Robert Moskowitz

dd is/was not the problem; I have been using it for over a decade (along with sync) for building arm board images. The problem, it turns out was my lack of groking the "Bootloader Bypass Method" on https://www.armbian.com/odroid-hc4/ First I did not get that step 4 is for only some seconds after power on. My first attempt, I held it in until I got to the # prompt and I guess I was in some internal bootloader prompt. The next time I tried, I slipped off the button after a few sec into the power and WOW, I ended up at the armbian setup. Now others may know to only hold it in for a few sec on boot, I did not. Then I was 'upset' as I was into armbian, I did not at first realize that step 5 was about log into armbian. Once I really looked prompt example being "odroidhc4:~:#" I figured it out. So it was on me to not understand the instructions for "Bootloader Bypass Method". Or you can add a bit of text there for step 4 to indicate to only hold in the boot button for a few sec and let the boot continue, as it will go of the armbian SD image. And add to step 5 that you are logging as root into your armbian image and at the armbian prompt proceed. But I now have removed the bootloader and can easily boot into my armbian image. Thanks for this fine work.

New to Armbian... I am working on Armbian 21.08 Bullseye as it is suppose to work on Odroid HC4 and it uses uboot from the mSD card. I downloaded the image from https://redirect.armbian.com/odroidhc4/Bullseye_current I wrote it to SD card with xzcat Armbian_21.08.9_Odroidhc4_bullseye_current_5.10.81.img.xz | dd of=/dev/mmcblk0 status=progress bs=4M Connected the serial console, inserted the mSD card and LAN cable and booted (no HD yet). I am getting a # prompt when I should be getting a login to login as root. So something is not write. Do I have to delete the bootloader as discussed at https://www.armbian.com/odroid-hc4/ ? I tried holding down the boot button, but I don't get any file system to delete anything. Do I hold the button down until boot is finished? I can provide the serial console output if that is needed. Thank you