Getting started on Odroid HC4 with Armbian

[Robert Moskowitz]

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

[TRS-80]

Moved to P2P help.

 

dd does not verify the written image, which is why that's not the recommended way.  Please read Getting Started docs and try again.

 

 

Edited February 28, 2022 by TRS-80

[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.