ZTE B860H: Getting Armbian into It
a day ago
- This guide explains how to install Armbian on ZTE B860H V1/V2 set-top boxes using a microSD card and a custom HDMI boot dongle.
- The method does not require the box to be pre-rooted; it works with stock firmware and an HDMI dongle to force boot from microSD.
- First, download the appropriate Armbian image (e.g., for s905x and b860h), uncompress it, and flash it to the microSD card using dd.
- Then, flash the HG680P U-Boot bootloader to the microSD card to enable proper booting.
- Use the HDMI dongle to boot the box from the microSD card; verify the dongle works by checking for 'boot@SDC' via i2cdetect.
- After booting, perform initial setup via keyboard or SSH (default password 1234), then optionally make U-Boot permanent on eMMC using the same dd commands.
- For full installation to eMMC, run 'armbian-install', select B860H (ID 106) and filesystem (ext4 recommended), then reflash U-Boot to eMMC.
- Optional extras include setting up zram for RAM savings and installing irqbalance for better CPU interrupt distribution.
- The guide also works for FiberHome HG680P with slight DT differences; alternative boot methods via shorting pins (R162 or R87) are mentioned.