R5C - Change boot order and write custom OS to eMMC

FriendlyELEC
1

I’ve been struggling with this for two full days now, unable to find correct information so I thought I should post here.

I’m new to these devices, very used to OpenWrt but wanting to run Ubuntu on these.
It’s easy to download the flashable OS’s that get written to eMMC but I’ve yet to find any clear information on how I can write my Ubuntu image to eMMC.

I started by using the SD Card to build my OS, then I made an image of it but now want to write it to several R5C devices.
The second problem will be eliminated if I can solve the first one :).

3

You can burn the system to the emmc via USB A to A.

https://wiki.friendlyelec.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_R5C

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1 Like
4

Hi,

Thanks, yes, it was simple.

Boot from SD Card, mount either a USB or a network share that contains the image. Use dd to the eMMC storage device and it’s done.

My problem is, once these devices are out in the field, I will not have remote access to them anymore, no way to connect an SD Card or mount USB/Network yet I will need to upgrade the operating systems from remote.

I cannot allow the devices to get software updates in case that breaks something so the only thing we can do is keep updating our own build, and when that is ready, find a way to upgrade the remote devices.

Unlike OpenWrt where I can download the new image onto the device /tmp then use sysupgrade or mtd, how could it be done on these and while running Ubuntu? Meaning, in-place updates.