Requesting to add support for Tanix TX6-A

[ni554n]

Device Information | 设备信息

• SOC: h6
• Model Tanix TX6-A

TX6-A is a cheaper variant of TX6 with 4/32GB, 100MB ethernet and no 5 GHz Wi-Fi or BT (XRadio XR819). TX-6A's firmwares are tagged as 8822 whereas normal TX6 firmwares are tagged as 8822bs.

Here's the only device review I found: https://androidpctv.com/review-tanix-tx6a-opinion/

Armbian Version | 系统版本

• Kernel Version: 5.15.125
• Release: all

Describe the bug | 问题描述 After booting your TX6 image from SD card, it doesn't get any ethernet / Wi-Fi support and addresses only 2GB of the RAM. armbian-install gets stuck at creating emmc partition no matter what -a -m switches are set.

Stock Firmwares

Here's the stock firmware of TX6-A: https://drive.google.com/file/d/112dqSGCeV_E84XDUcErwZ1v_Ej4ST7jl/view

And this one is newer and has support for both variants: https://mega.nz/file/BgR0EbaL#YZUlG6LmDtTPx2cnc4t9jLf7kCWHfcMX_JkveXeElko

Working Armbian Build

I'm currently running this old armbian build from SD card. And everything seems to be working. https://4pda.to/forum/index.php?showtopic=929205&view=findpost&p=97197782

[ophub]

https://github.com/ophub/amlogic-s9xxx-armbian/commit/c8aac02485d26b7bd356c35c9f3f92243f471def

https://github.com/ophub/amlogic-s9xxx-armbian/commit/9c2ecd2ba027221120e95144ffed3cfd6924ef57

According to your introduction, I used the firmware in the 4pda.to you are using and extracted the u-boot file. I think his dtb should be the same file as TX6 (sun50i-h6-tanix-tx6.dtb) , you can test whether it can be used normally.

If it is not normal, you may need to modify the name of dtb in /boot/armbianEnv.txt to sun50i-h6-tanix-tx6-a.dtb

I compiled a bullseye firmware, you can download it and test whether it can be used normally.

https://github.com/ophub/amlogic-s9xxx-armbian/releases/download/Armbian_bullseye_save_2023.08/Armbian_23.08.0_allwinner_tanix-tx6-a_bullseye_5.15.127_server_2023.08.17.img.gz

[ni554n]

Wow. Thank you for considering it.

I just tried your build from an SD card, but it didn't boot at all. No response on the display. 😔

[ophub]

https://github.com/ophub/amlogic-s9xxx-armbian/releases/download/Armbian_bullseye_save_2023.08/Armbian_23.08.0_allwinner_tanix-tx6-a_bullseye_5.15.127_server_2023.08.17.img.gz

I made adjustments, you re-download this test.

[ni554n]

It did boot this time but Wi-Fi / Ethernet is not getting detected. And the RAM is still showing up as 2 GB.

By the way, ethernet is also broken on the 4pda build. I didn't realized at first because I was connected to the Wi-Fi.

[ophub]

Please search again for a functional Armbian system for the TX6A. Once you find a suitable one, please send me the firmware for testing purposes.

[ni554n]

I just thoroughly tested the 4PDA build. Ethernet works fine. Sorry of providing wrong information there.

The only problem I've found so far is video playback. On Chromium and mpv, they are playing at around 5-10 FPS. I'm assuming video acceleration (or GPU?) is not working properly.

I completely understand if you do not want to go forward. But can you please point me to a direction to pin-point this video playback issue?

[ophub]

Based on the information you provided, the first firmware that was created used u-boot and dtb from 4pda.to. Normally, this combination should work, but your tests yielded no response.

Afterward, I thought about it some more. Since your original TX6 can boot but has issues with wired networking, the second firmware was created using the u-boot from TX6 and the dtb from 4pda.to. However, you still don't have network connectivity.

When it comes to testing by combining precompiled binary files, if they don't work, there might not be much else to try. I can't think of any other testing approaches.

There is a method in the repository to decompile the dtb. If you find information about the differences in their network chipsets, you could modify the dtb from the current TX6 and replace it for testing purposes.

[ni554n]

Understood. Thanks again for looking into it.

[786-xvr]

could you try using image from smlinux?