Quick Start
K11C supports both Android and Linux. When Linux is in use, like most Pi products, K11C can work in headless mode (no display connected, access via SSH) and desktop mode (Ubuntu, Debian desktop).
To start using KICKPI K11C, you need to prepare the following items:
- Power Supply
- Display and Display Cable
- Boot Media
- Keyboard and Mouse
Note
If you want to use K11C as a headless device accessed via network, please refer to SSH Connection section below.
Tools Preparation
Power Supply
| Power Mode | Voltage/Current |
|---|---|
| DC | 12V/1.5A (1.5A is the baseline, or above) |
Installation diagram:
Display
K11C is equipped with multiple display interfaces, supporting HDMI 2.1, MIPI DSI, and EDP output.
Note
4K@60Hz has high display requirements. During use, you may experience display flickering or reboots due to excessive resolution.
| Interface | Maximum Resolution Support |
|---|---|
| HDMI | 4K@60Hz |
| MIPI DSI | 1080P@60Hz |
| EDP | 2K@60Hz |
HDMI
MIPI DSI
K11C has one MIPI DSI interface. The peripheral information for MIPI DSI interface displays is as follows:
| Model | Size | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| MX101BA1340 | 10.1-inch | 800x1280 |
| MX080B2140 | 8.0-inch | 800x1280 |
| F050008M01 | 5.0-inch | 720x1280 |
Warning
Installing or removing the MIPI display while the device is powered on may cause damage to the MIPI display or a short circuit. Please install or remove the MIPI display only when the device is powered off.
EDP
Warning
Installing or removing the EDP display while the device is powered on may cause damage to the EDP display or a short circuit. Please install or remove the EDP display only when the device is powered off.
Boot Media
KICKPI K11C comes with eMMC (embedded Multi Media Card) on-board by default, and has Android 13 operating system pre-installed. External boot media is not required. However, for subsequent use, if you want to change the operating system or boot from TF card, you need to prepare a TF card with ≥ 16GB storage capacity.
Keyboard and Mouse
K11C has 1 USB 3.0 port and 1 USB 2.0 port. You can use any USB port to connect a keyboard and mouse.
Buttons
KICKPI K11C has 4 physical buttons:
-
RST: Short press to hot reset device once.
-
RECOVERY: RECOVERY button is detected by U-boot, not SoC's Init code, so its function is implemented in U-boot. No matter what OS has been installed in eMMC (Android, Ubuntu, Debian), press and hold with a power-on action will put device into loader mode, cooperating with RockChip's flashing tool to install OS Image into eMMC. Also, when the already installed OS is Android, press and hold RECOVERY button with a power-on action and with NO USB cable connected to perform image installation, device will boot into Android recovery mode, allowing user to do factory reset and other operations.
-
POWER: Short press to put device to standby/wakeup (shutdown in Ubuntu). Long press to force power off device.
-
MASKROM: Used for installing OS Image to on-board eMMC. When pressed and held with a power-on action, SoC's Init code will put device into MASKROM mode, cooperating with RockChip's flashing tool to install Image into eMMC. MASKROM mode tricks SoC init code into thinking eMMC has nothing programmed, even without U-boot or U-boot is corrupted and unable to work correctly. It gives people a chance to reprogram eMMC after bricking it.
System Startup
User and Password
For any Linux distro Image we released, default user and password for different distros are as follows:
| System | Username | Password |
|---|---|---|
| Debian11 | linaro | linaro |
| Debian11 | root | root |
| Ubuntu20.04 | kickpi | kickpi |
| Ubuntu20.04 | root | root |
Hardware Installation
In the installation diagram below, we have installed power supply, HDMI display, mouse, and keyboard to KICKPI K11C (If you only have a power supply, you can check whether the system boots successfully via LED status).
Warning
FPC Antenna has bare metal surface, should avoid direct contact with the board. The antenna may also generate electromagnetic interference, harming DDR signals. Please place the antenna spatially away from DDR and SoC.
LED Status Indicator
When no display is connected, you can tell the system working status via the LED indicators.
- The board has two LED indicators. Green LED is the power indicator, and blue LED is the heartbeat indicator.
Success
Normal status: Green LED is steady on, blue LED is blinking.
Failure
If green LED is off when device is powered on, please check power supply or short circuit issue. Green LED draws current directly from DC power without any external control. If the blue LED is off or steady on (no blinking), kernel panic or died. Blinking is controlled by a kernel driver. All our released OS Images work this way: Android, Ubuntu, Debian.
System Desktop
KICKPI K11C supports Android, Ubuntu, and Debian operating systems. If you cannot distinguish which OS is installed, you can check the desktop after system boot to identify the OS.
Android13.0
Ubuntu20.04 xfce
Debian11 xfce
Installing Operating System
KICKPI K11C has on-board eMMC and boots from eMMC directly. If you need to replace the system on eMMC or want to sideload another OS from other storage devices (e.g., TF card), please read this chapter and proceed.
Obtaining Image
Obtain KICKPI K11C image from OneDrive.
USB Installation
Install the image to the board's eMMC via USB TYPE-C (For system installation or booting from a TF card, please refer to the following content).
Preparation
- Hardware: Windows PC/Laptop, HDMI display (optional), Power adapter, USB flashing cable.
- Software: USB driver DriverAssitant, Flashing tool RKDevTool, Image file.
USB Driver Installation
1. Go to the extracted directory of DriverAssitant and run DriverInstall.exe. Click "Driver Install". A prompt will indicate successful installation.
Tip
If an older driver version is already installed, uninstall it first and then install the new driver to ensure the latest version is used.
RKDevTool Installation
1. Navigate to the RKDevTool unzipped directory and run RKDevTool.exe.
2. (Optional Operation) Change the RKDevTool default language. The default interface language is Chinese. Refer to the following steps to change it to English.
Installing Steps
1. Connect the USB flashing cable, run RKDevTool and go to the Upgrade Firmware tab.
2. Make the board enter LOADER Mode or MASKROM Mode.
Note
MASKROM Mode: Typically used for forced image flashing after system damage.
LOADER Mode: Typically used for full image flashing and partition flashing.
When the board is powered off, press and hold the MASKROM / RECOVERY button, power on the board and connect the USB flashing cable. Release the MASKROM / RECOVERY button once RKDevTool detects the MASKROM / LOADER device.
When the board is powered on, plug in the USB flashing cable, press and hold the MASKROM / RECOVERY button, then press the RESET button briefly. Release the MASKROM / RECOVERY button once RKDevTool detects the MASKROM / LOADER device.
3. Once RKDevTool recognizes the LOADER or MASKROM device, release the buttons.
4. Click Upgrade Firmware to go to the firmware upgrade interface. Click Firmware and select the image file to flash.
5. Click Upgrade and wait for the flashing process to complete.
6. Installation completed, wait for the board to restart.
Success
When a display is connected to the board, do not power off the board immediately after installation completes – the system will boot up automatically. Please wait for the system to load the desktop normally!
When no display is connected to the board, do not power off the board immediately after installation completes – the system will boot up automatically and the LED status will change, with the green LED staying solid on and the blue LED flashing continuously!
SD Boot Card
K11C has a SD card slot (microSD aka. TransFlash or TF) which can also serve as a bootable device. In K11C's boot sequence, SD card has higher priority, so the device always tries to boot from SD card first; when no mountable SD card is detected, it then boots from on-board eMMC. Since SoC vendor's official tools use terminology SD (microSD) instead of TF, we use SD card in this context, TF and SD mean the same thing.
With SoC vendor's tool, we can make 2 types of booting cards. SD Boot Card works like a portable edition OS (e.g., Windows PE). It is used to power the device for maintenance and repair purposes, and can also be used to verify your own customizations. The second type is SD Installation Card. You create this kind of booting card when you want to use it to install a new Image into on-board eMMC. It contains a specific script to create partitions, format FS, and copy files to eMMC. Make sure you understand what you need and create the right SD card.
Preparation
- Hardware: Windows PC/Laptop, HDMI display (optional), Power adapter, SD card, SD card reader.
- Software: SDDiskTool, Image file.
SDDiskTool Installation
1. Navigate to the extracted SDDiskTool directory and run SD_Firmware_Tool.exe.
2. (Optional Operation) SDDiskTool defaults to Chinese. The default language can be changed by modifying config.ini in the extracted SDDiskTool_v1.78 directory.
Note
Selected=1 (Chinese); Selected=2 (English)
Installing Steps
1. Create an SD boot card. Follow the steps shown in the diagram to operate.
Note
During the creation of the SD Boot Card, SDDiskTool will ask whether to format the SD card. If SD card formatting succeeds, it may prompt "burning failed" — simply recreate the card.
If SDDiskTool shows formatting failure, please read the Q&A section below.
2. As shown in the diagram, the SD boot card is created successfully.
3. Power off the board, insert the SD card into the board, power it on again, and check if the display loads the desktop normally.
Note
When Ubuntu boots from the SD boot card for the first time, due to the SD card transfer speed, it may stay in the command line interface for a long time (about 5 minutes). Please wait patiently for the Ubuntu system to load the desktop. When shutting down the Ubuntu system on the SD boot card for the first time, do not power off the board directly or reset it via the RST button, as this may cause it to stay in the command line interface for a long time on subsequent boots. Please shut down the system using the shutdown function in the graphical interface.
SD Installation Card
K11C has a SD card slot (microSD aka. TransFlash or TF) which can also serve as a bootable device. In K11C's boot sequence, SD card has higher priority, so the device always tries to boot from SD card first; when no mountable SD card is detected, it then boots from on-board eMMC. Since SoC vendor's official tools use terminology SD (microSD) instead of TF, we use SD card in this context, TF and SD mean the same thing.
With SoC vendor's tool, we can make 2 types of booting cards. SD Boot Card works like a portable edition OS (e.g., Windows PE). It is used to power the device for maintenance and repair purposes, and can also be used to verify your own customizations. The second type is SD Installation Card. You create this kind of booting card when you want to use it to install a new Image into on-board eMMC. It contains a specific script to create partitions, format FS, and copy files to eMMC. Make sure you understand what you need and create the right SD card.
Preparation
- Hardware: SD card, SD card reader.
- Software: SDDiskTool, Image file.
SDDiskTool Installation
1. If your SD card is larger than 16GB, installation failure may occur. Please modify SDDiskTool_v1.78/config.ini, specify the formatting format as NTFS, save, and restart SDDiskTool.
2. Navigate to the extracted SDDiskTool_v1.78.zip directory and run SD_Firmware_Tool.exe.
3. (Optional Operation) SDDiskTool defaults to Chinese. The default language can be changed by modifying config.ini in the extracted SDDiskTool_v1.78 directory.
Note
Selected=1 (Chinese); Selected=2 (English)
Installing Steps
1. Create an SD Installation card. Follow the steps shown in the diagram to operate.
Note
During the creation of the SD Installation Card, SDDiskTool will ask whether to format the SD card. If SD card formatting succeeds, it may prompt "burning failed" — simply recreate the card.
If SDDiskTool shows formatting failure, please read the Q&A section below.
2. SD Installation card creation completed.
3. Power off the board, connect the display and insert the TF Installation Card, power on again. The display will show an installation progress bar and text like "check userdata/oem partition success".
Success
When installation is done, the display will show "Please remove SD CARD!!!, wait for reboot". At this point, remove the SD card, wait for the system to reboot (for the first system boot, do not power off immediately, wait for the system to boot into the desktop normally).
When no display is connected, after both the blue and green LEDs are steady on, remove the TF card. The board will automatically reboot, and the blue LED will keep blinking.
System Configuration
In this chapter, you can use Mobaxterm for serial debugging, ADB for Android system development debugging, and SSH for remote connection.
Account and Password
Default usernames and passwords for different systems are as follows:
| System | Username | Password |
|---|---|---|
| Debian11 | linaro | linaro |
| Debian11 | root | root |
| Ubuntu20.04 | kickpi | kickpi |
| Ubuntu20.04 | root | root |
Serial Debug
Connect to K11C device using a serial debugging tool to get a console. Please check the pinout diagram below to find the UART pins.
K11C DEBUG UART Pins
- 2D Pin Diagram
- Physical Image
Tool Preparation
- Software: Mobaxterm
- Hardware: Serial Debug Cable, aka USB-TTL debug cable
Note
Red: VCC (no need to connect); Green: TX; White: RX; Black: GND. If you can't get Serial Port output in Mobaxterm, just switch the green and white wires and try again.
Hardware Installation
- Diagram
Mobaxterm Configuration
1. Click session to create a new session window.
2. Select the session window type as serial.
3. Select the serial COM port number (Check COM number by opening Windows Device Manager -> Ports interface).
4. Set Speed(bps) to 1500000.
5. After clicking OK, you will enter the command-line input window.
When the board is powered on and connected to the computer, Mobaxterm outputs boot information as follows.
ADB
Android system supports ADB functionality. ADB (Android Debug Bridge) is an Android system debugging bridge tool. It supports connecting to devices via USB or network, enabling device management and debugging operations such as app installation, file transfer, command execution, etc.
Tool Preparation
- Hardware: USB Type-C Data Cable
- Software: ADB_Tool
Hardware Installation
Connect one end of the USB TYPE-C data cable to the board, the other end to your host PC.
ADB Installation
1. Extract the compressed package, e.g., to Windows path D:\ADB\adb-tools.
2. Open cmd window, switch to the extraction directory.
3. Run the command. Successful run indicates installation success.
4. Start ADB debugging.
SSH
SSH stands for Secure Shell, an encrypted network transmission protocol. Its core function is to securely remotely log into servers, execute commands, or transfer files in insecure network environments.
Account and Password
Default usernames and passwords for different systems are as follows:
| System | Username | Password |
|---|---|---|
| Debian11 | linaro | linaro |
| Debian11 | root | root |
| Ubuntu20.04 | kickpi | kickpi |
| Ubuntu20.04 | root | root |
IP Address Acquisition
DHCP automatically assigns IP addresses; no settings are needed. Device IP can be obtained in multiple ways.
- Within the system: Connect the board to a display, log into the system, use
ifconfig eth0to get the IP address. - Via serial port: Enter
ifconfig eth0in the serial terminal to get the IP address (Serial connection refer to Mobaxterm section above).
SSH Connection
Enter the command in the command line to perform SSH connection:
Example:
PS C:\Users\16708> ssh kickpi@192.168.77.186
The authenticity of host '192.168.77.186 (192.168.77.186)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:635IZrLQdeYlWWl3SCdLxu9fxLEPmStBapj4APCjzZE.
This key is not known by any other names.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.77.186' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
kickpi@192.168.77.186's password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 6.1.75 aarch64)
* Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com
* Management: https://landscape.canonical.com
* Support: https://ubuntu.com/pro
This system has been minimized by removing packages and content that are
not required on a system that users do not log into.
To restore this content, you can run the 'unminimize' command.
To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.
kickpi@kickpi:~$
Q&A
Cause: SD cards larger than 32GB need to use NTFS file system format.
Solution: Modify SDDiskTool_v1.74/config.ini, specify the format as NTFS, save, and restart SDDiskTool.
- ROOT User Login Failed?
1. Check if configuration was successful
Run the following commands. If the output is PermitRootLogin yes, it indicates configuration success:
console$ cat /etc/ssh/ssh_config | grep PermitRootLogin
PermitRootLogin yes
console$ cat /etc/ssh/sshd_config | grep PermitRootLogin
PermitRootLogin yes
- Root user login configuration
Modify SSH configuration files: