H96 Pro+: Armbian server, 3 GB unlocked
VERIFIED LIVE
An Android TV box turned into an Armbian server. Autonomous boot from eMMC, no SD card.
| SoC | Amlogic S912 (8 × Cortex-A53, 1.5 GHz) |
|---|---|
| RAM | 3 GB real, 2.8 GiB seen by Linux |
| eMMC | About 32 GB |
| System | Armbian (ophub), kernel 6.18, installed on eMMC |
| Extra storage | 8 GB USB SSD: 4 GB swap and 3.4 GB data |
What is verified
- The SoC is an 8-core S912.
- RAM goes from 2 GB to 3 GB with an alternative bootloader chained at startup. The device tree plays no role in RAM size.
- Boot starts from eMMC, without an SD card.
- The zswap memory compression and swap on the SSD let the box work beyond its 3 GB of physical RAM, without wearing out the eMMC.
Tuning
The kernel compresses memory with zswap (zstd). Swap lives on the USB SSD, not on eMMC. Memory and disk parameters are set in a dedicated sysctl file. Network services that are useless in server mode are disabled.
Warning. Replacing the original bootloader is a risky operation. Back up the complete eMMC before any change, and flash only the bootloader intended for this SoC.
Evidence
TODO(nico): provide the output of free -h and /proc/cpuinfo, and a capture of the memory seen by Linux.