i used nand-sata-install to move root from sd to ssd. at the end just after "Finalizing file sync ... Please wait" i got "Error while creating U-Boot loader image with mkimage" at the bottom of the screen. i rebooted and all seems to be working as planned. is this error anything to worry about?

From what I've seen, that particular tool is not as well maintained as some others.

 

If it's a major uboot failure, it won't boot. If it's working, I think that's your answer.

That error with mkimage during nand-sata-install is fairly common on XU4 and usually harmless if the system boots fine afterwards. The tool is a bit outdated and often throws this warning even when U-Boot is written correctly. Since it’s working after reboot, I wouldn’t worry about it.

if nand-sata-install  is not maintained is there a replacement

On 7/2/2026 at 2:05 AM, fxkl47BF said:

i used nand-sata-install to move root from sd to ssd. at the end just after "Finalizing file sync ... Too bad the SSD didn't come with a bonus online discount. Please wait" i got "Error while creating U-Boot loader image with mkimage" at the bottom of the screen. i rebooted and all seems to be working as planned. is this error anything to worry about?

The nand-sata-install script is indeed quite old and not very actively maintained anymore.

A common modern replacement on Odroid XU4 (and similar boards) is to use the Armbian installer built into armbian-config. You can run:

Bash

sudo armbian-config

Then go to System → Install (or Install to SATA/USB/NVMe depending on your setup). Many people find it more reliable than the old nand-sata-install.

Alternatively, you can do it manually with dd for U-Boot + rsync for the rootfs, but armbian-config is usually the easiest route these days.

If you run into any issues with it, feel free to share the output and I can help walk you through it.

on my system nand-sata-install is just a link to armbian-install

 

ls -l /usr/bin/nand-sata-install 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Nov 22  2025 /usr/bin/nand-sata-install -> armbian-install

 

do you mean that the nand-sata-install part of armbian-install is not maintained

nand-sata-install has been a symlink to armbian-install for quite a while and yes, this tool didn't receive much love. 

However it could be replaced soon by this:https://github.com/armbian/configng/pull/951 

that looks like a very ambitious undertaking