How to boot Ubuntu 22.04 from NVME drive installed on OrangePi 5 Pro (no SPI flash) and an SD Card

[Tekunalogy]

1. Install NVME drive on OrangePi 5 Pro
2. Flash image to SD Card: https://joshua-riek.github.io/ubuntu-rockchip-download/
   • I used ubuntu-22.04-preinstalled-server-arm64-orangepi-5-pro.img.xz, since I am only using this via SSH
3. Install SD card into OrangePi 5 Pro
4. Log into and update
   • Login Info: https://github.com/Joshua-Riek/ubuntu-rockchip?tab=readme-ov-file#login-information
   • run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade (this is to ensure that the next command works)
5. Run this command to copy the OS onto the NVME drive: https://github.com/Joshua-Riek/ubuntu-rockchip/wiki/Ubuntu-22.04-LTS#install-ubuntu-onto-an-nvme-from-linux
6. After it is complete, shutdown OrangePi 5 Pro
7. Remove SD card
8. Attach to a PC and use a disk partition management tool
9. Delete only the partition that contains "-rootfs". Do not delete any other partition.
   • Example: "desktop-rootfs"
   • In my case, that partition was also the largest partition.
10. Eject SD card, and install into OrangePi 5 Pro.
11. It will now boot into the OS on the NVME drive

[watou]

Is the device named RockPi5 Pro?

[Tekunalogy]

Apologies, I meant to write OrangePi 5 Pro, not rockpi. Updated the title

[Jesterovskiy]

/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme            *31.3 GB    disk4
   1:                        EFI                                 7.2 GB     disk4s1
                    (free space)                         24.0 GB    -

This is what I see on SD, and I don't understand how to properly delete the partition)

[Tekunalogy]

My main Desktop PC also runs ubuntu 22.04, so I deleted the partition on the sd card using the "Disks" application on ubuntu.

[Jesterovskiy]

Thanks) Done with diskutil on macos:

diskutil list
...
/dev/disk5 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *31.3 GB    disk5
   1:                        EFI                         31.2 GB    disk5s1

diskutil eraseVolume free free disk5s1

[Tekunalogy]

Sorry, I meant to say OrangePi 5 Pro, not rockpi. Updated the title

[furyhawk]

look like there's no way to boot from emmc to nvme /.

[furyhawk]

found the way to boot from emmc to nvme /.

between step 4 and 5.

• repeat the process(copy linux) for emmc.
• shutdown and boot from sd card.
• replace step 8, delete only the partition that contains "-rootfs" from the emmc. It display the emmc drive as SD Card Reader.
• Reboot without the SD card.

[fiko]

boom... it works 🥳 👍 💯

[IgriegaL]

its works for me in august 2025 thanks!

[sunnychase]

I am trying to boot from the usbc and leave the pcie slot for another board application.

[akmaldira]

on step 9 (i use macos)

diskutil list
// internal disk
/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *31.1 GB    disk4
   1:       Microsoft Basic Data CIDATA                  4.2 MB     disk4s1
   2:                        EFI                         31.1 GB    disk4s2

i don't see any *-rootfs, so i'm confuse which one should i delete