[Android Stick & Console AMLogic based Computers] CyberSolid:
Hello,

I Just got a new TV Box X96 Max with a Amlogic X905X2 processor - Android 8.1 Oreo - U211 Board. I had some old PS3 Controllers laying around, so I wanted to set it up as a retro gaming station.

There is an app for a sixaxis conroller, but it requires root. So after reading thousands of articles about rooting and recovery, I felt confident enough to start (also have enough technical/programming knowledge to understand what I'm doing).

As i understand the easiest way would be to install TWRP, so I can easily make backups and restores and maybe later even tinker with the rom to customize it and/or add drivers etc. Interesting

Set up USB Debugging.... check

Get adb and fastboot... check.

Connect the box with PC through USB....... and here the problems started..

I can't seem to get my PC to see the device, neither Ubuntu nor Windows, doesn't even pop up in device manager etc.

Here's what I tried:

I installed almost all drivers for android / adb / fastboot / amlogic devices on the pc that I could find, with no result.

I tried different male to male usb cables (Even made one of my own) / different port combinations., with no result.

I opened the device to see if there is any other hidden USB connector, and if all the hardware was present, but no hidden USB found.

So I figured letś see what other options I have.

Rootkit apps... hmm letś try...:

SuperSu (multiple versions)... Nope

Kingroot.... Nope

KingoRoot... Nope

Magisk... Nope

Another few nonamed rooters.... Nope

De device was reset to factory via recovery (including wiping cache and dalvik) between tests, and also tried combinations. of rooters.. still nothing

So what's next?

Connecting ADB over TCPIP, now this is interesting... it works. even adb root works.

But.... when booting to bootloader/fastboot the Logo just stays on screen.

Hmm maybe I have to unlock the bootloader????

I checked in the Developer Settings(And all other settings that I could find), but Allow OEM Unlock doesn't exist anywhere.

And to do it via CMD, I need fastboot which requires USB... ahhhmm right so what's next...

Let's seee... owww I seems I can boot from SDCard... let's try to format the card (FAT) putting a recovery.img for s905X on it and put it in the device....

Nothing happens. the sdcard is not being read... let's try to boot to recovery (holding the pin in the AV port)... it just gets into the stock recovery.... as it seems, the Cardreader is not working.

Tte hardware is all there, but it seems the drivers werent installed or something.

As the cardreader is a USB device, I figured, letś try to boot from a USB stick. so I formatted it and put a recovery.img on it and booted to recovery. now it didn't run into recovery, not even stock, but it hanged... so I figure the USB device is being read by the bootloader. maybe a wrong img????

After a long time reding and trying everything I could think of I came accros this post : https://xdaforums.com/android-stick--console-computers/amlogic/opensource-amlogic-tools-t3786991

Where Ricky Divjakovski,made his Amlogic tools available : https://xdaforums.com/devdb/project/?id=26925#downloads

He made a tool for flashing Amlogic boards with adb tcpip. now that´s great, my problems are solved I can finally do something with the box, right?

So I dowloaded AMLogicTools_5.5.0, installed the drivers, started the AMLogicFlashTool, clicked connect, and I was connected.

Looking Good until now...

Letś make a backup first...... Backup failed... owww nooo

Letś Port TWRP to the recoveryIt starts, goes up to 40% and then hangs the whole system. doesn't look good.

I used : adb pull /dev/block/recovery recovery.img to try TWRP porting to file... didn't work either.

So basically, I can access the box over tcpip, even restart adb in root mode, mount system rw

But Iḿ lost on what my options for rooting / TWRP / Recoverable Custom Roms are.

I read a lot and tried a lot, but maybe I'm missing something

Is there anyone out there who can poiint me in the right direction or has any ideas?

Thanks