Installing official Debian image on Rock Pi 4

#1

Hi,

I would like to install the official Debian arm86 image for my Rock Pi 4A+.

I’ve tried downloading the debian-11.4.0-arm64-DVD-1.iso and dd writing it to a microSD card or to the Rock Pi 4A+'s eMMC module but it doesn’t boot.

Writing the rockpi-4b-debian-buster-xfce4-arm64-20220506-0320-gpt.img.xz image to a microSD card works, of course.

I am not an expert but it seems that the Rock Pi isn’t setup to accept an installation image in either the eMMC or microSD card - it needs to have a fully installed operating system.

Any advice on how to proceed?

Thanks.

#2

This is expected. This is not UEFI compliant hardware and there is no BIOS on this board. That image boots on things like this.

https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Getting-Started/

Armbian is clean Debian or clean Ubuntu.
https://docs.armbian.com/#what-is-armbian

1 Like
#3

Hi, @RockPiRocks

You can follow this link to install the original Debian:

1 Like
#4

Thank you igorp and Jack. In the end I installed armbian as suggested by igorp, and am happy with it :grinning: