Create Flash Card

Linux users can follow this guide to create a special SD card for “flashing” an OS into the eMMC. Windows users may use the following guides: Install OS into SD/USB Media.

The process for VIM1, VIM2, VIM3 and VIM4 is similar, so we will use VIM1 as an example.
OS Installation SD Cards must use the FAT32 filesystem. Therefore, because the Ubuntu desktop image is larger then 4GB, it cannot be burned to the eMMC using this method.

Preparation

Prepare Your SD Card

Backup all important data, then remove all partitions on your SD card.

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$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdX

Then create just 1 partition:

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$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdX
NOTE

Set the first sector to 4096.

The single partition should look like this:

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Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdc: 14.86 GiB, 15931539456 bytes, 31116288 sectors
Disk model: SD Card Reader
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x2914f327

Device     Boot Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1        4096 31116287 31112192 14.9G 83 Linux

The partition must start from 4096.

Create the OS Installation (Burning) SD Card

Insert the SD card into your PC, make sure it is unmounted:

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$ sudo umount /dev/sdX1

Format the SD card to FAT32:

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$ sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdX1
Note

Replace sdX with the correct device node on your PC.

Use dd to write the Bootloader/U-boot to the first sector of the SD card:

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$ sudo dd if=u-boot.bin.sd.bin of=/dev/sdX conv=fsync,notrunc bs=1 count=444
$ sudo dd if=u-boot.bin.sd.bin of=/dev/sdX conv=fsync,notrunc bs=512 skip=1 seek=1
Tips

The U-Boot file u-boot.bin.sd.bin is built for SD cards.

The U-Boot file u-boot.bin is built for the eMMC.

Copy the OS image to your SD card.

Build the image yourself or download from our dl.khadas.com.

Insert the SD card again, then run the following command:

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$ cp -a aml_sdc_burn.ini update.img /media/XXX/9CE9-3938/
Tips

The file aml_sdc_burn.ini is a configuration file for U-Boot, it’s purpose is to burn images into the eMMC. You can find it here.

Note

The package in aml_sdc_burn.ini should match your OS image!

For example, the name of the OS image is update.img. So the package variable in aml_sdc_burn.ini should be specified as package = update.img.

Eject the SD card:

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$ sudo eject /dev/sdX

Done!

Upgrade Using Your OS Installation (Burning) SD Card

  1. Insert your OS installation SD card into your SBC, and power-on.
  2. Follow this guide to boot into upgrade mode.
  3. Wait till the flashing process completes.
  4. Eject the SD card, and reboot your SBC.
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