Boot Images from External Media

There are several images that are designed to run from a SD Card or Thumbdrive (U-Disk) and are compatible with VIMs. For example:

This tutorial is about how to boot these images.

Install Image to SD/USB Storage

Please check Install System on SD/USB Storage.

Select the Appropriate DTB

For Armbian, LibreELEC, Manjaro

You need to select the appropriate DTB file.

  • Navigate to your SD card’s / Thumbdrive’s BOOT partition, and open the folder labelled dtb.

  • Find the correct .dtb filename in the folder /dtb. Examples:

    • VIM1: /dtb/meson-gxl-s905x-khadas-vim.dtb
    • VIM2: /dtb/meson-gxm-khadas-vim2.dtb
    • VIM3: /dtb/meson-g12b-a311d-khadas-vim3.dtb
    • VIM3L: /dtb/meson-sm1-khadas-vim3l.dtb

  • Edit FDT in /extlinux/extlinux.conf and dtb_name= in uEnv.ini with the correct dtb filename.

For CoreELEC

  • Find the appropriate .dtb file in COREELEC partition dtb folder:
    • VIM1: Copy gxl_p212_2g_kvim.dtb to COREELEC partition, and rename it to dtb.img.
    • VIM2: Copy gxm_kvim2.dtb to COREELEC partition, and rename it to dtb.img.
    • VIM3: Copy g12b_a311d_khadas_vim3 to COREELEC partition, and rename it to dtb.img.

For Volumio

  • Find the appropriate .dtb file in BOOT partition dtb folder:
    • VIM1: Copy kvim.dtb, kvim_linux.dtb or meson-gxl-s905x-khadas-vim.dtb to BOOT partition, and rename it to dtb.img.
    • VIM2: Copy kvim2.dtb, kvim2_linux.dtb or meson-gxm-khadas-vim2.dtb to BOOT partition, and rename it to dtb.img.
    • VIM3: Copy kvim3_linux.dtb or kvim3l_linux.dtb to BOOT partition, and rename it to dtb.img.

For Khadas SD/USB Images

No need to setup the dtb file, just skip this step.

Boot from SD/USB Storage

There are several ways to boot (activate multi-boot) from the SD card / Thumbdrive:

  • Via Keys mode (Side-Buttons) - the easiest and fastest way

  • Via Android

    • Enter Settings->About Device->System->Updates.
    • Click select and choose aml_autosript.zip.
    • Click update, then the system will reboot and boot from the external media image.
WARNING

Don’t use your PC as the USB-Host to supply the electrical power, otherwise it will fail to activate Multi-Boot!

NOTICE

If any other OS than Android, Armbian or LibreELEC has been installed to eMMC and you want to install either Armbian or LibreELEC to eMMC, the eMMC has to be completely wiped with dd before latest Ubuntu is burned to eMMC by following Install OS into eMMC.