Rock3/install/microSD

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    ROCK 3 >  Installation >  Install the image to microSD

Install the image to microSD

This guide describes how to write images to microSD and erase microSD card for ROCK 3 serial boards.

Available ROCK 3 boards:

ROCK 3A
ROCK 3B
Radxa E23
Radxa E25
Radxa CM3 IO
Radxa CM3 RASPCM4IO

Part one: Write one system image to microSD

In part one let's focus on writing one system image to microSD. Here we test it with ROCK 3A board.

Step one: Requirements

ROCK 3A board with power supply
a microSD card, larger than 8GB, class 10 or better
a microSD card reader, either a USB card reader or the SD card reader on laptop
a PC/laptop running Windows or Linux or MacOS

Step two: Download necessary tools and image

Etcher is the tool we use to write image. Download the right Etcher for your PC from ROCK 3 Downloads page and install it. Check Etcher website for more info about Etcher.
Choose the image you want to install from ROCK 3 Downloads page.

Here we use the following image for writing.

rock3a_debian_buster_xfce4_arm64_20210824_0136-gpt.img.gz

Step three: Write the image to microSD card

Insert the microSD Card into microSD Card Reader, which connects to host computer.

Run the application. For example double click balenaEtcher-1.5.116-x64.AppImage on Ubuntu 20.04:

In the etcher window, we click button Select image.

In the etcher window, we click button Select Drive.

In the etcher window, we click button Flash.

In the etcher window, it shows us Flash Complete!

Done! Now you have successfully installed the OS image on microSD card.

Part two: Erase microSD

When microSD is written with Android (or Linux) images before, now we change to Linux( or Android). It's recommended that you erase microSD first. Then write the target images.

Part three: Write U-Boot images to microSD

In part three let's take a look know to write U-Boot images to microSD. We have prebuilt u-boot images built via rockchip-bsp SDK. They're idbloader.img and u-boot.itb.

On Linux PC:

$ sudo dd if=./idbloader.img    of=/dev/sdX seek=64
$ sudo dd if=./u-boot.itb    of=/dev/sdX seek=16384

On Mac PC:

% sudo dd if=./idbloader.img    of=/dev/diskX seek=64
% sudo dd if=./u-boot.itb    of=/dev/diskX seek=16384