Installing Manjaro on Amlogic S912 Android TV Box (Nexbox A95x A2)
19#Manjaro #RaspberryPiAlternative #SingleBoardComputer
Full steps can be found at https://i12bretro.github.io/tutorials/0198.html
I love the idea of the Raspberry Pi, but there are some cheaper alternative single board computers that offer a similar experience for a fraction of the cost. While the community support isn't quite what it is for the Pi, there are a ton of projects you can accomplish on the cheap with these little hidden gems. Keep an eye on AliExpress and Amazon and you can find SBC's sporting quad core ARM process with 2-4 GB of RAM for under $30, including a power supply and IR remote control.
The box used in this video is a Nexbox A95x A2 I picked up used on eBay for $21 shipped. It sports an Octa Core Amlogic S912 @ 2GHz and 2 GB of DDR3 RAM.
https://www.gearbest.com/refurbished-product/pp_009840550154.html?wid=1433363
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Things You Will Need
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- A microSD card at least 8 GB https://amzn.to/36CpShC | https://amzn.to/3CXJngt | https://amzn.to/3JqyxSP
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Downloads and Flashing to MicroSD
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01. Download Manjaro ARM https://manjaro.org/downloads/arm/khadas-vim-2/arm8-vim2-kde-plasma/ | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iF3KZBWze9VWiQ-4P6zYMTX9hA7TsM1h/view?usp=share_link
02. Download Balena Etcher https://www.balena.io/etcher/
03. Run Balena Etcher
04. Burn Manjaro image to microSD card
05. Safely remove microSD and re-insert
06. Ignore/close the Windows dialogs to format the inserted microSD card
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Configure MicroSD Card for Manjaro
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01. Open the readable partition of the microSD card in Explorer
02. Edit uEnv.ini in a text editor
a. Update the FDT line to point to a working .dtb file for your device
# For AML
FDT=/dtbs/amlogic/meson-gxm-q200.dtb
APPEND=root=LABEL=ROOT_MNJRO rootflags=data=writeback rw console=ttyAML0,115200n8 console=tty0 no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0 bootsplash.bootfile=bootsplash-themes/manjaro/bootsplash
b. Save
c. Close
06. Safely remove microSD
07. Insert microSD card to Android TV box
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Booting to Manjaro for the First Time
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01. Plug the power adapter into the Android TV box
02. If the device has never booted from external storage before the stock Android OS will load
03. In Android, navigate to the application drawer ≫ Run Update & Backup
04. Select Local ≫ Navigate to the microSD card ≫ aml_autoscript.zip
05. Select Update
06. The system will reboot and should then begin booting Manjaro from the microSD card
07. You should see the Manjaro terminal running startup scripts
08. When prompted, set the keyboard layout
09. When prompted, input a username and password
10. Then when prompted, set a root password
11. Confirm the root password
12. Follow any additional the prompts to setup
13. Manjaro will boot into the desktop environment
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