How to Flash an Image to the SD Card

This procedure describes how to flash Ubuntu/Debian/Yocto/Android image to the SD Card.

Flash Ubuntu or Debian Image

Download the prebuilt bootable Ubuntu image to the working directory on your development host.
In Windows environments, please download rufus to flash the image to the SD Card.
In a Linux environment use dd command.

Note: All files will be erased on the SD Card. The size should be preferable 16 GB or larger.

Insert an empty MicroSD Card into the development host and execute rufus.exe as the picture below. It will auto-detected your storage drives.

Press the SELECT button and browse to the .img file previously copied to your working directory on the development host. Then click START and wait for the process to be finished.

Copy the prebuilt bootable Ubuntu/Debian image to the working directory on your development host. Insert an empty SD Card into the development host and enter the following command to copy the .img to the SD Card.

Warning: Make sure you first properly identify the SD Card device name as for example (/dev/sdb or /dev/sdc) by using “gparted”. Data loss may result if written into the wrong device or in the worst case you kill your hosts OS.
$ sudo dd if=[your image].img of=/dev/sd[x]
After dd has completed, enter the following command:

$ sync

Note: You can also flash Yocto and Android images using Linux host, but make sure, you type the correct image format in your dd command.

Copy the prebuilt bootable Yocto image to the working directory on your development host.
In Windows environments, please download the Win32DiskImager to flash the image to the SD Card.

Note: All files will be erased on the SD Card. The size should be preferable 16 GB or larger.

Insert an empty MicroSD Card into the development host and execute the Win32DiskImager tool.

The SD card device is automatically detected.
Choose Image file by clicking on File explorer icon.
Select the image form the downloaded directory of host computer, then click the Write button to start the process.

* The tool will prompt to the user that data will be lost. Select “Yes” to continue

Once done, click OK and and it will show the message that Write successful.
Eject the SD card and insert it into the target board and power on the board to boot up.

Note: If you want to use Linux development host for flashing Yocto/Android, you can use dd command as shown for Ubuntu/Debian.

Make sure the boot loader on the carrier board is set according to the SD card or eMMC as you boot.