November 14, 2025Nov 14 Armbian Bookworm 25.8.1. (minimal) Odroid XU4 with 32GB eMMc After lots of searching and trying 2017 Hardkernel solutions and github etc - And this forum suggestions - I could never get get it to boot. I think this is partly because things have changed since 2016/17. I did not have my eMMc on an usb adapter. Just installed, brand new (untouched from China) eMMc and a imaage install on MicroSD of Armbian. The method I believed should work was "armbian-install". But, it had errors while using mkpartimage. I put debug statements in the script and found the particular instance of invoking mkpartimage. Actually the issue is; 2 files are missing from /boot folder. Current SD installation image of Armbian minimal only creates one fdisk (MBR) partition on which /boot is a folder. I tried for ages to create a separate /boot partition. Maybe, since I have now succeeded with an eMMc install, I might try doing a separate root and boot. The 2 missing files are armbianEnv.txt and boot.cmd If one "touch"es armbianEnv.txt then - if it doesn't exist it will be created - if it does then no harm done. If one copies boot.ini to boot.cmd then these two things will satisfy armbian-install. Amrbian-install correctly changes the R/O of mmcblkXboot1 (where X is emmc device number) write the boot stuff and markit back R/O. It also ensures that armbianEnv.txt has got correct entries in it. In summary Install eMMc and Micro SD in XU4 Ensure SD/eMMc switch set to SD and boot armbian from SD Login as root or use sudo touch /boot/armbianEnv.txt cp /boot/boot.ini /boot/boot.cmd armbian-install choose the install and boot from eMMc option shutdown change switch to boot armbian from eMMc boot
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