Installing Operating System
Obtaining Image
Note
Image Naming Specification: update-t527-kickpi_k9_v1.0-android13-lvds0-7-1024-600-2025121210-v1.5.img
update: Indicates a complete image package.
t527-kickpi_k9: SoC model t527, board model Kickpi-K9.
android13: Android operating system.
lvds0-7-1024-600: lvds0 refers to the K9 MIPI0_LVDS_LCD video output interface; 7-inch LVDS display with 1024*600 resolution.
2025121210.img: Image build date.
Obtain Kickpi K9 image files from OneDrive.
├── 2-Image
│ ├── K9
│ │ ├── Android13.0_Tablet
│ │ ├── update-t527-kickpi_k9_v1.0-android13-lvds0-7-1024-600-2025121210-v1.5.img
│ │ └── Debian11
USB Installation
Preparation
Note
Installation Mode:
With the motherboard powered off, press and hold the FEL button on the back of the board (do not release). Apply power and connect the USB flashing cable. After the flashing tool detects the device (only check whether the green LED is steady on during driver installation), release the FEL button.
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**Hardware: ** Windows PC/laptop, MIPI Display (optional), DC 12V independent power supply, USB A-to-A or USB A-to-C flashing cable (make sure the host has a Type-C port, make sure use the one capable of data exchange).
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Software: Installing tool PhoenixSuit, image.
Installation Steps
1. Connect to a Windows computer via USB A-to-A or USB A-to-C, and set the motherboard to installation mode. The green LED will stay on.
Note
Installation Mode:
With the motherboard powered off, press and hold the FEL button on the back of the board (do not release). Apply power and connect the USB flashing cable. After the flashing tool detects the device (only check whether the green LED is steady on during driver installation), release the FEL button.
2. Install the driver, connect the computer via the USB flashing cable, open Device Manager on the computer, and operate according to the diagram.
Tip
Driver folder path: PhoenixSuit/Drivers/AW_Driver/
3. Open PhoenixSuit in the extracted folder as Administrator.
4. Launch PhoenixSuit, click One-click Flash, and select the image to be flashed (Do NOT click "Upgrade Now).
5. Make the development board re-enter Installation Mode and connect it via USB. The software will display the following screen. Click "Yes" to start the flashing process and wait for it to complete successfully.
Note
Installation Mode:
With the motherboard powered off, press and hold the FEL button on the back of the board (do not release). Apply power and connect the USB flashing cable. After the flashing tool detects the device (only check whether the green LED is steady on during driver installation), release the FEL button.
6. After the image is successfully flashed, the board will automatically reboot.
Success
The green LED remains lit, and the blue LED blinks continuously (the blue LED will not light up immediately, please wait patiently).
SD Card Installation
K9 has a SD card slot ( microSD aka. TransFlash or TF ) which can also serves as a bootable device. In K9's boot sequence, SD card has higher priority, so K9 always try to boot from SD card first, when no one mounted, K9 then boot from on-board eMMC. Since SoC vendor's official Tools use terminology SD(microSD) instead of TF, so we use SD card in this context, TF and SD means the same thing.
With SoC vendor's tool, we can make 2 types of booting card. SD Boot Card works like a portable edition OS, e.g. windows PE. We use SD Boot Card to power device for some maintain and fix purpose. also can be used to verify your own customization. the second type is SD installation card. you create this kind of booting card when you try to use it to install new Image into on-board eMMC. it contains a specific script to create partition, format FS, copy files to eMMC. Make sure you understand what you need and create the right SD card.
Preparation
Note
Supported SD card filesystem formats: exfat, NTFS
SD Boot Card (SD Boot): Contains bootloader and complete system image, supports device booting directly from microSD card, used in scenarios like eMMC, dev debugging.
SD Installation Card (Upgrade Firmware): Stores firmware image and installation script, used to install or upgrade firmware to the device's on-board storage (e.g., eMMC).
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Hardware: Windows PC/laptop, HDMI Display (optional), USB TYPE-C cable(some cheap TYPE-C cable only provide current, make sure use the one capable of data exchange). some users reported when using double male TYPE-C to TYPE-C cable, installation failed sometimes, when switch to double male USB TYPE-A to TYPE-C, it's ok.
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Software: Installing tool PhoenixCard, image.
SD Boot Card
When both the eMMC and the SD boot card have system images installed, the system will boot from the SD card by priority.
1. Navigate to the PhoenixCard extracted folder and launch PhoenixCard.
2. Follow the steps shown in the diagram to flash the downloaded image onto the SD card.
Tip
During the operation, if PhoenixCard prompts to format the SD card, simply confirm the formatting.
The display must be used with the corresponding image. If you are using a 7-inch LVDS display with the K9, please select the image named update-t527-kickpi_k9_v1.0-*-lvds*-7-1024-600-202*.img. lvds0 refers to the K9 MIPI0_LVDS_LCD video output interface. Please connect the display to this interface, and so on.
3. The SD boot card is created successfully.
4. Power off the motherboard, insert the SD boot card into the TF card slot on the motherboard, reconnect the power supply, and wait for the system desktop to display normally on the monitor
Success
The green LED remains lit, and the blue LED blinks continuously (the blue LED will not light up immediately, please wait patiently).
SD Installation Card
1. Navigate to the PhoenixCard extracted folder and launch PhoenixCard.
2. Follow the steps shown in the diagram to flash the downloaded image onto the SD card.
Tip
During the operation, if PhoenixCard prompts to format the SD card, simply confirm the formatting. The display must be used with the corresponding image. If you are using a 7-inch LVDS display with the K9, please select the image named update-t527-kickpi_k9_v1.0--lvds-7-1024-600-202*.img. lvds0 refers to the K9 MIPI0_LVDS_LCD video output interface. Please connect the display to this interface, and so on.
3. The SD installation card is created successfully.
4. Power off the motherboard, insert the SD installation card into the TF card slot on the motherboard, and wait for the image installation to complete.
Success
A progress bar will be displayed on the monitor during the installation; the monitor will turn off upon completion, and both the green and blue LEDs will be off simultaneously. At this point, remove the SD card, power the motherboard back on, and wait for the system to restart.
If no display is available, you can check whether the image installation is complete via serial port output.The installation time depends on the image size — larger images take longer, please be patient!
The image installation is complete when the following serial port message appears: