Android TV Box - Take 2 - Time For Linux - Chris's Basement - 2023

I need some help. I have old 2016 m8s (2gb ram, 8gb memory). What is latest available android version? Yes, i know now we have year 2023. So just answer my question, do not preach.

Why is the CPU temp so hot, bro?

they are no longer offering it on their website for download. do you have an alternative to the inovato os? when you click on the link it just shows 404 error./

First of all, thank you for this tutorial! It's been a big help. I'm running into one issue. If I boot from the SD card, the light turns to blue in about a minute. The issue is that it's actually running off of the card and not flashing the device. If I pull the card out, it just goes back to the Android install. What do I need to do to actually get it to flash the device? I have seen other tutorials that talk about the button inside the AV port but that hasn't seemed to help. Any insight is appreciated. Thanks again for the tutorial!

I see problem with setting up the IP address manually, what if you printer is off for a while (end of lease for the IP address), your router could assign that IP address to another device, it's better to make a reservation on the router.

Dang, they took down the linked article with the image

Is it possible to start from an e.g. media distro such as CoreELEC, and run deboostrap on it? I've never tried anything like that.

Thanks Chris. I had already picked up a Le potato, so your video Is perfect timing.

Don't make an ip that was handed out by DHCP static by hard coding it or you will end up with ip conflicts. Go to your router and assign a static IP there and DHCP will hand it to the device. Typically static IP's are not part of the DHCP pool. You can free some up for static assignment at that router by shrinking the range of ip addresses DHCP is using.

That's cool you made a video about it. I have been running octopi on a tv box for three years now and it works perfectly. I also added a script to shut down the printer using a smart plug after the print is done 👍

Just to clarify. They actually don't have to offer the open source software for free. As Richard Stallman** keeps re-iterating, it's "FREE" as in FREEDOM... Not "FREE" as in FREE BEER. Richard Stallman actually advocates for individuals / companies to try and charge the unwitting / uneducated, as much as they can.

** Richard Stallman is the person who wrote the GNU license which the majority of free software is released under (including the linux kernel).

I was really expecting you to show how to get Linux working on the T95 H616....too bad. Nice video, anyway.

I have a couple of Android TV boxes sat in the cupboard so I might have to give this a go, but I've go so many other projects to do and little time to do them. For some reason I've not been getting notifications of your videos even though the bell icon is ticked, so I have quite a few to catch up on. A random question for you = I have an original Ender 5 plus controller card from an upgrade and an Ender 2 with it's original card with Marlin installed on it. Because of the lack of memory on the Ender 2 card, I cannot save setting on it which is a real pain. Could I use the 5 Plus controller on the Ender 2 ? I know I could just go with another manufacturers controller, but it seems a waste just to bin the 5 plus controller.

hey Chris, great video, can you use this script for multiple instances of Octoprint for multiple printers and cameras? may not on a TV box but some thing a little more power full

Chris, you’re awesome.

Thanks Chris! I watched your video, got a T95 Mini from Amazon, followed the guide and have second custom Bear machine with an SKR 1.4 Turbo running Klipper now. The first one has a Raspberry Pi. It was no more difficult to do this install than using the Pi.

Nooooooooo! Don't use a DHCP address as the one to fill in as static address! Once the lease time of that address has expired, the DHCP server will hand out that same address to another device and then you have an IP conflict on your network. Normally the DHCP server has a range of addresses that it will use for handing out to clients. When configuring some machine with a static address, you should use one outside of that (dynamic) range. Even better if your DHCP server supports it would be to keep the client on DHCP, but configure the DHCP server so that it always gives the same (manually configured) IP address to the client with that MAC address. That way all configuration is in one single place and typically that will be combined with DNS services, allowing you to access all your machines by name.

A lot of these "pi alternatives" use Cortex a53s which is equivalent to a pi 3 / pi zero 2 w. Nothing I would consider affordable uses a Cortex a72 like the pi 4s. Using a headless or lite OS is almost a necessity. Klipper's CPU usage went from 28% to 4% switching from Raspbian desktop to lite on a Le Potato I'm trying out.

Chris, Thanks for all of the work you put into this and the mention of all of the others who worked on it. Seems like a good cost effective solution to a Pi.

Have you seen the new linus tech tips video on android tv boxes? Apparently they come with some nasty firmware features

Thanks Chris that looks like a lot of fun, I’ll have to see how much those boxes are up north (if they are available at all). Do pay attention to Rob B’s comment about never statically assigning an ip address from the dynamic pool to a machine, that is a sure way to network hell

A lot of those TV Boxes are riddled with malware so do not plug it into your network until you get rid of the old OS.

If you use 'adduser' instead of 'useradd', it will create the user home directory with proper permissions.

I did this about month and half ago, key advice, go buy a brand new sd card , i tried every one i owned and it would not flash (yes mad sure they were formated correctly) worked first shot with new one

How is the performance of this compared to a raspberry pi? I feel like a raspberry is underpowered. If you stay in the control tab for too long, it will crash the entire network stack and you can't even SSH in anymore. You have to pull the plug (which isn't ideal for linux). So then I upped it from 640x480 to 1280x720 for octolapse. The problem got worse. It crashes a lot faster. So you have to get out of control as fast as possible. I'm afraid of even attempting 1920x1080. Funny enough if octolapse could be installed on an mk4's prusa connect I wouldn't even think about octopi.....or would I? I've heard a lot of people say it's way too slow and takes like 1-2 minutes to upload g-code. That's crazy.

I did this a few months ago and it works great! I've even installed Klipper on it and it all works great. A wonderful alternative to the Pi. Thanks for the content! Have a great time at RMMRF!

Excellent! I have been playing with an Inovato box, but couldn't get mjpeg streamer to work. I will give these scripts a look!

Great video Chris. Thanks for all of your hard work.

I've actually been wondering what I'm going to do for octoprint on my mk4 vs 3s+. I love octolapse and I don't think that prusa connect has anything like that. I do have an octoprint setup for the mk3s+, but I only have a single raspberry pi. Only 1 camera is supported in octoprint. I think. Ideally I'd love it if prusa connect could get octolapse. Then I could just use the native printer wifi. But I don't even have the printer yet. I bought the kit. It ships in may I believe.

Man so have I lol have you seen the video Linus tech tips made about these box's 😂 malware/spyware/fake ram and more

interesting the tailscale pkg library was included in that apt update process...

for single OctoPrint instance it's better to use Paul's octoprint_install script instead of octoprint_deploy. Process is pretty much the same but focused on single install.

Linus Tech Tips just did a video on these boxes coming with exploits. Be safe everyone.

How do I download the raspberry tool?? I'm sorry I'm not that into the programs needed

First!😂

Please be careful a lot of those have built-in malware and spyware. At the least, it could be used as a zombie in a DDOS attack.