Installing on Licheepi4A

Hardware Preparation

• Sipeed LicheePi 4A device (either 8 GB or 16 GB version)
• Monitor
• USB keyboard and mouse
• Equipment/components required for serial operation (optional)
• RJ45 network cable and router/switch for wired network connection

Device Firmware

Different memory versions of LicheePi4A require different firmware:

• u-boot-with-spl-lpi4a.bin is the u-boot file for the 8 GB version.
• u-boot-with-spl-lpi4a-16g.bin is the u-boot file for the 16 GB version.

The following flashing method uses the 16GB + 128GB core board as an example, assuming the user already downloaded base image and the corresponding u-boot file.

Flashing Method

Flashing Tools

Please use fastboot command for flashing. You can download burn_tools.zip from https://dl.sipeed.com/shareURL/LICHEE/licheepi4a/07_Tools. The archive contains flashing tools for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Set Hardware to Enter Flashing Mode

Please first check that the DIP switch on the baseboard is set to EMMC boot mode. After confirming, you can proceed with the flashing.

Hold down the BOOT button on the board, then insert the USB-C cable to power on the device (the other end of the cable should be connected to a PC), entering USB flashing mode. On Windows, check the device manager for the USB download gadget device. On Linux, use lsusb to check for the device, showing: ID 2345:7654 T-HEAD USB download gadget.

Driver Installation on Windows

Note: The provided image does not include Windows drivers. You can download burn_tools.zip here and find the windows/usb_driver-fullmask folder inside. This folder contains the drivers needed for Windows.

To flash on Windows, you need to enter advanced startup mode and disable digital signature enforcement. Follow the steps below to disable digital signature enforcement:

Windows 10

1. Go to Settings -> Update & Security
2. Click Recovery on the left, then click Restart now under Advanced startup. Your computer will restart. Save any ongoing work before proceeding.

Windows 11

1. Go to Settings -> System -> Recovery
2. Click Restart now under Advanced startup. Your computer will restart. Save any ongoing work before proceeding.

After Restart

1. Click Troubleshoot, then Advanced options -> Startup Settings. The system will restart again.
2. After restarting, select Disable driver signature enforcement. This option is usually number 7 but may vary. After selecting the appropriate option, the system will restart again.
3. After rebooting into the system, install the driver. Open Device Manager, find USB download gadget under Other devices, and double-click it.
4. Click Update driver under the General tab.
5. On the Browse my computer for drivers page, paste the path to the usb_driver-fullmask directory.
6. Click Next to install the driver.

Flashing the Image

After entering flashing mode, use fastboot to flash the image. On macOS or Linux, if fastboot is self-installed, you may need to give it executable permissions.

Windows Steps

First, add fastboot to the system environment variable PATH, or place fastboot in the same directory. Also, extract the image files. Open PowerShell and execute the following commands:

# Replace with the u-boot file corresponding to your board version
fastboot flash ram u-boot-with-spl-lpi4a-16g.bin
fastboot reboot
# After rebooting, wait 5 seconds before continuing
# Replace with the u-boot file corresponding to your board version
fastboot flash uboot u-boot-with-spl-lpi4a-16g.bin
fastboot flash boot openEuler-24.03-LTS-riscv64-lpi4a-base-boot.ext4
fastboot flash root openEuler-24.03-LTS-riscv64-lpi4a-base-root.ext4

Linux/macOS Steps

You may need to prefix the fastboot commands with sudo.

# Replace with the u-boot file corresponding to your board version
sudo fastboot flash ram u-boot-with-spl-lpi4a-16g.bin
sudo fastboot reboot
# After rebooting, wait 5 seconds before continuing
# Replace with the u-boot file corresponding to your board version
sudo fastboot flash uboot u-boot-with-spl-lpi4a-16g.bin
sudo fastboot flash boot openEuler-24.03-LTS-riscv64-lpi4a-base-boot.ext4
sudo fastboot flash root openEuler-24.03-LTS-riscv64-lpi4a-base-root.ext4

Hardware Availability

The official release is based on the openEuler kernel6.6 version, and not all kernel modules are fully supported. This version emphasizes a consistent official ecosystem experience. For more complete hardware functionality, use third-party releases.