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Zero/install/eMMC Android

< Zero‎ | install
    Radxa Zero >  Installation >  Install Android to eMMC

How to install Android to Radxa Zero eMMC

This guide describes how to install Android to Radxa Zero eMMC. Currently there are two types of Android image that can be flashed on Radxa Zero: Android OTA image, which is a zip archive with multiple smaller img files in it; and amlupdate image, which is just one big img file. Android OTA image is a standard image format that can be flashed by fastboot tool, while amlupdate image is a proprietary format and requires aml-flash-tool. This guide will only cover Android OTA image format. User of amlupdate image should follow this guide instead.

Requirement

  • Radxa Zero
  • A PC/laptop running Windows, Linux, or macOS
  • USB A to C cable or C to C cable, depending on your host
  • Android 9 image, which should be unzipped after downloading, and you will find files like this in the folder:
   $ ls
   android-info.txt  dtbo.img       flash-all.sh  product.img   vbmeta.img
   boot.img          dt.img         logo.img      recovery.img  vendor.img
   bootloader.img    flash-all.bat  odm.img       system.img

bootloader.img will be needed later to run Zero in fastboot mode. Do not use rz-fastboot-loader.bin as it doesn't have the necessary partition info.

Windows

Please follow maskrom guide to load extracted bootloader.img. Google driver and nexus-tools are required so don't skip them.

Execute flash-all.bat from your extracted Android folder to flash all partitions to eMMC. Some errors about missing file is normal.

If command line cannot find adb/fastboot, you can add them to PATH variable with set PATH=YOUR_PATH_TO_ADB_FASTBOOT;%PATH%; and try again.

You should unplug and replug USB cable after flashing. Otherwise your Radxa Zero will stay in maskrom mode.

Linux & macOS

Please follow maskrom guide to load extracted bootloader.img. nexus-tools is required so don't skip it.

Execute flash-all.sh from your extracted Android folder to flash all partitions images to eMMC. Some errors about missing file is normal.

If command line cannot find adb/fastboot, you can add them to PATH variable with PATH=YOUR_PATH_TO_ADB_FASTBOOT:$PATH and try again.

You should unplug and replug USB cable after flashing. Otherwise your Radxa Zero will stay in maskrom mode.

FAQ

1. How to erase Android?

A:

  • To erase partitions, first load rz-udisk-loader.bin in maskrom mode, then run following command:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/<emmc device> bs=1M count=500

2. Why is there no fastboot device?

A: If the board not able to run into fastboot, please try:

  • If you can boot to android, try "adb reboot fastboot" or (uart console) "reboot fastboot"
  • If you can visit U-Boot console, execute command "fastboot"