Install Linux on the Tx9s

 

The Tx9s tv box is notable for being cheap, containing a gigabit Ethernet port, and an octa-core S912 processor. Depending on your needs it might be the perfect mini-server if a Raspberry Pi 4 is too expensive for you.

Armbian Linux installation:

1. Join in a moment of silence to honor balbes150 who makes this all possible :)

2. Download your desired Armbian image (I used Armbian_20.10_Arm-64_buster_current_5.9.0.img.xz) and load it onto a microSD or SD card using Etcher

3. Eject and re-insert SD card, then in the BOOT drive open the extlinux folder and edit extlinux.conf to replace all the file contents with this and save and close:

LABEL Armbian
LINUX /zImage
INITRD /uInitrd
FDT /dtb/amlogic/meson-gxm-q200.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

4. In the BOOT drive, rename u-boot-s905x-s912 to u-boot.ext

5. Eject the SD card and load into Tx9s device (using a microSD adapter if needed)

6. Plug an Ethernet cable into the device

7. Use a small thin object (I used a paperclip because a toothpick was too big) and hold in the reset button (small hole between the power plug and HDMI port)

8. With the reset button pressed, use other hand to connect the power supply and wait 15 seconds and then remove the paperclip from the reset button hole.

9. Wait about a minute and then SSH into the device with username root and password 1234 (you can check your router to look for the new IP device or tools like an IP scanner or nmap).

10. After Armbian is configured, run /root/install-aml.sh to install Armbian to the internal eMMC chip.

11. Once the script indicates the copy is complete run shutdown now then unplug, remove the SD card, and plug in device. The device should now boot into Armbian directly from the internal eMMC chip.

Success!

___________

Performance compared to Raspberry Pi 4:

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (2GB RAM) 32-bit:

• CPU Performance: Duration = 8.80 seconds (lower is faster)
• CPU Temp: Idle = 38'c | Full load = 48'c
• RootFS: Write = 18 MiB/s | Read = 41 MiB/s
• RAM: Write = 339 MiB/s | Read = 606 MiB/s

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (2GB RAM) 64-bit:

• CPU Performance: Duration = 7.27 seconds (lower is faster)
• CPU Temp: Idle = 45'c | Full load = 52'c
• RootFS: Write = 18 MiB/s | Read = 22 MiB/s
• RAM: Write = 448 MiB/s | Read = 1163 MiB/s

Tx9s (2GB RAM):

• CPU Performance: Duration = 9.35 seconds (lower is faster)
• CPU Temp: Idle = 43'c | Full load = 48'c
• RootFS: Write = 27 MiB/s | Read = 160 MiB/s
• RAM: Write = 246 MiB/s | Read = 770 MiB/s