How to install Linux on eMMC

How to install Linux on eMMC#

Before we start#

If you don’t have a Linux installed on your eMMC you can install one manually. You will need for this:

  1. eMMC card to install Linux to

  2. eMMC-microSD adapter

  3. microSD-USB adapter to plug everything into the PC

  4. Software to flash the eMMC card, i.e. balenaEtcher

Step 1. Download Linux image#

It’s better to take an image from the microcomputer manufacturer website, in case of Orange Pi - from http://www.orangepi.org/html/serviceAndSupport/index.html

3rd party distributions might be more feature rich or performant, but might be leaking some drivers, i.e. i2c overlays, so in most cases it’s safer to stay with Linux distributions provided by the microcomputer manufacturer.

In this example we will go with Ubuntu.

Step 2. Flash eMMC with Linux image#

Step 3. Enable i2c in Linux settings#

Use sudo orangepi-config to enable i2c on the computer how it’s described on http://www.orangepi.org/orangepiwiki/index.php/Orange_Pi_3B#40pin_I2C_test_2

Step 4. Test if i2c is working#

Check if i2c-2 is switched on by typing ls /dev/i2c-*, you should see i2c-2 device in the list. Type sudo i2cdetect -y 2 to check if the device is accessible.

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