Installing Linux on X96 Mini

Goal is to install a Linux on a X96 Mini that I did not use anymore as a TV box and wanted to recycle as a DNS server for ads-blocking (https://pi-hole.net/) and other experiments.

Important: I will not give any support or answer questions related to issues happening with your own X96

Prerequisites

Instructions are covering steps on a Windows machine. Should be similar for Linux. Based upon (messy) instructions found at https://forum.armbian.com/topic/12162-single-armbian-image-for-rk-aml-aw-aarch64-armv8/

Hardware

• X96 Mini 2GB CPU is S905X. Label behind say "X96 mini RAM 2GB, ROM 16 GB".
• SD card, 16 GB. Smaller will be ok too (needs at least 8GB)
• Toothpick or small stick (reset button inside AV jack)

Software

• Rufus 3.12
• 7Z

Preparation

• Download Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_focal_current_5.9.0.img.xz (or more recent version). Link: https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=10763459528675575689
• Unzip this file to get Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_focal_current_5.9.0.img
• Launch Rufus, select the img. Click on 'Start'. SD card will be formatted and content will be written.

Configuration of u-boot

• In Windows Explorer, navigate to your SD card. You should see a structure a 'extlinux' folder, 'dtb', etc.
• Rename the file 'u-boot-s905x-s912' to 'u-boot.ext'

Configuration of device tree block

• A Device Tree Block (DTB) is a file that contains important information about the target hardware (more info http://junyelee.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-tutorial-on-device-tree.html). So it is necessary to use the proper one. This is a tricky part and if an improper DTB is used, your target system will fail loading or the kernel will panic.
• Edit the file /extlinux/extlinux.conf
• Comment out all lines starting with FDT and APPEND (we don't want RK or AW configuration, we are only interested in AML s9xxx section).
• Uncomment 'FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxl-s905x-p212.dtb' and 'APPEND ....'. See example below

LABEL Armbian
LINUX /zImage
INITRD /uInitrd

# rk-3399
#FDT /dtb/rockchip/rk3399-rock-pi-4.dtb
#FDT /dtb/rockchip/rk3399-nanopc-t4.dtb
#FDT /dtb/rockchip/rk3399-roc-pc-mezzanine.dtb
#APPEND root=LABEL=ROOTFS rootflags=data=writeback rw console=uart8250,mmio32,0xff1a0000 console=tty0 no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0

# rk-3328
#FDT /dtb/rockchip/rk3328-roc-pc.dtb
#FDT /dtb/rockchip/rk3328-box-trn9.dtb
#FDT /dtb/rockchip/rk3328-box.dtb
#APPEND root=LABEL=ROOTFS rootflags=data=writeback rw console=uart8250,mmio32,0xff130000 console=tty0 no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0

# aw h6
#FDT /dtb/allwinner/sun50i-h6-tanix-tx6.dtb
#APPEND root=LABEL=ROOTFS rootflags=data=writeback rw console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty0 no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0 video=HDMI-A-1:e
#APPEND root=LABEL=ROOTFS rootflags=data=writeback rw console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty0 no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0 mem=2048M video=HDMI-A-1:e

# aml s9xxx
#FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxbb-p200.dtb
FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxl-s905x-p212.dtb
#FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxm-q200.dtb
#FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-g12a-x96-max.dtb
#FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-g12b-odroid-n2.dtb
APPEND root=LABEL=ROOTFS rootflags=data=writeback rw console=ttyAML0,115200n8 console=tty0 no_console_suspend consoleblank=0 fsck.fix=yes fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0

Launching

• Unplug the X96 Mini
• Insert the SD card
• Using a toothpick, small stick or whatever suitable, press on the 'reset' switch which is located inside the AV jack. You don't need to press too hard.
• While the reset switch is maintained pressed, plug the power. The X96 Mini screen will appear and normally after a few seconds, it should switch to the Linux boot.
• You can release the reset switch. Linux should run if everything is properly configured.
• I access it through SSH on port 22. It is of course recommended to change the default root password (root / 1234)

Installing Pi-Hole on the X96

Upgrading system

First upgrade your system.

apt-get upgrade

About 50 packages or so are upgraded.

Install Pi-Hole

It may fail by saying that your OS is not supported, just follow the instructions they provide in the error message in this case. I will not detail the complete installation, I used the default configuration step without doing any tweaking except giving the target IP address of my X96 on my network.

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | PIHOLE_SKIP_OS_CHECK=true sudo -E bash

Configuration of router

• Assign a static IP to the MAC address of your X96. This must match what you defined in the PI-hole configuration.
• Switch the router to your new DNS server (as the primary). I left the secondary DNS server to my ISP default, just in case the X96 crashes or fails for whatever reason.

Smoke testing

• Disable ad-blocking in your browser and navigate to some heavy websites

Adding some lists

Additional lists may be useful for Youtube adblocking, here is my configuration.

Other Softwares

• I managed to install Hyperion (ambient light/leds manager) as well and run it (the portal was working, I did not go further with the integration of actual lighting hardware). It was done through packages provided by apt-get. More info about Hyperion at https://github.com/hyperion-project/hyperion.ng
• A resource in French about installation of Home Assistant (check a demo here https://demo.home-assistant.io/#/lovelace/0), an opensource plateform written in Python. The thread comes with interesting posts about UART and Zigbee: https://forum.hacf.fr/t/installation-de-ha-sur-android-box-tv-x96-mini/14355/55

Wifi Setup

March 2023 - I managed to make the Wifi work as it was more convenient for me. Instructions are available here: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/20210-x96-mini-s905x-builtin-wifi-chipset-rtl8189es-working-with-recompilation/

This applies if your chipset is a RTL8189ES (Realtek). We will build the module ourselves, note that the compilation takes a rather long time (close to 10 minutes).

Required files

• You need to download the file called ''linux-headers-current-arm-64_20.10_arm64.deb''. Link: https://github.com/armbian/upload/blob/apt.armbian.com/debs/linux-headers-current-arm-64_20.10_arm64.deb
• Make a clone of the following repository: git clone https://github.com/jwrdegoede/rtl8189ES_linux.git

dpkg -i linux-headers-current-arm-64_20.10_arm64.deb

Compilation

• Navigate to the git repository of the driver.

cd rtl8189ES_linux/
make -j4 ARCH=arm64 KSRC=/usr/lib/modules/5.9.0-arm-64/build
sudo cp 8189es.ko /usr/lib/modules/5.9.0-arm-64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/realtek/
sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe 8189es

• Check with dmesg if the driver is successfully loaded
• Check with iwconfig/ifconfig if your WLAN interface appears
• To connect to the access point:

nmcli d wifi connect YOUR_ACCESS_POINT password YOUR_PASSWORD

Additional help regarding connection to access point itself: https://linuxhint.com/3-ways-to-connect-to-wifi-from-the-command-line-on-debian/

Troubleshootings

• You can attach a keyboard and mouse to the USB ports. The Logitech receiver is also working such that I could use my keyboard.