Amlogic-ng on S905x, S912 also?

One of my boxes is an S912 but I do not expect to see an NG build and realistically think that it is not worth the effort.

Kodi 19 coming along gives even more reason not to think about the S912 and other older boxes.

And we owners should remember that the boxes will not suddenly become extinct overnight and will happily chug along for quite a while yet.

So whilst some devs may potentially feel a little pressure to maintain backwards compatibility, I would say spend your valuable time on supporting the current and new tech to come along.

Buy the time that the next iteration of SOC’s comes along in the coming months, even the likes of the S905X2 will start to look long in the tooth but because they are are already at the NG level, will survive for longer and become available for song as many move to the next level of tech.

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Depends on what you mean by kind of working. GXM kind of works better with ng builds(If you don’t want a GUI) then the GXL stuff does. However there is one massive show stopper that puts an end to everything GXM related in the ng builds. It’s the same issue that has doomed GXM from day one, the fact that there is no drivers for the GPU.

Using libhybris the way it was done, while impressive in some respects, was a fragile super hack from day one. It doesn’t work with the new kernel, it barely worked with the old one.

Attempts at getting this hack or a similar one to work on the NG build, have been limited by lack of documentation, lack of interest from other developers, lack of interest from vendors that provide S912 based hardware to assist in anyway.

So in short GXM won’t be seen in the NG builds. GXM devices do work in the existing amlogic builds with the 3.14 kernel, and will continue to work there.

As for support for GXM devices and other devices using the amlogic builds with the 3.14 kernel, in CoreELEC 10.0 with kodi 19 Matrix. First, these new versions are still a long way off.(For kodi going from alpha 1 to final release has often taken up to a year in the past) Second, your existing setup will continue to work before and after they are released. Will there be amlogic builds with the 3.14 kernel for CoreELEC 10.0 with kodi 19 ? That is entirely up to the interest level of the other developers if this happens. Will there be other options for GXM devices to get Kodi matrix, in short yes.

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Thanks for the explanation, much appreciated.

To my surprise, I went back to LE, chewitt, has been working on a Kodi Matrix for the s905 and s912. The version that currently works for me is 10.0.1. I have it installed on my KM8 box right now. It is usable but like all betas, there are bugs. S912 is my everyday box but deal with annoyances here and there.

I want to stick to one solution but with the difference in development and support, it is difficult to stay fan to one or the other. I have CE installed on my S905x 1GB box but had to jump hoops to flash Aidan v7 firmware before it will allow me to boot amlogic-ng. The issue with Aidan’s firmware is that Android does not boot (not a big deal) but I am unable to boot any variant of Linux from SD. So it is not easily to swap the task of the box if I decide to use it for another project. Anyway, it is as simple as erase the NAND and reflash the original firmware.

I have to test to see how well LE Matrix works with s905x 1GB box. Once it works flawlessly, I guess I will convert everything back to LE again.

Just disappointed that CE did not want to pick up dev for the S912.

If you know how make S912 working with Amlogic!!! 4.9 kernel on linux then PR is welcome and it could receive 2nd life. All other questions were already discussed in other topics.

Developing a working kernel is a monumental task. The Linux team have been doing this for AMLogic for 3 years and the job is still not finished. Developing drivers for media decoders is very low priority for mainline developers and this is the reason chewitts efforts are buggy (he has to rely on software decoders rather than the built in hardware decoders - which pushes these chips way beyond their limits).
The CE team have neither the resources or inclination to attempt to develop a fresh Linux kernel for effectively dead hardware. I am currently running the legacy build CE Matrix on my VIM2 with S912 without issues so really cannot see why this decision is such a big issue for users. If you decide that running mainline is such a high priority to you that you decide to switch to LE permanently - get used to subpar performance as mainline remains in perpetual development. Also expect your chips to have short lives at running them at overheating temps will eventually kill them.

Shoog

Happy new year to you too! Isn’t nice to have everything free at your discretion and still be disappointed? How long should be working your cheap box, 10-20 years? And with no cost for development after warranty (doubting if you had any Android updates from the builder / reseller).

It is fine to be disappointed. Let’s stay friendly. I think it was reasonably explained why it will never work. I regret we ever supported S912. If LE makes you happy stay there.

We can promise you this will never be happen, at least not with hardware decoder. Development started 4 years ago, stalled 1-2 year ago and will not be finished as nobody pays for it and the market is too small.

Sorry, that’s the truth…

Thanks team. I didn’t expect someone from the team actually responded to such an old thread but appreciated either way.
I understand chewitt is working with 5.x kernel and it will be a tall task to get it to maturity.
I would stick with Leia if some of the hevc files would play on CE Leia. But as of now I prefer Matrix since it seems to be able to play more hevc.
What boxes I have that are supported by CE Matrix I still use it since it is a mature product. But those that aren’t then LE Matrix.
BTW, LE was using HW when it was playing the videos at least that is what the information was showing and cpu percentage were quite low.

i am confused - i have been reading around on this site and thought that CE did not support Kodi Matrix on S912 boxes

if it does - thats great news - which download options should i choose - and are there any other steps needed

i have an old Edal T95Z plus 2g 16g that i would love to get working on CE - and matrix - am experimenting with LE Chewitts builds at present but power on / off functions never worked like CE and keeps crashing on me ( addons fault not Chewitts i think)

can anyone clarify this for me ?

seeing CE Matrix and S912 has confused me :face_with_spiral_eyes:

It was likely a typo by the user above. S912 devices are not supported by the newer 19.x builds with kodi matrix, and legacy builds didn’t include kodi matrix.

OK - thanks for clarifying - thought i was going mad there for a minute!