Install the operating system

This document describes how to install an Android image to the ROCK 5C.

ROCK 5C can be booted from microSD card or EMMC, depending on the boot method, the system will be installed on different media.

Install system to microSD card

Preparation

• 1x microSD card (capacity >=16GB, speed level >= class10)
• 1x microSD card reader
• 5V power adapter (Recommended Radxa Power PD30W)

Image Download

Please go to Resource Download to download the corresponding image file.

Install the system

Balena Etcher is a cross-platform and user friendly image file burning tool that we recommend you use.

1. Download Etcher and install it.

Windows

Please download balenaEtcher-Setup-1.18.11.exe After the download is complete, there is no need to perform any additional actions. After downloading, you can double click it to open it without any additional operation.

Linux

Please download balena-etcher_1.18.11_amd64.deb. Once the download is complete, please install it by executing the following command in the terminal:

sudo dpkg -i balena-etcher_1.18.11_amd64.deb

2. Open Etcher

   

3. Open Etcher and click Flash from file to select the image to write to.

   

4. Click Select target to select the device, please select carefully.

   

5. Click Flash! Start writing and wait for the write progress bar to complete.

   

6. When writing the image successfully, Etcher will display Flash Complete!.

   

If there is an error in flashing, please try again.

Boot the system

• After successfully burning the microSD card as described above, insert the microSD card into the microSD slot of ROCK 5C.
• The power supply interface of ROCK 5C is Type C port, please connect the power supply port and the adapter with Type-C cable.

Reference Documentation

Installing the system to eMMC

Preparation

Prepare installation media

• USB connector cable (A-A)
• 1x eMMC module
• 5V power adapter (Recommended Radxa Power PD30W)

Download the image

Please go to Resource Download to download the corresponding image file.

System Installation

Enter maskrom mode

• Disconnect the board from the power supply.

• Remove the SD card and insert the eMMC module.

• Connect the USB3.0 port of the Radxa ROCK 5C to the PC side with USB A-A.

• Short the Maskrom pins

• Power up the board.

• Remove the right yellow jumper cap and keep the left yellow jumper cap.

• Check for USB devices

  • Linux/macOS: Check if "Bus 001 Device 112: ID 2207:350a Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics Company" is displayed after running lsusb.
  • Windows: Open RKDevTool and you will see the device in "maskrom mode".

Linux

Install rkdeveloptool

rkdeveloptool is Rockchip's software for USB burning on Linux/macOS platforms.

The rkdeveloptool can be thought of as an upgrade_tool for the open source version.

If your operating system does not provide rkdeveloptool, you will need to compile and install it from source.

Debian

Execute the following command from the command line to install:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev dh-autoreconf pkg-config libusb-1.0 build-essential git wget
git clone https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool
cd rkdeveloptool
wget https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool/pull/73.patch
wget https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool/pull/85.patch
git am *.patch
autoreconf -i
./configure
make -j $(nproc)
sudo cp rkdeveloptool /usr/local/sbin/

Ubuntu

Execute the following command from the command line to install:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev dh-autoreconf pkg-config libusb-1.0 build-essential git wget
git clone https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool
cd rkdeveloptool
wget https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool/pull/73.patch
wget https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool/pull/85.patch
git am *.patch
autoreconf -i
./configure
make -j $(nproc)
sudo cp rkdeveloptool /usr/local/sbin/

On Ubuntu 22.10 and later you can install it from the command line: sudo apt-get install rkdeveloptool

ArchLinux

rkdeveloptool can be installed from the AUR .

Enter Maskrom Mode

Using rkdeveloptool

Write to a file

tip

rkdeveloptool does not automatically decompress compressed files when writing to them.

You must first extract the used files and specify the extracted files in rkdeveloptool.

tip

rkdeveloptool does not support the selection of a Maskrom device, nor the selection of a storage medium to be written to. Normally, when using rkdeveloptool, only one device and one storage medium are connected in hardware. This step cannot be controlled by software.

If you need to write to multiple devices at the same time, use upgrade_tool.

1. Extract the image file (See File Download above for details of the image file, here rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img.xz is used as an example)

xz -d rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img.xz (if the image file is gz format，then use `gunzip -d xxx.gz` command)

2. Flash Loader(See File Download above for details of the loader file，here rkxxxx_spl_loader_v1.xxx.bin is just an example)

sudo rkdeveloptool db rkxxxx_spl_loader_v1.xxx.bin

3. Flash System Image (Here rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img is an example, use the file got from step1 as a replacement)

sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0 rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img

Reboot

sudo rkdeveloptool rd

Login

After rebooting the device, you can log in to the system via HDMI or serial port.

mac

Install rkdeveloptool

rkdeveloptool is Rockchip's software for USB burning on Linux/macOS platforms.

The rkdeveloptool can be thought of as an upgrade_tool for the open source version.

If your operating system does not provide rkdeveloptool, you will need to compile and install it from source.

Please install Homebrew first and then run the following command from the command line to install it:

brew install automake autoconf libusb pkg-config git wget
git clone https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool
cd rkdeveloptool
wget https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool/pull/73.patch
wget https://patch-diff.githubusercontent.com/raw/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool/pull/85.patch
git am *.patch
autoreconf -i
./configure
make -j $(nproc)
cp rkdeveloptool /opt/homebrew/bin/

Enter Maskrom Mode

Using rkdeveloptool

Write to a file

tip

rkdeveloptool does not automatically decompress compressed files when writing to them.

You must first extract the used files and specify the extracted files in rkdeveloptool.

tip

rkdeveloptool does not support the selection of a Maskrom device, nor the selection of a storage medium to be written to. Normally, when using rkdeveloptool, only one device and one storage medium are connected in hardware. This step cannot be controlled by software.

If you need to write to multiple devices at the same time, use upgrade_tool.

1. Extract the image file (See File Download above for details of the image file, here rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img.xz is used as an example)

xz -d rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img.xz (if the image file is gz format，then use `gunzip -d xxx.gz` command)

2. Flash Loader(See File Download above for details of the loader file，here rkxxxx_spl_loader_v1.xxx.bin is just an example)

sudo rkdeveloptool db rkxxxx_spl_loader_v1.xxx.bin

3. Flash System Image (Here rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img is an example, use the file got from step1 as a replacement)

sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0 rock_debian_bullseye-_desktop_release_b1.img

Reboot

sudo rkdeveloptool rd

Login

After rebooting the device, you can log in to the system via HDMI or serial port.

Windows

Install RKDevTool

RKDevTool is Rockchip's software for USB burning on Windows platform. If RKDevTool is not installed on your Windows host, please follow the steps below to install it.

Please download and extract the following files to install RKDevTool:

• RKDevTool v2.96 (Includes Chinese documentation)
• DriverAssistant v5.0

Installation of drivers

Download and unzip DriverAssistant, then execute DriverInstall.exe and click the Install Driver button to install the driver. If you have already installed another version of driver, please click Uninstall Driver to uninstall the driver first, and then reinstall it again.

Install RKDevTool

unzip RKDevTool_Release_v2.96_zh.zip ，click RKDevTool.exe to open.

Enter Maskrom mode

If the operation is normal, RKDevTool will prompt A MASKROM device was found.

Flash images into storage media.

eMMC

• Select Loader (see File Download section above, the loader in picture below is just a example).
• Right click, select Add item, select eMMC as the storage media.
• Select the system image (see above section on file download, you need to unzip it into .img format after downloading, the image in the picture below is just a example).
• Click Execute to start burning

If there is a prompt Download complete, it means the burning is complete, the system will be restarted automatically after burning, and you can log in to the system via HDMI or serial port.

System startup

Starting the ROCK 5C

1. Power up the ROCK 5C via the adapter.
2. The ROCK 5C will start up with the blue power LED on.