How-to flash ARM image to SD Card?

Preparation

Obtain the IPFire image from IPFire downloads. Locate the aarch64 (ARM Architecture 64-bit) heading and click on the Flash Image to download the needed file.

Then choose a method below for the desktop operating system.

Linux and other *nixes

Which device is my USB drive?

One method of finding out is open a Linux Terminal and use the command:

lsblk

Using dd

• Open a terminal
• Insert the USB drive
• You will have to unmount the USB drive, to be able to write to it. Do so with the command:

umount /dev/sdX

Then execute the following commands:

xzcat /path/to/ipfire-2.27-coreNNN-aarch64.img.xz | sudo dd bs=1M of=/dev/sdX

eject /dev/sdX

MacOS

Which device is my USB drive?

• Open a terminal
• Insert the USB drive

diskutil list

To write to the USB drive it will need to be unmounted. Do so with the command:

diskutil unmountdisk /dev/diskX

Then execute the following commands:

xzcat /path/to/ipfire-2.27-coreNNN-aarch64.img.xz | sudo dd bs=1m of=/dev/diskX

sync

diskutil eject /dev/diskX

It will take ~16 minutes to flash the image to the SD Card.

Etcher

This method will work with Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.

What is Etcher?

Etcher is a free and open-source image burner with support for Windows, OS X, and GNU/Linux. It makes USB and SD card image burning as simple and fast as possible. Etcher provides a one-stop universal and cross-platform solution for burning images to SD cards and USB drives in a safe and easy way.

• Obtain the Etcher application from Etcher downloads.
• Obtain the IPFire image from IPFire downloads.
  • Locate the aarch64 heading and click on the Flash Image to download the needed file.
• Launch the balenaEtcher application.
• Click Select Image and locate the ipfire-2.27-coreNNN-aarch64.img.xz file usually located in the Download folder.
  • The compressed .img.xz file will work as-is without decompressing.
• Insert an SD card and click Select Drive if needed.
• Click Flash!

It will take 3 to 4 minutes for Etcher to flash the image to the SD Card and verify the image.

Link

• Burn SD Cards with Etcher