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--- doc:appunti:hardware:x96_mini [2022/02/26 14:07] – niccolo
+++ doc:appunti:hardware:x96_mini [2023/10/22 23:32] (current) – [Ports and connectors] niccolo
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-====== Installing CoreELEC on the X96 Mini Android TV Box ======
+====== Kodi CoreELEC on the X96 Mini Android TV Box ======
-{{ .:amlogic:x96mini.jpg?direct&400|The X96 Mini Android Smart-TV Box}}
+**How to install Kodi on the X96 mini TV Box**
+{{ .:amlogic:x96mini.jpg?direct&400|The X96 Mini Android TV-Box}}
 I bought this little device for about 27 EUR in January 2022 from Aliexpress, I wish to use it as a TV Box, getting media from the LAN or from an external hard disk atthached via USB. It is based on the **Amlogic S905W** chip, equipped with **1 Gb** of **RAM** and **16 Gb** of **flash** storage.
@@ Line 8: / Line 10: @@
 It seems that the best combination of **Kodi** and **GNU/Linux** operating system for this device is the one offered by **[[https://coreelec.org/|CoreELEC]]**.
-From the download section I selected my options:
+===== Download the appropriate version of CoreELEC =====
+From the download section I selected the appropriate options of my X96 Mini:
 ^ Device       | X96 Mini  |
@@ Line 22: / Line 26: @@
   - Copy the image over an SD card using the Linux command line tool **dd**: <code>dd if=CoreELEC-Amlogic-ng.arm-19.4-Matrix_rc2-Generic.img of=/dev/sdb bs=4M conv=fsync</code>
   - Mount the first partition on the SD card and copy the file **device_trees/gxl_p281_1g.dtb** into the root directory, renaming it to **dtb.img**.
+====== Ports and connectors ======
+{{.:amlogic:x96mini-ports1.jpg?direct&400|Power, LAN, HDMI, Audio/Video and remote}}
+{{.:amlogic:x96mini-ports2.jpg?direct&400|USB, SD card}}
+One USB port is **white** in color, so it should be an **USB 1.x**, the **black** USB port should be instead an **USB 2.0 Hi-Speed**. But measuring the read/write performance of an USB external disk, it turned out that both the ports are 2.0 Hi-Speed.
 ====== First boot using the toothpick trick ======
@@ Line 201: / Line 213: @@
   * /storage/.kodi
   * /storage/.ssh
+====== Installing extra software with Entware ======
+**[[https://github.com/Entware/Entware/wiki|Entware]]** is a software repository for embedded devices which use the Linux kernel, primarily routers and network attached storages. All packages are compiled for use on **eight** of the **most commonly used architecture** toolchains.
+The architecture of the X96 Mini is **aarch64** as revealed by the command **uname -m** and the kernel is a **Linux 4.9** as revealed by **uname -a**. The **[[http://bin.entware.net/|Entware repository]]** provides the aarch64 architecture for kernel 3.10 into the **[[http://bin.entware.net/aarch64-k3.10/]]** directory, fortunately it seems that the //libc// library and some of the binares does run on the newer 4.9 kernel.
+The **CoreELEC** distribution does not inlcue any package manager, so we have to download and unpack the **Entware** packages manually. All the Entware software is packed to be installed into the **/opt/** hiearchy, which in CoreELEC is a symlink to the **/storage/.opt/**, i.e. into the SD card space.
+In this example we want to install the **base64** utility which we need to send some archives via an http connection. First of all we dowloaded the **libc_2.27-11_aarch64-3.10.ipk**, which contains the //libc// library, required to run almost all the Entware binaries. An ipk file is actually a tar.gz archive. This archive cotains some metadata into the **control.tar.gz** file (e.g. package version, dependencies, etc.) that we will not use because we don't have a package manager. We want instead to unpack the **data.tar.gz** file from the root directory; inspecting the archive you can see that all the content lies into the **/opt/** directory. Once installed the //libc//, we repeat the same installation with the
+**coreutils-base64_9.1-1_aarch64-3.10.ipk** package.
+Some packages requires a **postinst** script to be run in order to initialize some configuration files, the file is contained into the **control.tar.gz** archive. E.g. the **terminfo** package - which is required to run most of the fullscreen tools, with colors and cursors, like the Midnigth Commander - initializes the **/opt/etc/profile** adding a line like this:
+<file>
+export TERMINFO=/opt/share/terminfo
+</file>
+Finally you have to adjust your **PATH** and eventually the **LD_LIBRARY_PATH** environment variables to take into account the path of the newly installed binay packages. I added the following into my **/storage/.profile**:
+<file>
+PATH='/opt/usr/local/bin:/opt/usr/local/sbin:/opt/bin:/opt/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin'
+LD_LIBRARY_PATH='/opt/lib:/usr/lib'
+</file>
+====== Connecting a 2.5" hard disk via the USB ======
+I connected an **external hard disk**; specifically it is a Toshiba MQ04UBF100, 2.5 inches hard drive, SATA 3.0, **1 Tb**, using an **USB 3.0** interface.
+At first I tried to power the hard disk directly from the USB port of the X96 mini, but it turned out that the USB port **does not provide enough power**. The hard disk suddendly and randomly **disconnect and re-connect** with no reason. Here it is the relevant kernel messages displayed by the **dmesg** tool:
+<code>
+[  526.677574@2]- usb 1-2: USB disconnect, device number 2
+[  526.678631@2]- blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 903710960
+...
+[  526.942573@3]- EXT4-fs error (device sda1): ext4_journal_check_start:56: Detected aborted journal
+[  526.942578@3]- EXT4-fs (sda1): Remounting filesystem read-only
+[  526.942585@3]- EXT4-fs (sda1): previous I/O error to superblock detected
+[  526.942612@3]d Buffer I/O error on dev sda1, logical block 0, lost sync page write
+[  526.983449@2]- sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Synchronizing SCSI cache
+[  526.997855@2]- sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Synchronize Cache(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
+[  527.796877@2]- usb 1-2: new high-speed USB device number 4 using xhci-hcd
+[  527.938266@2]- usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0480, idProduct=0901
+[  527.938278@2]- usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=1
+[  527.938282@2]- usb 1-2: Product: External USB 3.0
+</code>
+Typically a 2.5" drive requires about **1 A** at startup and about **500 mA** at read/write average. It is likely that the X96 Mini's circuitry provides USB ports with barely the minimum required by the USB 2.0 standard, which is **5 V, 500 mA**, regardless the rating of the power supply (mine was rated 4A).
+Fortunately there is a solution: to use an **externally powered USB hub**. I purchased a **4 ports USB 3.0 hub** with an USB Type-C connector to supply it with power. In this new configuration a **3 A** power supply provides the power to the USB hub. The external hard disk is connected to one of the 4 ports of the hub and it takes its power from this. The X96 Mini is connected to the hub cable through the USB A connector and it takes the power from the hub too. The original power supply is not longer required and **all the system is powered by only one power supply**.
+I measured the disk performance on both the two USB ports (the white one and the black one), they measured exactly the same transfer rate. For the test I used the **hdparm** tool:
+<code>
+hdparm -t /dev/sda
+</code>
+<code>
+Timing buffered disk reads: 102 MB in  3.03 seconds =  33.71 MB/sec
+</code>
+This is about **270 Mbit/s**, which is near the 280 Mbps of the USB 2.0 //High Speed// specifications. This means that both the USB ports are actually USB 2.0.