This Debian ARM64 Linux image is built directly from official packages using the Debian Debootstrap utility, see: https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r6/blob/main/debian/make_debian_img.sh#L128
Patches are directly available from the Debian repos using the built-in apt package manager, see: https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r6/blob/main/debian/make_debian_img.sh#L355-L362
- Note: The kernel in this bundle is from kernel.org and will not get updates from debian.
1. download the appropriate image
wget https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r6/releases/download/v12-6.7-rc5/nanopi-r6c_bookworm-v12-6.7-rc5.img.xz
2. determine the location of the target micro sd card
- before plugging-in device
ls -l /dev/sd*
ls: cannot access '/dev/sd*': No such file or directory
- after plugging-in device
ls -l /dev/sd*
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 Mar 19 21:08 /dev/sda
- note: for mac, the device is
/dev/rdiskX
3. in the case above, substitute 'a' for 'X' in the command below (for /dev/sda)
sudo su
xzcat nanopi-r6c_bookworm-v12-6.7-rc5.img.xz > /dev/sdX
sync
4. login account
user: debian
pass: debian
5. take updates
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
6. create new admin account
sudo adduser <youruserid>
echo '<youruserid> ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL' | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/<youruserid>
sudo chmod 440 /etc/sudoers.d/<youruserid>
7. lockout and/or delete debian account
sudo passwd -l debian
sudo chsh -s /usr/sbin/nologin debian
sudo deluser --remove-home debian
sudo rm /etc/sudoers.d/debian
8. change hostname (optional)
sudo nano /etc/hostname
sudo nano /etc/hosts
Imaging the internal eMMC device involves booting from a removable MMC card and imaging the internal eMMC device. When booted, the removable MMC device is seen as /dev/mmcblk0 and the internal eMMC device is seen as /dev/mmcblk1
1. boot from removable MMC
Using the steps in the first section above, create a removable MMC card and boot using it. Note: If the internal eMMC device already has a bootable image on it, it will prefer to boot from that. To force the nanopi5 to boot from the removable MMC card you just made, hold the mask button down before applying power. Once successfully booted to the removable MMC, you will be able to see this by using the df command which will show /dev/mmcblk0p1 as the booted partition.
2. download the appropriate image to the booted MMC card and image the internal eMMC
wget https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r6/releases/download/v12-6.7-rc5/nanopi-r6c_bookworm-v12-6.7-rc5.img.xz
sudo su
xzcat nanopi-r6c_bookworm-v12-6.7-rc5.img.xz > /dev/mmcblk1
sync
Once imaging completes, shutdown, remove the MMC card and it will then boot using the internal eMMC device.
Note: Once booted, sudo apt update then sudo apt upgrade to get the latest updates from the debian repositories.
Imaging the internal NVMe device involves booting from a removable MMC card and imaging the internal NVMe device. When booted, the internal NVMe device is seen as /dev/nvme0n1
1. boot from removable MMC
Using the steps in the first section above, create a removable MMC card and boot using it. Note: If the internal eMMC device already has a bootable image on it, it will prefer to boot from that. To force the nanopi5 to boot from the removable MMC card you just made, hold the mask button down before applying power. Once successfully booted to the removable MMC, you will be able to see this by using the df command which will show /dev/mmcblk0p1 as the booted partition.
2. download the image to the booted MMC card and image the internal NVMe
wget https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r6/releases/download/v12-6.7-rc5/nanopi-r6c_bookworm-v12-6.7-rc5.img.xz
sudo su
xzcat nanopi-r6c_bookworm-v12-6.7-rc5.img.xz > /dev/nvme0n1
sync
3. install u-boot to internal eMMC
The last step is to prepare the internal eMMC to host u-boot. The eMMC must not contain a bootable partition or it will be preferred for boot over the internal NVMe. Start by downloading the two u-boot files:
wget https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r6/releases/download/v12-6.7-rc5/idbloader.img
wget https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r6/releases/download/v12-6.7-rc5/u-boot.itb
Erase the internal eMMC (the device is actually /dev/mmcblk1 but X is placed where 1 belongs to prevent a copy paste mistake)
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblkX bs=1M count=1024
The internal eMMC is now erased, install u-boot (again, change X to 1):
sudo dd bs=4K seek=8 if=idbloader.img of=/dev/mmcblkX
sudo dd bs=4K seek=2048 if=u-boot.itb of=/dev/mmcblkX
4. setup is now complete and the system is ready for use
shutdown the device, remove the external mmc card, and restart the device
Note: Once booted, sudo apt update then sudo apt upgrade to get the latest updates from the debian repositories.
The build script builds native arm64 binaries and thus needs to be run from an arm64 device such as a raspberry pi4 running a 64 bit arm linux. The initial build of this project used a debian arm64 odroid m1, but now uses a rock 5b running stock debian bookworm arm64.
1. clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r6.git
cd nanopi-r6
2. run the debian build script
cd debian
sudo sh make_debian_img.sh
- note: edit the build script to change various options:
nano make_debian_img.sh
3. the output if the build completes successfully
mmc_2g.img.xz