If you have a Radxa Zero with eMMC (any model with 2GB or 4GB of RAM), you’ll need to erase the eMMC before you can boot it from a microSD card and use Armbian. 1GB version is not supported.
Full instructions are available on the Radxa wiki, but here are some quick notes.
– Connect a USB cable to the Zero’s OTG port (the USB-C plug marked USB-PWR)
– Hold down the “USB BOOT” button on the Radxa Zero while connecting the USB cable to a USB port on the Linux host
– sudo pip3 install pyamlboot on the host
– curl -O https://dl.armbian.com/radxa-zero/loader/radxa-zero-erase-emmc.bin
– sudo boot-g12.py radxa-zero-erase-emmc.bin
You may have to run the sudo boot-g12.py command a second time to fully clear the eMMC. In case you encounter boot issues, try this hint and report there.
- If your RockPi-S is equipped a large enough SDNAND, you may flash an OS image directly to this internal flash as follows:
- Build Linux x86 binary rkdeveloptool (sources) on host
- Remove any SDcard
- Plug the USB-C port into your computer
- Hold down MASKROM button while you…
- Power on or press the RESET button to enter flash mode
- Release the MASKROM button after 2 seconds
Next, run these host commands to flash the internal SDnand:-
- 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)
-
- Holding the MASKROM button during reset prevents booting from internal the SDNAND.
- But, the board will always boot from the SD Card, if it finds a valid image there.
- Kernel serial console is on UART0. [some older images have their console on UART2]
- The serial console operates at 1.5Mbaud with 8 data, 1 stop, and no parity bits.
- Black(left)=GND, White(center)=TxD, Green(right)=RxD
If you have a board with the -B version of the SOC, you may add the following line to your /boot/armbianEnv.txt file to allow operation at 1.3ghz:
overlays=b@1.3ghz
If you have a board with the BS version of the SOC, you should add the following line to your /boot/armbianEnv.txt file to tune for the newer “BS” silicon and run at 1.3ghz:
overlays=bs bs@1.3ghz
Note that the B version SOC is more common. I have never seen one. The BS version supposedly will be labeled RK3308B-S.
Refer to /boot/dtb/rockchip/overlay/README.rockchip-overlays for more information.
