux)
the bad part:
u-boot video console does not work 
internal storage is not mmc is some 'raw' nand shit and does not work
will buy an usb to uart cable and try freebsd and netbsd


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## Phishfry (Jan 7, 2022)

Does the nand show on Linux?
I need to build special uboot and dtb for emmc on imx6.

Prolific is what I use these days. Last batch I got long cords.

```
ugen1.3: <Prolific Technology Inc. USB-Serial Controller> at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=ON (100mA)
```
Too many fake FTDI these days. Avoid.


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## covacat (Jan 8, 2022)

Phishfry said:


> Does the nand show on Linux?


no, and it's not present in the DTB i use know.
but i extracted the dtb from the android firmware image and it's described there
there is some nand support in linux kernel but i'm not sure it will work even if i patch the dtb
until i get the serial cable i can't experiment because u-boot has no hdmi output on this board


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## wb7odyfred (Feb 10, 2022)

Black Magic Probe, supports Raspberry Pi 4 debugging with JTAG and serial port.
So I know you just want a serial cable to USB.  Here is a product I thought might be helpful to you. Covacat.  Thanks for the URL link to the U-Boot manual you provided in another post.  Just what I needed right now.


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