TIPc7x_TVBox_Armbian (VTX TV) (likely a NEXBOX A95X)

a repository containing the file and the intruction to run Armbian from a TIPc7x TV box sold by AVIQ (maybe known as VTX TV box) (it seems that theses box are copy of likely a NEXBOX A95X but onlay with 1GB RAM and 8GB eMMC.

Disclaimer

This procedure is not 100% safe and there is a risk of leaving your board in a unsusable state.You have been warned. If you encounter spelling mistake, imprecision in the steps, or any other problem with thoses instruction or file dont hesistate to open an issue or directly a pull request and if you find this tutorial useful please star this repo.

Requirements

• USB cable type Male A to male A (you can either make one using two USB cable that you cut and solder together, or you can order one from [https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000097120453.html]
• A Computer running windows with Admin rights
• a microSD card with a reader to access it from the computer
• HDMI cable
• HDMI screen
• USB keyboard (preferably with a U.S. layout)
• a TIPc7x
• a suitable power supply for the TIPc7x
• the file in this repo

Acknolegments

Thanks to Luigi Petrucci for the hints that saved me hours of pain. Thanks to the stranger online who provided bit and part of information to compile linux for the beast.

Steps

1. Download the required Files and extract them

2. Install the USB Burning Tool from Amlogic provided in the bundle

3. Launch the USB Burning Tool

4. Introduce a rod (contton swap that you cut work great) in the jack port until you fell a little click. then, Plug the USB cable into the USB port that is closest to the Ethernet port on the board and plug the other end in the computer. Dont forget to keep the button in the jack port pressedn when you plug the USB cable in. THis force the device to boot in debug mode

Use the correct USB port (the closest to the Ethernet port)

5. Select the ROM image to burn it

unzip the img in this file

6. Burn the Stock android ISO and stop the process between 25% and 80% (the idea being of corrupting the android ROM but not the bootloader so that it fall back to the SD card)

7. unplug the TV box from the USB cable

8. use Rufus to burn Armbian to an SD card

9. Plug the SD card into the TIPc7x

10. Plug the HDMI into the TIPc7x and plug the other end to the screen

11. Plug the USB keyboard into the TIPc7x

12. plug the power cable into the TIPc7x

13. Wait patiently. The LED of the TIPc7x should blink between blue and red after a few seconds

14. You should see armbian booting on screen. You can now use the keyboard to set a root password and a user account. (beware, the keyboard has the American layout. Check before setting password)

15. once the box reboot you can login with the account you created and launch "sudo armbian-config"

16. Now select system

17. Now select Install

18. Now select Boot from eMMC

19. say yes

20. choose ext4 formating

21. wait

22. Once it's done you can remove the sd card and run "sudo reboot now" and the board should now boot on Armbian from the eMMC memory