How do I get into Loader mode to flash an image?

[olivercfc]

I'm following the guide at https://github.com/ayufan-rock64/android-7.1 but failing at step 3

Step 1 is to d/l and compile rkflashtool (done)

Step 2 is to connect a USB A-to-A cable to the upper USB2 port on the Rock64 and my computer (I assume any old male-to-male / A-to-A cable will do)

Step 3 is to put the Rock64 into Loader mode but no matter what I do, it just goes through the normal boot process and ends up at a ' => ' prompt

The specific steps are
i) press and hold recovery button
ii) press reset button
iii) stop holding recovery button after 3 seconds

Is there any visual change I should be seeing on the console to let me know it's in Loader mode?

When I run 'rkflashtool n' to verify it tells me 'fatal: cannot open device.'  I'm also not seeing anything in 'dmesg' (but maybe that's normal)

My Rock64 is microSD only, no eMMC.

[BowerR64]

What i did was, First connect your USB-A-A cable to the computer, then open the flash tool in windows while its open and waiting i put a jumper across the 2 pins by the "recovery btn" then plugged in the power.

The computer will make beep sounds, then i remove the jumper and start the flashing process.

I found depending on the file some times after clicking the file it would take a bit before i could actually start the process, the button would stay grey till it loaded or something.

Im not 100% about this but i think the "recovery btn" only works if the "recovery" system is actually on the device say on the eMMc module or the SD card. I think the way the board comes there is nothing on it to do anything till its loaded a storage device if this makes sense?