Radxa Zero Installation - Erasing eMMC

ARM Technical Assistance
1

I have the Radxa Zero in maskrom mode:

Bus 002 Device 111: ID 1b8e:c003 Amlogic, Inc. GX-CHIP

The Radxa wiki now says to get:

1

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/corbindavenport/nexus-tools/master/install.sh)

(I presume this is for erasing the eMMC, maybe not).

2

The Radxa wiki also says to download:

radxa-zero-erase-emmc.bin

but what do I do with that file??

Which option #1 or #2 do I choose, or do I do both ???

N.B
I have read that when I can see the Radxa Zero as a USB drive then I can flash
it in the usual way.

Thx.

2

nexus-tools is only for Android installation. After downloading radxa-zero-erase-emmc.bin follow maskrom guide to load the file: Radxa Wiki /Zero/dev/maskrom#Side_loading_binaries. You can then flash Manjaro in the usual way.

I can’t include the link in my post so please add the above in your browser’s url.

3

Thanks @RadxaYuntian , I have managed to get Manjaro Minimal onto eMMC and it boots fine, network is up and working (wired only, not tested wifi yet).
To get to this stage I followed these instructions:-

  1. Flash Android on eMMC.
  2. Boot into Android. (just to make sure it works)
  3. Flash Manjaro-ARM-minimal-radxa-zero-20220117.img.xz with etcher on sdcard.
  4. Insert SD Card and it should boot into Manjaro over sdcard.
  5. Test if everything that you want works on sdcard and make sure the time is synced to your current time.
  6. Run the Install emmc script as root. sudo /boot/install-aml-emmc.sh (This will install the same OS from SD Card to emmc).
  7. Reboot. (without sdcard to boot into emmc)

These instructions were taken from the Radxa Zero forum:

Still can’t see the Radxa presenting itself as a usb port, so I guess I have to run.

sudo boot-g12.py rz-fastboot-loader.bin

But that is for UBUNTU.

So what can I use in place of boot-g12.py to sideload the rz-fastboot-loader ???

Ultimately I want to install the official Manjaro Sway spin for the Radxa Zero.

Sorry for the long winded explanation.

Thx.

4

These steps are for old images.

For new images which have mainline uboot does not need this.

You can just mount emmc as usb like Explained radxa wiki then flash the latest manjaro image on emmc using etcher.