How to Write an Image to the eMMC Module Tutorial

[Luke]

Why installation is not done by just like this:
1) insert an SD card card with the "minimal" linux.
2) snap an empty eMMC in
3) turn the board on, boot from SD
4) download an image and flash it into eMMC by that smartass script.

I know it's obvious and hardly nobody could think of it before, rather there are some obstacles to do so. What they are?

Hi, the reason your simplified approach will not work is that boot precedence and eMMC initialization create two problems which prevent it.  If there is an image on the eMMC already, then the eMMC will boot 'first'.  If there is no image on the eMMC then either the machine will not boot, or if it does boot,  both devices will not be 'seen' by the OS during initialization; both mmcblk0 and mmcblk1 must be present, AND the machine has to be booted from SD.

The jumper used has one function,  it grounds the clock line of the eMMC, deactivating it temporarily;  that way the SD card will boot-up because (for all intents and purposes) the eMMC is not there.  We interrupt the boot-up at the uboot timer and then continue the bootup with the jumper removed--  this allows the boot-up to continue on SD, but also allows the OS to 'see' the eMMC module during initialization.

Thanks for the question.

In my view the need for this extremely complicated installation process is a major design flaw. I would have expected to be able to plug in a USB stick prepared in such a way the system would boot off the USB stick and transfer the OS image to the eMMC and that would be it.

At no point during the purchase process it was brought to my attention that I would need to purchase extra hardware to actually be able to install the system purchased (ROCK64, power supply and 64GB eMMC). I find it unacceptable that I need to purchase extra hardware with an additional shipping cost and waiting time, just to install it.

Would it be possible to install Linux on the eMMC after having installed Android on the eMMC using the simpler installation method? If not, I'll probably return my ROCK64 as it would be useless to me.

I'm not sure how experienced you are with SBCs, but in any case:

• You can now purchase a USB->eMMC  from the store that makes it very easy to install the chosen OS to eMMC; read about it in the NOOB Wiki section. 
  
• A prompt to buy a PSU and the USB->eMMC adaptor would be nice but you can't blame PINE64 for not doing your research prior to your purchase. You understand that you can run the device from SD right ? 
  
• Yes, there are alternative ways to flash images - read the Wiki. Also, with SPI implementation already working (although not yet stable from what I understand) I expect things to get much easier in the near future. 
  

Thanks for your reply.

I've had a couple of Raspberry Pis for a few years and I purchased the ROCK64 as a replacement for one of them, with the eMMC, Gigabit Ethernet and USB 3 as the killer features. I'm not interested in running from the SD card, that's properly as bad as running from the SD card on the Raspberry. With my usage the Raspberry destroys the SD card within a few months, so I need to use the eMMC only instead.

Because of my Raspberry experience I didn't even consider that this would be so different and require different hardware options just to install. Obviously my bad but I think most users that come from a similar background would expect the same so I suggest some kind of warning during the purchase process if bought with an eMMC.

So there's no way of avoiding purchasing extra hardware to get the image onto the eMMC? At no point will it be possible to prepare a USB stick with booter, image and installation software, just plug it into the ROCK64 and it will take care of the installation onto the eMMC?

Put the Rock64 into maskrom and use ayufan's script

<ayufan9> put in maskrom mode and run script with link to uncompressed image: https://github.com/ayufan-rock64/flash-tools 

edit: so this allows you to flash using an A-to-A cable from a nix computer. I'll write up more detailed instructions on the wiki next week. But its basically identical to how you would go about using rkflashtool to flash android on Linux or Mac OS. No adaptor required, just a jumper (or a clip...), an A-to-A USB cable and a nix computer...