Use Windows to create a bootable SD card to run Linux

Post date: Dec 10, 2014 10:22:37 AM

Easiest way to try Linux on a RK3288 if you only have a Windows PC.

First check your bootloader version and if necessary flash the RK3288Loader_uboot_V2.17.02.bin (downloadable from 'https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B99O3A0dDe67Tm1nVjdncVBuaG8') to your device to allow SD card booting.

Next download and uncompress one of these images ('https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B99O3A0dDe67cU1ZSkoybEdPeTA' or 'https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B99O3A0dDe67XzBhYTRKS1BqTnc') and write the image to an SD card using 'Win32 Disk Imager' on Windows (or 'dd' on Linux).

Then just put the SD card into your device and turn on the power to boot up Linux.

Booting will give you a full Linux desktop. It will not affect your installed software as everything needed to boot is taken from the SD card so it will work even if the device is 'bricked'. As it provides effectively a generic RK3288 kernel and resource image, both wifi and/or sound may or may not work depending on your specific device. However you can then use the system to build a bootable SD card by following 'Running Android or Linux from an SD card on a RK3288 device' (see 'https://plus.google.com/+IanMORRISON/posts/22Vxc6Sr5Ei') or similar.

The default username is 'linuxium' and the default password is 'p'.

A root password can be set by entering 'sudo su -' and then 'passwd root' in a terminal window. You can expand the file system to utilise the whole SD card by entering 'echo -e "d\nn\np\n1\n139265\n\nw" | sudo fdisk /dev/mmcblk1' then rebooting and entering 'sudo resize2fs /dev/mmcblk1p1' to complete the resizing.

One other advantage is that this image also supports a Linux root file system (RFS) on USB. So if you want to try a different RFS all you need to do is download one and write it to USB and then make sure both the SD card and USB are inserted before connecting the power.