How to install
Radxa-Nio-12L uses EFI Boot via Grub with DeviceTree. To make use of it follow this Guide from Collabora to flash Uboot onto the UFS storage. Then you can flash one of the provided images onto a SD Card and power on the SBC which will automatically boot into Armbian. Keep in mind the Boot order has UFS at first place so you need to erase any OS you have on on UFS to boot from a SD Card.
Q&A for Genio-Family:
- Can I boot from UFS?
- Regarding Armbian this is currently not possible as we cannot utilize 4096 sector sizes for our partitions. Follow this issue to see what the current status is.
- Can I make use of UFS as a Data Partition inside of Linux?
- Yes.
- Which kernels are available?
- We’re making use of Collabora’s mediatek-next branch which is based on mainline Linux.
- There is also a highly experimental BSP branch from Canonical’s Ubuntu on Genio available. This one is lacking support for various important features like GPU acceleration on Desktop and therefore is meant for developers only.
- XYZ is not working.
- Check this support matrix to see if that feature has been implemented already.
| Ubuntu Noble 24.11.1 GNOME Testing: | Rolling Release (25.2.x) Testing: |
|---|---|
|
|
- Images here are for 5B, for model 5A can be found here.
- Some eMMC devices are broken on 5A
- PD is broken for the 5B model (background) on most revisions that are in the wild and is causing boot loop. Workaround is to use a stupid / fixed 5-24 volts USB-C power supply.
- Installation to NVME or USB is done via standard armbian install utility (
sudo armbian-install). Make sure to generate partitions and format them before start.
| Armbian 25.2.1 Bookworm Minimal / IOT testing: |
Armbian 25.2.1 Noble Gnome MESA/VPU testing: |
|---|---|
|
|
Testing report:
Armbian_24.11.1_Rock-5-itx_noble_vendor_6.1.75_kde-neon-kisak_desktop.img.xz |
1.7 GiB |
2024-Nov-28 20:28 |
OK |
Desktop Works |
Armbian_24.11.1_Rock-5-itx_bookworm_vendor_6.1.75_cinnamon-backported-mesa_desktop.img.xz |
1.4 GiB |
2024-Nov-28 20:20 |
OK |
Desktop Works |
Armbian_24.11.1_Rock-5-itx_noble_vendor_6.1.75_gnome-kisak_desktop.img.xz |
1.4 GiB |
2024-Nov-28 20:19 |
OK |
Desktop Works |
Armbian_24.11.1_Rock-5-itx_bookworm_vendor_6.1.75_xfce_desktop.img.xz |
1.3 GiB |
2024-Nov-28 20:15 |
OK |
Desktop Works |
Armbian_24.11.1_Rock-5-itx_noble_vendor_6.1.75_xfce_desktop.img.xz |
1.2 GiB |
2024-Nov-28 20:24 |
OK |
Desktop Works |
Armbian_24.11.1_Rock-5-itx_noble_vendor_6.1.75-kisak.img.xz |
476.3 MiB |
2024-Nov-28 19:58 |
OK |
System Works (MESA) |
Armbian_24.11.1_Rock-5-itx_bookworm_vendor_6.1.75_minimal.img.xz |
238.3 MiB |
2024-Nov-28 19:57 |
OK |
System Works (HDMI YES) |
Armbian_24.11.1_Rock-5-itx_noble_vendor_6.1.75_minimal.img.xz |
233.2 MiB |
2024-Nov-28 19:54 |
OK |
System Works (HDMI YES) |
- You may flash an OS image directly to the Rock S0 internal EMMC flash as follows:
- Build Linux x86 binary rkdeveloptool (sources) on host
- Remove any SDcard
- Hold down the tiny, black MASKROM button while you…
- Power on, with the MASKROM button pressed, to enter flash mode
- Release the MASKROM button after 2 seconds
- Next, run these host commands to flash the internal EMMC flash:
-
- sudo rkdeveloptool db rk3308_loader_uart0_m0_emmc_port_support_sd_20190717.bin
- #await output: Downloading bootloader succeeded.
- sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0 /path/to/uncompressed_armbian_image
- #await output: Write LBA from file (100%)
- sudo rkdeveloptool rd
- #outputs: Reset Device OK.
(check official step by step instructions)
-
- If a valid image is found on the built-in EMMC flash, the board will boot that image unless…
- Holding down the MASKROM button disables the EMMC flash.
- If no valid image can be read from EMMC flash, it will attempt to boot from SD Card.
- The white “RECOVERY” button as no predefined function.
- The Rock S0 has no “reset” button!
- Kernel serial console is on UART0.
- The serial console operates at 1.5Mbaud with 8 data, 1 stop, and no parity bits.
- Red(far right)=+5V, Black(center right)=GND,White(center left)=TxD, Green(far left)=RxD
There is no need to attach the +5V to the GPIO header (as pictured above) if the board is powered via USB.
If not using an external antenna, consider adding this line to /boot/armbianEnv.txt file to increase CPU clock to 1.3 GHz:
overlays=b@1.3ghz
However, use of an external antenna will dramatically improve radio performance.
If using an external antenna, consider adding this line to /boot/armbianEnv.txt file to increase CPU clock to 1.3 GHz and select the external antenna:
overlays=b@1.3ghz s0-ext-antenna
Refer to /boot/dtb/rockchip/overlay/README.rockchip-overlays for more information.
Audio Notes:
Linux kernel >= 6.12 with enable both the RK3308’s built-in analog CODEC and the pcm5102a CODEC used on other variants of the RockPI.
RockPI-S audio users should disable the pcm5102a by running the following command as root:
# echo "install snd_soc_pcm5102a /bin/false" >/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-snd_soc_pcm5102a.conf
This prevents the kernel module for the pcm5102a from loading on subsequent boots.
To access the RockPI-S POE hat’s headphone audio output, please see:
- Images here are for 5B, for model 5A can be found here.
- Some eMMC devices are broken on 5A
- PD is broken for the 5B model (background) on most revisions that are in the wild and is causing boot loop. Workaround is to use a stupid / fixed 5-24 volts USB-C power supply.
- Installation to NVME or USB is done via standard armbian install utility (
sudo armbian-install). Make sure to generate partitions and format them before start.