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Radxa
Staging

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.

After you download and boot?

Basic OS configuration is conducted at first boot. You are asked to set a root password, normal user and confirm your, automatically determined, language settings. If your hardware has internal media, you might want to transfer your OS to it. You can also choose to configure your OS first, setup applications, enable services and install to internal media later.

armbian-config

image

You can select different login shell (ZSH), enable 2FA for your SSH, enable virtual read-only file-system, switch to rolling releases, ... and more. Armbian config tool helps you configure your network (static, dynamic, enabling hotspot). Once you are done configurion your OS, you can proceed to software section. Armbian config provides clean and fast way of installing great selection of popular software titles. If you plan to use your board for running a home automation, file server, ad blocking, downloading media, ... we got you covered.

Bleeding edge images with Armbian Linux v6.14

Build Date: Mar 29, 2025

Distro Variant Extensions Torrent Integrity Size
 
Debian 12 (Bookworm) Cinnamon SHA    ASC 1.3 GB
Debian 12 (Bookworm) Minimal / IOT SHA    ASC 216.1 MB
Debian 12 (Bookworm) XFCE SHA    ASC 1.3 GB
Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble) Server / CLI SHA    ASC 391.1 MB
Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble) Gnome SHA    ASC 1.1 GB
Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble) Minimal / IOT SHA    ASC 208.5 MB
Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble) XFCE SHA    ASC 1.2 GB
 
* Edge kernels are actively developed, so there may be some unreported issues on this images. You should beware of that.
* Most of images are tested with test automation or by Armbian community or official maintainers.

Specifications

MT8395

* Specifications differ from hardware revision, model and software support level

FAQs

  • check previous images from archive
  • join community forums

Simple

BASH or ZSH shell, standard Debian/Ubuntu utilities. Features can be adjusted with menu-driven utility. Login is possible via serial, HDMI or SSH.

Universal

Minimal, server or Desktop. We work with XFCE, Gnome and Cinnamon but more is possible to build: Mate, KDE, Budgie, Deepin, i3, …

Light

No bloatware or spyware. Special utilities are completely optional. Suitable for newcomers and professionals.

Optimized

Distributed images are optimized for flash media (SD/eMMC/SSD) and compacted to real data size.

Fast

Armbian is optimized on kernel and userspace level. ZRAM & ZSWAP support, browser profile memory caching, garbage commit delay.

Secure

Security level can be adjusted with the armbian-config. OS is reviewed by professionals within the community.

Supported

Maintainers and community have deep understanding how HW work. We are seniors with 30+ years of experience in Linux + embedded Linux.

Open

Armbian provides open source build framework to build a distribution of optimised Linux hardware interface for armhf, aarch64 and x86.

We provide a selection of images that fits hardware best. If you need different image – use build framework and make whatever you need. Build framework relies on Debian and Ubuntu packages – you can build any combination – stable, old stable or rolling release.

Minimal images have very small footprint. They come only with essential packages and build-in systemd-networkd while CLI server images have Network Manager based networking, armbian-config utilities, option to select ZSH as default shell.

Make sure you have a good & reliable boot media (SD card / USB key) and a proper power supply. Archives can be flashed with Etcher (all OS) directly.

Insert the SD card into the slot, connect a cable to your network if possible or a display and power your board. (First) boot (with DHCP) takes a bit longer.

Support is provided in one of two ways:

Rolling releases images with Armbian Linux v6.14

Build Date: Apr 21, 2025

Distro Variant User space Kernel Torrent Integrity Size
 
Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky) Minimal / IOT rolling 6.14.0-rc4 SHA  ASC 215.3 MB
Debian Testing (Trixie) Minimal / IOT rolling 6.14.0-rc4 SHA  ASC 234.9 MB


* The torrent option is recommended, as it will likely maximize your download connection speed.


Rolling releases are suitable for Linux enthusiasts who want cutting edge packages and have the skills to fix damage that a bad update might cause. If you want stability in a production environment or low headaches as a novice user, skip rolling releases. They are only at, build and ship, Debian testing / Arch / Manjaro / Suse Tumbleweed / Kali / Gentoo support quality level!

Current images doesn't work? Use old images from archive and report to forums exactly which image fails.