Installing Armbian on Amlogic S805 Android TV Box (OttBox MXQ) 🌱

I love the idea of the Raspberry Pi, but there are some cheaper alternative single board computers that offer a similar experience for a fraction of the cost. While the community support isn't quite what it is for the Pi, there are a ton of projects you can accomplish on the cheap with these little hidden gems. Keep an eye on AliExpress and Amazon and you can find SBC's sporting quad core ARM process with 2-4 GB of RAM for under $30, including a power supply and IR remote control.

The box used in this video is a OttBox MXQ Mini I picked up used for $10 shipped. It sports a Quad Core Amlogic S805 @ 1..5GHz and 1 GB of DDR3 RAM.

Things You Will Need

• A microSD card at least 8 GB https://amzn.to/36CpShC | https://amzn.to/3CXJngt | https://amzn.to/3JqyxSP

Downloads and Flashing to MicroSD

1. Download Armbian Download
2. Download Balena Etcher Download
3. Run Balena Etcher
4. Burn Armbian image to microSD card
5. Safely remove microSD and re-insert
6. Ignore/close the Windows dialogs to format the inserted microSD card

Configure MicroSD Card for Armbian

1. Open the readable partition of the microSD card in Explorer
2. Edit /euEnv.txt in a text editor
   1. Update the FDT line to point to a working .dtb file for your device

      FDT=/dtb/meson8b-mxq.dtb

   2. Save
   3. Close
3. Safely remove microSD
4. Insert microSD card to Android TV box

Booting to Armbian for the First Time

1. With an unfolded paperclip, press the reset button on the bottom of the device
2. While holding the reset button, plug the power adapter into the Android TV box
3. You should see the Armbian terminal running startup scripts
4. When prompted, login with username: root password: 1234
5. Input a new root password
6. Confirm the new root password
7. When prompted, input a username
8. Input a password for the new user
9. Confirm the password for the new user
10. Follow any additional the prompts
11. Armbian will boot into the desktop environment

Special thanks to the developers and forum members over at Armbian.com for making this possible