ballerburg9005 / android-tvbox-2-linux-pc-and-server Goto Github PK

This project is an unfinished attempt and is quite inactive. Please be aware that some issues mentioned, like wifi or sound not working, might have resolved now with time after 2 years.

Ultimately I wanted to make an image for a certain cheap box (most are Amlogic), where everything was working flawlessly. I also started documenting all the important steps how other people can make an image themselves. There is no image yet, but you can check

The Wiki

for instructions.

Overall, while it is quite possible to get to a workable result (esp. for a server), with some random Amlogic box chances are you will experience pitfalls along the way and end up with some issues remaining (e.g. no HDMI audio). I had an USB TTL adapter for serial console, so it was much easier to work around a non-booting image. Ultimately the performance of Cortex A55 chips is not good enough, to e.g. play Youtube in 1080p directly in the browser, and A72 isn't that much better either. I would say "just wait a bit for tech to get better", like A76-better, but unfortunately there has been little improvement recently in the $30 TV box universe. So at this point, yes you can probably use some cheap Amlogic TV box as a PC and server and media center ... but its still too challenging, there are unknowns, and the chop and fiddle factor is quite high.

LibreELEC has no Xorg support, so no browser, no 123-movies, no Libreoffice, etc. On the other hand the alternative is to run Armbian, which requires much more processing power and can produce some other issues.

General recommendations:

• for a mixed server and media box, use an SSD via USB (beware you need SATA adapter with external power supply, or else it will crash often!)
• Use amlogic-s9xxx-armbian for a pure server
• Use LibreELEC for a media box, and docker plugin if server applications are required