It's a bit embarrassing, but in my case the fault was entirely mine. I seemed to have messed around a bit too much with the system. However, maybe this helps someone else with their problem as well. One of the changes I did to my system caused the /lib directory to be replaced by an actual directory instead of a symlink to /usr/lib. As the init.d script is stored in /usr/lib/init, the boot process couldn't find it anymore under the path it expects it to, the kernel panicked. I then removed the directory including all its contents and replaced it with the correct symlink again. Since then, my Cubietruck has been working fine.

I have resolved it, modified in the driver.

It would be nice to know what is the actual problem here, so we can at least add instructions. If XZ format is not supported, then probably it needs to be decompressed manually, perhaps renamed to ISO and then flash. Or there is some other trick here? P.S. Mirror fixed the problem on their side.

Rufus was never tested nor recommended. https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Getting-Started/#deploy-the-image

Strange. Rufus ... does it support compressed .xz ? What are exact steps which lead to this error? USB imager, as recommended, must work. I have manually tested some of those images and there were no problems.