Repurposing TVPad 4/BlueTV/StarTV as a Linux computer with Armbian

daniyo

Hi guys, I managed to resurrect my TVPad 4 by adding a reset button on the back of the device.

Hold reset button while booting with a SD card loaded with Armbian and it will boot. Must use the .dtb file attached here (rename to .dtb) and update it in uENV.txt file in the BOOT drive. (.dtb file is based on ec100 but the usb was disabled so I recompiled it enabling that & works with the latest Linux kernel 5.9)

TVPad4 uses S805 cpu with 1GB ram and it performs between a RPi2 and RPi3.

grab your image file and flash with etcher.io --armbian under folder s8xx

https://tvpad.ca/uploads/187/4CY21QEO6AAE.txt

daniyo

This is useful for running a PiHole server, freePBX, Octoprint, homeassistant, etc!

Somebody

Thanks, daniyo

For the less technically minded (like me), can you please do a detailed step by step guide?

padman

https://tvpad.ca/discussion/comment/18998#Comment_18998

1) https://forum.armbian.com/topic/2419-armbian-for-amlogic-s905-and-s905x-ver-544/

2) Download the attached file in the first post then rename it to .dtb

Should be pretty straight forward