It is recommended to use Etcher to flash the Lakka images. If it is not possible to use Etcher, follow the methods below based on your operating system.
On Windows you will need two additional tools, that can: - decompress .gz files (in this example we will use 7-Zip) - write image files to USB thumb drives / SD cards (in this example we will use Win32DiskImager)
Install 7-Zip and Win32DiskImager. You can download them using the links above.
Using Windows File Explorer navigate to folder where you have save the downloaded Lakka image file (Lakka-*.img.gz). Right click on it and select 7-Zip -> Extract here. You will get decompressed file (Lakka-*.img).
Plug in your SD card / USB thumb drive. Windows should give you the drive letter. Please note this for next step.
Run the Win32DiskImager utility. Click on the folder icon below “Image File” and select the decompressed image file (Lakka-*.img). Under “Device” select the drive letter of your SD card / USB thumb drive. Selecting incorrect letter can lead to erasing either your hard drive or any other device! Click on the “Write” button. Wait until the writing process is finished and disconnect your SD card / USB thumb drive.
The downloaded image file is compressed using gzip, so it must be decompressed. We assume that you downloaded the file to your ~/Downloads folder:
$ cd ~/Downloads
$ gunzip Lakka-*.img.gz
Now list your current drives and partitions before you plug in your SD card / USB thumb drive:
$ ls -l /dev/sd*
You will see a list of disks/partitions similar to following:
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 0 Sep 16 18:09 /dev/sda
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 1 Sep 16 18:09 /dev/sda1
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 2 Sep 16 18:09 /dev/sda2
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 3 Sep 16 18:09 /dev/sda3
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 4 Sep 16 18:09 /dev/sda4
In this case there is one disk /dev/sda with 4 partitions /dev/sda1 to /dev/sda4. Your output might be different depending on number of drives and partitions. Now plug in your SD card / USB thumb drive and type again:
ls -l /dev/sd*
Once again the same disks/partitions will be shown, but there will be new disk with its partitions:
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 0 Sep 16 18:09 /dev/sda
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 1 Sep 16 18:09 /dev/sda1
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 2 Sep 16 18:09 /dev/sda2
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 3 Sep 16 18:09 /dev/sda3
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 4 Sep 16 18:09 /dev/sda4
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 16 Sep 18 23:12 /dev/sdb
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 17 Sep 18 23:12 /dev/sdb1
brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 18 Sep 18 23:12 /dev/sdb2
In this case it is the disk /dev/sdb with 2 partitions /dev/sdb1 to /dev/sdb2. This means, that /dev/sdb represents the SD card / USB thumb drive. Please note your identifier.
Now that you know your SD card / USB thumb drive identifier, you can flash the image to it. Please note that dd is a very dangerous command: if you give it the wrong drive identifier, it could erase your hard drive instead of the SD card / USB thumb drive!
$ sudo dd if=Lakka-*.img of=/dev/sdX status=progress
Replace /dev/sdX with your location noted in previous step, e.g. /dev/sdb. It should take a few minutes. Once done, type following:
$ sync
Wait for the prompt and you can unplug your USB thumb drive / eject your SD card.
Navigate to the location where you have downloaded the Lakka image. Double click the file to decompress it.
First, you need to know the location of your your SD/USB drive. Open a Console and list your current drives and partitions before inserting the SD card / USB thumb drive:
$ diskutil list
It will show output similar to this:
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partitions_scheme *121.3 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS 67.9 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_HFS Linux Boot Loader fr... 134.2 MB disk0s3
4: Apple_HFS MacOS 52.4 GB disk0s4
5: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s5
In this case disk0 is the internal hard drive with 5 partitions disk0s1 to disk0s5. Now plug in your SD card / USB thumb drive and type again:
$ diskutil list
The output should show one new drive:
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partitions_scheme *121.3 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS 67.9 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_HFS Linux Boot Loader fr... 134.2 MB disk0s3
4: Apple_HFS MacOS 52.4 GB disk0s4
5: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s5
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *2.0 GB disk1
1: Windows_FAT_32 System 131.1 MB disk1s1
2: Linux 1.8 GB disk1s2
So the identifier of the SD card / USB thumb drive is in this case /dev/disk1. Please note your identifier.
Now that you know your SD card / USB thumb drive location, you can flash the image to it.Go to the folder where you have extracted the downloaded file (cd /path/to_the/location).
Please note that dd is a very dangerous command: if you give it the wrong drive identifier, it could erase your hard drive instead of the SD card!
$ sudo dd if=Lakka-*.img of=/dev/diskX
Replace /dev/diskX with your identifier noted in previous step, e.g. /dev/disk1. It should take a few minutes until similar message is shown:
327680+0 records in
327680+0 records out
167772160 bytes transferred in 179.500632 secs (934661 bytes/sec)
Once done, you can unplug your USB thumb drive / eject your SD card. If you get this error:
dd: /dev/diskXsN: Resource busy
You have to unmount every partition of your SD card / USB thumb drive. This can be done with:
$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX
And then you can retry.