Installing Fedora 29 on Orange Pi Zero

Here are the steps to install Fedora 29 (armhfp) on the Orange PI Zero, from a Fedora 29 desktop. “opz” will be used throughout post to avoid typing “Orange Pi Zero” repeatedly.

Prepare sdcard on desktop

Perform these steps on your Fedora 29 desktop to prepare the sdcard that will be used in the opz.

  • Download Fedora 29 Minimal Image for armv7 from https://arm.fedoraproject.org/
  • Install ARM image tool packages
    sudo dnf install uboot-images-armv7 arm-image-installer
  • Install image to sdcard. Replace “sdX” with location of your sdcard and adjust paths to ssh key and downloaded image as appropriate.
    sudo arm-image-installer --media /dev/sdX --target=orangepi_zero --image=Fedora-Minimal-armhfp-29-1.2-sda.raw.xz --resizefs --addkey=.ssh/id_rsa.pub --relabel

Boot Orange Pi Zero

  • Eject the sdcard from desktop and insert into the opz.
  • Connect RJ45 ethernet to opz.
  • Connect 5V USB power to boot opz.
  • Monitor DHCP server to determine IP address supplied to opz.
  • SSH as root to IP address.

Post boot config

  • Disable firstboot. If you connect to opz via serial connection, you’ll see the console is waiting for you to create a user and/or set root password. The initial-setup service is responsible for this.
    systemctl disable initial-setup
  • Reboot

Your Orange Pi Zero is now running Fedora 29 (Minimal), and can only be accessed by IP address as root with SSH key.