Although Android technically runs on top of Linux, generally most Android devices abstract away the underlying Linux-ness of these machines. In theory this is a good thing; we wouldn’t necessarily want to live in a world where we have to log in to a command-line interface just to make a phone call. But too much abstraction often needlessly restricts the capabilities of the underlying hardware. [Murray] a.k.a [Green Bug-Eyed Monster] has an Android TV box with just such a problem, as the Android OS included with it allows for watching TV just fine, but with a few tweaks it can run a full Linux installation instead, turning it into a much more versatile machine.
This specific Android TV box is based on the Rockchip 3566, a popular single-board computer used in a wide array of products. As such it is one of the easier targets for transforming a limited TV machine into a fully capable desktop computer. The first step is to compile an Armbian image for the machine, in this case using an x86 installation of Ubuntu to cross-compile for the ARM-based machine. With a viable image in hand, there’s an option to either solder on a microSD slot to the included pins on the computer’s PCB or to flash the image directly to the on-board eMMC storage by tricking the machine into thinking that the eMMC is missing. Either option will bring you into a full-fledged Linux environment, with just a few configuration steps to take to get it running like any other computer.
[Murray] began this process as an alternative to paying the inflated prices of Raspberry Pis over the past few years, and for anyone in a similar predicament any computer with the Rockchip 3566 processor in it could be a potential target for a project like this. You might need to make a few tweaks to the compile options and hardware, but overall the process should be similar. And if you don’t have an RK3566, don’t fret too much. We’ve seen plenty of other Android TV boxes turned into similar devices like this one which runs RetroPie instead.
I really like how the article explains concepts of installing Linux on a consumer TV device, and also digs into practical details and shows how to get things done. Good hack value :-)
@Gösta said: “I really like how the article explains concepts of installing Linux on a consumer TV device, and also digs into practical details and shows how to get things done. Good hack value :-)”
Yeah, that’s all well and good if you already have an extra RK3566 based TV box laying around. Otherwise I think you would be better off starting with a fresh new RK3566 board:
Pine64.com has several small single board computers (SBCs) in their Quartz64 line that are based on the Rockchip RK3566 Quad-Core ARM Cortex A55 64-Bit Processor with a MALI G-52 GPU.[1][2] The Quartz64 with the RK3566 comes with either 4 GB or 8 GB LPDDR4 RAM. There are various versions of Linux and BSD distributions, Android 11, and a Linux BSP/SDK available for the Quartz64.[3] There is even the $14.00 USD Quartz64 Zero SBC that has a Quad 64-bit ARM Cortex-A55 CPU, and an embedded 32-bit RISC-V CPU, but it only has 1GB of LPDDR4 system memory.[4]
References:
[One] Pine64 Quartz64
https://pine64.com/product-category/quartz64/
[Two] Pine64 Quartz64 Wiki
https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Quartz64
[Three] Pine64 Quartz64 Wiki Software Releases
https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Quartz64_Software_Releases
[Four] Quartz64 Zero SBC
https://pine64.com/product/quartz64-zero-single-board-computer/
RK3566 itself is $10, in stock on JLCPCB by the way. It’s pretty capable, with DRAM controller, USB 3.0, USB 2.0, GLAN, video I/O, four cores, DMAs… The list goes on.
Very tempting.
Many of these small android boxes are supported directly by the works by ophub: https://github.com/ophub/amlogic-s9xxx-armbian
I have used the above with great success on multiple s905x boxes. It’s great to have a way to use them for something useful, when they are otherwise e-waste when the bloated (and somewhat suspicious) android release is outdated.
It looks like the specific box is not supported, but it’s likely that it can be added based ok one of the other boxes similar to H96 MAX V56
I guess I’m rather old fashioned, but why a Debian based one? When it comes to Linux, I tend to think of Slackware first, and then a Debian based one next.
I love the idea of anyone having to log into a commandline before they can call me!
There is a project called “JaduPc”
they are doing this trick commercially. search google.