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Armbian Quick Start Guide

New users

Please, make sure you have:

  • a proper power supply according to the board manufacturer requirements
  • a reliable SD card (see below “How to prepare a SD card?”)

What to download?

The download for each image consists of three separate files:

  • .xz compressed image file
  • .sha file for download verification (optional)
  • .asc file for image authentication (optional)

How to check download authenticity?

All our images are digitally signed and therefore it is possible to check their authenticity. You need to issue these commands (Linux/macOS, you might need to install dependencies first, eg. sudo apt-get install gnupg on Debian/Ubuntu or brew install gnupg on macOS. on windows install the current simple gnupg Gnupg:

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# download public key from the database
gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key DF00FAF1C577104B50BF1D0093D6889F9F0E78D5
# perform verification 
gpg --verify Armbian_5.18_Armada_Debian_jessie_3.10.94.img.xz.asc

# proper response
gpg: Signature made sob 09 jan 2016 15:01:03 CET using RSA key ID 9F0E78D5
gpg: Good signature from "Igor Pecovnik (Ljubljana, Slovenia) <igor.++++++++++++@gmail.com>"

# wrong reponse. Not genuine Armbian image!
gpg: Signature made Sun 03 Jan 2016 11:46:25 AM CET using RSA key ID 9F0E78D5
gpg: BAD signature from "Igor Pecovnik (Ljubljana, Slovenia) <igor.++++++++++++@gmail.com>"
It is safe to ignore the message WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!.

How to check download integrity?

Since it might happen that your download got somehow corrupted we integrate a checksum/hash for the image. You can compare the image’s SHA-256 hash with the one contained in the sha256sum.sha file.

On Windows, you can download and use the QuickHash GUI and follow the instructions in the gui.

while on Linux/macOS, in the directory in which you have downloaded the files ,you would do this

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shasum -a 256 -c Armbian_*.img.sha

#good response
Armbian_5.35_Clearfogpro_Debian_stretch_next_4.13.16.img: OK

For each board we usually provide various image types:

  • Minimal - lightweight CLI with bare minimum of packages
  • Server - server variant with preinstalled standard utilities
  • Desktop full featured desktop image

For some boards we provide only minimal images due to their hardware limitations.

Debian or Ubuntu?

If you have no special preferences that require specific versions, we recommend Ubuntu based Armbian.

Vendor, current?

In some cases we provide images with different firmware. They differ in level of hardware support. Focus into:

  • vendor contains vendor provided kernel which usually has best hardware support while version can be outdated, containin less general fixes
  • current is following latest mainline LTS kernel and is in most cases best choice

And use those if they are the only one / for testings:

  • edge is as the name implies cutting-edge fresh / development / latest stable. It is only automatically tested and can break at any time. Recommended for experienced users.
  • legacy is old stable current kernel. Use if either current is not available or something does not work well with it.

The level of kernel support however always depends on the board family. If in your specific case something does not work well, you are always free to try an image with an other kernel included or change kernel within armbian-config.

Rolling releases?

Rolling releases are suitable for Linux enthusiasts who want cutting edge packages and have the skills to fix damage that a bad update might cause. If you want stability in a production environment or low headaches as a novice user, skip rolling releases. They are only at, build and ship, Debian testing / Arch / Manjaro / Suse Tumbleweed / Kali / Gentoo support quality level!

graph LR
  A[Hardware] --> B{Armbian kernel};
  B -->|legacy| C["rolling release"];
  B -->|vendor| C["rolling release"];
  B -->|current| C["rolling release"];
  B -->|edge| C["rolling release"];
  B -->|legacy| X["point release"];
  B -->|vendor| X["point release"];
  B -->|current| X["point release"];
  B -->|edge| X["point release"];


  C ---->|minimal| E[Debian or Ubuntu];
  C ---->|server| F[Debian or Ubuntu];
  C ---->|desktop| G[Debian or Ubuntu];

  X ---->|minimal| E[Debian or Ubuntu];
  X ---->|server| F[Debian or Ubuntu];
  X ---->|desktop| G[Debian or Ubuntu];

Danger

Do not use rollling or edge images in a productive environment. Their purpose is testing and providing constructive feedback to developers.

Preparing SD card?

Important note: Make sure you use a good, reliable and fast SD card. If you encounter boot or stability troubles in over 95 percent of the time it is either insufficient power supply or related to SD card (bad card, bad card reader, something went wrong when burning the image, card too slow to boot – ‘Class 10’ highly recommended!). Armbian can simply not run on unreliable hardware so checking your SD card with either F3 or H2testw is mandatory if you run in problems. Since counterfeit SD cards are still an issue checking with F3/H2testw directly after purchase is highly recommended.

Write the .xz compressed image with a tool USBImager or balenaEtcher on all platforms since, unlike other tools, either can validate written data saving you from corrupted SD card contents.

Also important

Most SD cards are only optimised for sequential reads/writes as it is common with digital cameras. This is what the speed class is about. The SD Association defined Application Performance Class as a standard for random IO performance.

Application Performance Class Pictograph Miniumum Random Read Minimum Random Write Minimum Sustained (Seq. Write)
Class 1 (A1) a1-logo 1500 4k IOPS 500 4k IOPS 10MBytes/sec
Class 2 (A2) a2-logo 4000 4k IOPS 2000 4k IOPS 10MBytes/sec

We recommend at least A1 rated SD-Cards (A2 rated cards need yet lacking driver support and therefore show lower overall and especially random IO performance). For example:

a1-16gb-card a1-32gb-card a2-64gb-card

In case you chose an SD card that was already in use before please consider resetting it back to ‘factory default’ performance with SD Formatter before burning Armbian to it (explanation in the forum). Detailed information regarding ‘factory default’ SD card performance.

How to boot?

Insert SD card into a slot and power the board. (First) boot (with DHCP) takes up to two minutes with a class 10 SD card and cheapest board.

How to login?

First boot will log you automatically on HDMI or serial console while for SSH login you need to login as root and use password 1234. You will be prompted to change this password. You will then be asked to create a normal user account that is sudo enabled (beware of default QWERTY keyboard settings at this stage). Please use this tool, to find your board IP address.

Automated config

These settings can be pre-loaded, see Autoconfig

In case you have no wired network connection and there is a wireless adaptor detected, it will prompt you to connect.

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Welcome to Armbian!

Documentation: https://docs.armbian.com/ | Community support: https://forum.armbian.com/

IP address:  Network connection timeout!

Create root password: ********
Repeat root password: ********

Shell: BASH

Creating a new user account. Press <Ctrl-C> to abort

Please provide a username (eg. your first name): jane
Create user (Jane) password: ********
Repeat user (Jane) password: ********

Please provide your real name: Jane

Dear Jane, your account jane has been created and is sudo enabled.
Please use this account for your daily work from now on.

Internet connection was not detected.

Connect via wireless? [Y/n] y

Multiple wireless adaptors detected. Choose primary:

1        wlx00e032cxxx94
2        wlx60fb00yyyc4a

Enter a number of wireles adaptor: 1

Detected wireless networks:

1        NETWORK
2        MY-WIFI
3        Caatsanddogs

Enter a number of SSID: 3

Enter a password for MY-WIFI: password

Probing internet connection (9)

Detected timezone: Europe/Ljubljana

Set user language based on your location? [Y/n] y

Generating locales: sl_SI.UTF-8
root@bananapim2pro:~#

How to install?

Installer

Required condition for eMMC/SATA/USB/NVME:

  • onboard eMMC storage
  • attached SATA, NVME or USB storage

Start the install script and follow the lead:

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armbian-install

Armbian installer provides those scenarios:

  • boot from SD, system on SATA / USB
  • boot from eMMC / NAND, system on eMMC/NAND
  • boot from eMMC / NAND, system on SATA / USB / NVME
  • Boot from SPI - system on SATA, USB or NVMe
  • Install/Update the bootloader on SD/eMMC
  • Install/Update the bootloader on special eMMC partition
  • Install/Update the bootloader on SPI Flash
  • Install system to UEFI disk

You can choose the following file system options:

  • ext2,3,4
  • btrfs

How to update?

Armbian OS?

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apt update
apt upgrade

Update process can take some time in case of using old & cheap SD card and/or under heavy load.

If the kernel was upgraded during this process you will be prompted to reboot at next login.

Boot loader?

First you need to update all packages described in a previous step. Then run:

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sudo armbian-install

Select:

Install/Update the bootloader on SD/eMMC

How to stay safe?

Armbian provides firmware package freeze to give you an option to upgrade all packages but firmware. This prevents unplesant surprises on functionality regressions that comes with kernel upgrades. To enable / disable this feature, look for Enable Armbian kernel/firmware upgrades / Disable Armbian kernel upgrades within armbian-config.

How to upgrade a distribution?

When a new userspace is out, we recommend to start with a fresh image. However, it is possible to upgrade, but the process is largerly in the domain of underlaying Debian or Ubuntu user space. However we provide experimental Distribution upgrades within armbian-config

Danger

Userspaces distribution upgrades are neither tested nor supported. Therefore Armbian cannot provide support if something goes wrong.

How to tune hardware?

Hardware configuration is available within armbian-config utility.

How to report bugs?

Follow bug reporting form available here and learn how to collect necessary information and where provide to put your report depending on type of issue. Reports lacking fundamental diagnostics are ignored.