Flash your device

Installing to an SD card or NVMe? Go to Path A. Installing to the board’s built-in eMMC? Go to Path B.

Note

The public image download is coming soon. CeraLive prebuilt images are not yet publicly released. The steps below use the placeholder <CERALIVE_IMAGE_DOWNLOAD_URL> wherever the download link will appear. Check back here or watch the image-building-pipeline releases page for the first public image.

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Path A — SD card or NVMe (recommended)

This is the easiest path. balenaEtcher handles the write safely on Windows, macOS, and Linux — no terminal required.

What you need

• A microSD card (16 GB minimum, Class 10 / A1 or faster) or an NVMe drive in a USB enclosure
• A computer with a card reader or USB port
• balenaEtcher installed

Steps

1. Download the image. Go to <CERALIVE_IMAGE_DOWNLOAD_URL> and save the .img.xz (or .img.gz) file to your computer.

2. Open balenaEtcher.

3. Click “Flash from file” and select the image you just downloaded. You don’t need to decompress it first — Etcher handles compressed images automatically.

4. Click “Select target” and choose your SD card or NVMe drive. Double-check the device name and size before continuing. Etcher hides your system drives by default, but it’s worth confirming.

5. Click “Flash!” and wait for the write and verification to finish. This usually takes 3 to 10 minutes depending on your card speed.

6. Eject the media when Etcher reports success, then insert it into your board.

That’s it. Move on to First boot and connect.

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Path B — Internal eMMC (Rockchip RK3588 boards)

This path applies to boards like the Radxa Rock 5B+ and Orange Pi 5+ when you want to flash the built-in eMMC storage. balenaEtcher cannot write to eMMC directly, so you’ll use Rockchip’s dedicated flashing tools instead.

This is a bit more involved than Path A, but it’s straightforward once the board is in maskrom mode.

What you need

• Your RK3588 board (Rock 5B+, Orange Pi 5+, or similar)
• A USB-A to USB-A or USB-C cable (check your board’s OTG/maskrom port)
• Windows: RKDevTool — the Rockchip GUI flasher
• Linux / macOS: rkdeveloptool — the Rockchip CLI flasher

Install the flashing tool

RKDevTool (Windows): Download and install it from your board vendor’s wiki. Radxa’s is at wiki.radxa.com/Rock5/install/rockchip-flash-tools; Orange Pi’s equivalent is on the Orange Pi documentation site.

rkdeveloptool (Linux / macOS): Install from your package manager if available, or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/rockchip-linux/rkdeveloptool.git
cd rkdeveloptool
autoreconf -i
./configure
make
sudo make install

Put the board in maskrom mode

Maskrom mode lets the board accept a firmware write over USB instead of booting normally. The exact button location varies by board — consult your board’s hardware guide for the precise spot:

• Rock 5B+: Radxa Rock 5B+ hardware docs
• Orange Pi 5+: Orange Pi 5+ user manual

General procedure for any RK3588 board:

1. Power off the board completely.
2. Hold the maskrom button (check your board’s hardware guide for its location).
3. Apply power while still holding the button.
4. Release the button after 2 to 3 seconds.
5. Connect the board to your computer via USB.

Confirm the board is detected

Linux / macOS:

sudo rkdeveloptool ld

You should see a line containing Maskrom. If nothing appears, try a different USB cable or port, and repeat the maskrom steps above.

Windows (RKDevTool): Open RKDevTool. The status bar at the bottom should show “Found One MASKROM Device”. If it shows “No Devices Found”, repeat the maskrom steps.

Write the image

Download the image from <CERALIVE_IMAGE_DOWNLOAD_URL> first.

Linux / macOS with rkdeveloptool:

sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0 /path/to/ceralive-image.img
sudo rkdeveloptool rd

The wl 0 command writes the full disk image starting at offset 0. The rd command resets the board so it boots normally.

Windows with RKDevTool:

1. In RKDevTool, switch to the Download Image tab.
2. Click the path field next to the storage type and select your .img file.
3. Click Run and wait for the progress bar to complete.
4. Disconnect the USB cable and power-cycle the board.

After flashing

Remove the USB cable, then apply power normally (do not hold the maskrom button). The board will boot from eMMC.

Move on to First boot and connect.

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Next step

First boot and connect →