First flashing

[mel47]

Hi,

I just received my Rock64! However, before doing something wrong, I need to understand. I read the Noob page but I'm still not sure. In fact, I'm quite lost, I don't know which section I should follow. And what material I need.

Do I need a SD card or not if I want to use eMMC?

I seems to understand I need a USB-USB cable?

Do I can follow Flashing to eMMC using Rockchip Tools (Rock64 Only) if I don't want an Android image?

In fact, I want to install NextCloudPi. In those instructions, it's still question of a microSD card but not eMMC.


Thanks a lot to help a motivated, but lost, beginner!

[tophneal]

Do I need a SD card or not if I want to use eMMC?

No, not necessarily, but using an SD card is a good, simple option to write an image to your eMMC. They're also handy for writing the uboot to SPI.

I seems to understand I need a USB-USB cable?

That's correct, to use rkflashtool you'll need a USB-a to USB-A cable. Alternatively, you can boot a live img from SD and write to your eMMC. You'll want to use the SD to write uboot to your SPI first, though. IIRC the SoC boot order is emmc > SD.

Do I can follow Flashing to eMMC using Rockchip Tools (Rock64 Only) if I don't want an Android image?

In fact, I want to install NextCloudPi. In those instructions, it's still question of a microSD card but not eMMC.

You can use that method to write any image, Android or Linux. Typically, for imgs labeled with SD, its just an easy indicator that the img is Live, so you'll boot straight into the OS. (When an SD img is not suitable for emmc, it is usually noted.)

[mel47]

Thanks.
After many weeks to try to understand vocabulary and images, I bought a new SD card. I used etcher to flash with NextCloudPi_Rock64_03-28-20.
It boot, but get “spinlock lockup suspected on cpu” bug. I tried to restart many times, messages are not always the same, but I never been able to reach installation screen.

So then, I tried Armbian_20.08_Rock64_buster_current_5.7.15 or Armbian_20.08.1_Rock64_buster_current_5.8.6. Both was booting, however I'm unable to get nextcloud working. But I guess it's more a software problem.

For now, I'm more concern by the fact that I seems to lose IP after a while (eg overnight). A red led was flashing and orange and green led for ethernet cable. When plugged to hdmi I see a tty login.
Is it normal? Is it because my installation is not completed? Does it goes to sleep? I was thinking those small board were designed to be always on.
Thanks.
Mel