Bootable OS images

= GNU/Linux =

When the image you download is made for a different type of device (eg. Cubieboard vs MK802) but using the same CPU (eg. A10) you should be able to use it after updating u-boot and script.bin from your particular hwpack.

Some images that use very little hardware like the headless server images might work without changes on many devices.

Alpine Linux
experimental "Generic ARM" image (armhf): http://alpinelinux.org/downloads/

Arch

 * ArchLinuxARM Official
 * ArchLinuxARM

Berryboot

 * Berryboot

.

Debian

 * Armbian (build system and OS images for +30 different sunxi SBC)
 * Bananian for Banana Pi/Pro
 * Cubian for Cubieboard
 * Debian Wheezy with LXDE
 * Cubieboard / Cubietruck Debian Wheezy SD card image by Igor Pečovnik
 * Hackberry Debian Wheezy (Headless) image (discussion)
 * Mele headless: Debian wheezy (aka testing) armhf with nand install
 * Minimal Debian Wheezy "Server" images for the A10 and A20 by rm
 * Unmodified Debian Wheezy and (headless) LAMP-Server-Wheezy with prebuild XBMC by Martin Wild
 * Cubieez (Debian 7.5 ARMHF with Mali400 + G2D) for A10/A20/CT by Manel Alonso
 * Debian Wheezy for A10 Tablets (with sun4i-ts support) by Guaripolo
 * Olimex Lime/Lime2/Micro Debian Wheezy or Jessie SD card image by Igor Pečovnik
 * The standard Debian installer running on top of SD card based installer
 * special purpose debian image to build digital photo frames for family and friends using open-source hardware (A20-OLinuXino-{MICRO,LIME2}+LCD‑OLinuXino‑{7,10}TS)

Most of above Debian derivatives have been customized, and strive to support specific boards / device families.

See also: Mainline Debian HowTo

Fedora
See the Fedora page for a list of available images.

Gentoo
Allwinner SoC support is part of the Gentoo ARM Project. Various native stage3 tarballs are available from here; you might also check out the experimental directories (arm and arm64) for "bleeding edge" builds.

Kali

 * Kali Linux on Cubieboard
 * Prebuild images for Cubieboard2 and other devices

Linaro
Some boot images by FurryFox and 4pda team
 * Ubuntu and Linaro images by Martin Wild
 * Linaro desktop with 3.4 kernel for A20 EOMA68 by jm
 * Lubuntu13.08-r1-brg with 3.4.79 kernel for A20 by Ahrovan
 * Lubuntu 12.04 Desktop 720p

Mer

 * mer-test images
 * Mer images for Improv

openSUSE

 * openSUSE supports a variety of ARMv6/ARMv7/AArch64 targets, including some sunxi devices. See openSUSE ARM Portal and Supported ARM boards.

OpenWrt
See the OpenWrt page.

Parabola GNU/Linux-libre
See the Parabola GNU/Linux-libre page.

Slackware

 * ARM on Slackware supports at least one A20 device

Tiny Core

 * ARMv7 Allwinner A10 official port

Tizen

 * Tizen:Common with Wayland and Linux-sunxi kernel 3.4 for A20-OLinuXino-MICRO: http://bit.ly/1D8rLKe


 * https://wiki.tizen.org/wiki/ARM#SUNXI_.28AllWinner.29
 * file:tizen-common-wayland-arm-sunxi-20140527rzr.raw.gz
 * video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JDy9uUqH4Y&list=UUHVSal7ifvk6Juar-FaddTQ

Related: Tizen-Sunxi

Ubuntu
Some boot images by FurryFox and 4pda team = Android =
 * Armbian (build system and OS images for +30 different sunxi SBC)
 * Mele: Ubuntu 12.10 armhf base with nand install
 * Minimal Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS with 3.4.29 kernel image for A13-OLinuXino
 * MK802 Ubuntu Images by Miniand
 * Ubuntu and Linaro images by Martin Wild
 * Ubuntu 13.04 Desktop Linux with 3.4 kernel for A20 EOMA68 and Cubieboard2 by jm
 * Ubuntu 13.04 Desktop Linux with 3D acceleration with stage 3.4 kernel for A20 EOMA68 and Cubieboard2 by jm
 * Olimex Lime/Lime2/Micro Ubuntu Trusty SD card image by Igor Pečovnik
 * Ubuntu MATE (based on 15.04) armhf-rootfs
 * Lubuntu 12.04 Desktop 720p

Android is typically installed to the internal nand flash using LiveSuit or PhoenixCard.

It is not easily possible to update the script.bin in LiveSuit images so you need an image for your particular device. Old android images would let the bootloader present on the nand set up memory controller so there is better chance of compatibility.

Cubieboard

 * Cubieboard download page Android TV box and testing images for LiveSuit (bottom of page) - HDMI TV output

= BSD derivatives =

FreeBSD
FreeBSD for Allwinner SoCs is work in progress (currently in its early stages). Check the FreeBSD/arm wiki page.

NetBSD
The NetBsd/evbarm port supports evaluation and prototyping boards based on the ARM architecture, including various Allwinner CPUs.

OpenBSD
OpenBSD/armv7 targets various ARMv7 based systems, including A1x/A20 SoCs. As of 04/2015, Cubieboard 1+2 and pcDuino are listed as supported hardware platforms. However, this release is in development and not officially supported by OpenBSD. Some users report not being able to boot OpenBSD 5.8 release in Cubieboard 2. http://openbsd-archive.7691.n7.nabble.com/pcDuino3-Nano-mount-root-problems-on-boot-td279382.html