How to Install Armbian on Raspberry Pi, The Easy Way

I recently installed Armbian on one of my Raspberry Pi boards, and I was surprised by how much it has improved over the years. If you’re curious about trying it yourself, I’ll walk you through the installation process and help you get started.

Armbian can now be installed on all recent Raspberry Pi models, including the Raspberry Pi 5. It’s available directly in Raspberry Pi Imager, with a choice of Ubuntu- or Debian-based images, minimal editions, or desktop versions with GNOME or KDE.

It’s a little less straightforward than Raspberry Pi OS, but don’t worry, I’ll explain every step in detail in this tutorial. I’ll also give you some tips for using Armbian and answer some of your questions about it.

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Install Armbian on Raspberry Pi

Here are the required steps to install Armbian on your Raspberry Pi:

• Choose which edition to install (minimal or desktop).
• Download the corresponding image.
• Flash it to your SD card (or USB drive).
• Follow the first boot wizard.

I will now explain each step in detail.

Choose an Armbian Edition

The Armbian operating system is available in two editions to best suit your needs, but unlike other distros, the base system can be different depending on your choice:

• Minimal: as the name implies, it’s a command line only operating system (no GUI). There are two releases, both with many similarities to Raspberry Pi OS Lite.
  • Armbian Trixie Minimal – based on Debian.
  • Armbian Resolute Minimal – based on Ubuntu.
• Desktop: Based on Ubuntu, it runs well on recent Raspberry Pi models, but might be too heavy for older boards. There are also two releases here with different environments.
  • Armbian Resolute GNOME – based on Ubuntu with the default GNOME desktop.
  • Armbian Resolute KDE Plasma – based on Ubuntu with the flashier KDE Plasma.

If you scroll a bit on their download page, you may also find other variants, like one with Kali Linux, or images preinstalled with applications like Home Assistant or OpenMediaVault.

If you have an older Raspberry Pi, I recommend starting with the Minimal version and manually installing a lightweight desktop environment instead. I’ll show you how to do that later on.

Flash Armbian onto Storage Media

As for any new operating system, you need to copy the system files to your media storage. I recommend using Raspberry Pi Imager, as it will handle the downloading and flashing for you. If you don’t have it yet, it’s a free tool you can download here.

Note: Other options including downloading the image manually here or using the newly released Armbian Imager to flash it onto your SD card or USB drive.

I have a complete guide to Raspberry Pi Imager here, but here are the main steps:

• Launch Raspberry Pi Imager, and make the following selections.
• Device – select which board you have.
• OS – scroll down to select Other general-purpose OS and click Armbian OS.
• Select the Minimal or Desktop edition you want.
  (See the previous section for an explanation of the differences.)
  
• Storage – insert the SD card or USB drive you want to use for your system.
  Select it from the list.
• Customisation – click SKIP CUSTOMISATION.
  
• Writing – Click WRITE to begin the flashing process.

After a few minutes, the media will be ready.
You can eject it from your computer and insert it into your Raspberry Pi.

First Boot

Plug your network cable, keyboard, and monitor, and turn on the Raspberry Pi.
After a few minutes, you should get a prompt asking you to create the root password:

I have tested both versions, and the first boot steps are basically the same. Even if you chose the desktop image, you’ll have to follow this text-based wizard to configure your system.

You can then follow the welcome wizard to configure a few things:

• Change the root password.
  “root” is the administrator user.
  In general, you won’t use this often but still set a strong password here.
• Create the first normal user.
  You’ll use it all the time, so create one with your first name for example.
• Connect to a wireless network.
  If you’re on Wi-Fi, you can choose the network and enter the passphrase to connect.
• Change the locale if needed.
  By the way, the default setup uses en-us, so the keyboard is in QWERTY to set the passwords in the previous steps.

That’s it! Once done, you’ll get access to the terminal interface, and can then do everything from the command line, like with any server distribution. Don’t worry if you are new to this, I’ll guide you with the first steps in the next section.

Obviously, if you installed the Desktop image, you’ll then get access to the full interface, using GNOME and looking like that:

The rest of the tutorial is mostly about using Armbian minimal or command line, so if you need help with the desktop interface, I recommend switching to this Ubuntu tutorial for the next steps instead.

Getting Started with Armbian Minimal

Let’s take some time to complete the configuration. If you are new to a terminal-only setup, you might need some extra help to get started. Armbian Minimal is based on Debian, so it’s really close to Raspberry Pi OS anyway.

If you installed the desktop version, you can likely skip this section, you’ll find everything in the GUI, just open the settings to configure your system:

Network Configuration

If you plugged a network cable during the installation and have a DHCP server on your network, everything should already be configured properly.
You can use a ping command to make sure everything is working:
ping google.com

But, if you didn’t configure the Wi-Fi earlier, it has to be done now before going further with the system configuration. The easiest way I find is to use raspi-config, which is installed by default:

• Launch the Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool:
  sudo raspi-config
• Go to System options > Wireless LAN.
• Follow the wizard to set your country, SSID, and passphrase.

After that, the network should be working. You can also use the ping command I gave earlier to make sure it’s connected. You can also use this command to check the network card status and get your current IP address:
ip a

Tip: Command lines can be a pain to memorize. I put the essential Linux commands on a printable cheat sheet so you don't have to keep googling them. You can grab the PDF here if you want to save some time.

Enable SSH

I like to use SSH for my Raspberry Pi configuration. This way, I can do everything from my computer, copy/paste commands, etc.

And if you are like me: good news, SSH is enabled by default on Armbian, so you can connect to it directly with the user and password you just created.

If you need help with this, you can read my complete guide about SSH on Raspberry Pi here.

System Updates

We now have the network ready and an SSH connection to the Raspberry Pi.
As with any new operating system, the next step will be to do the system updates.

Armbian is a rolling release, so you shouldn’t have too much of them to do, but it’s a good practice anyway. As Armbian is based on Ubuntu, you can use the same commands as on Debian / Raspberry Pi OS:
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Tools You Can Use

So, raspi-config is available on Armbian, which is nice if you are already used to it with Raspberry Pi OS. But there is also another configuration tool you can try: armbian-config.

It’s basically similar to raspi-config, with a simple interface, you can use in a terminal or via SSH.
The main menu will like like:

You can start it with this command line:
sudo armbian-config

You will then find several submenus:

• System: Advanced configuration options for your system. I think you’ll use raspi-config for the basic stuff, and this one for more optimization settings (overclocking, upgrades, etc.).
• Network: Same idea here. I explained how to set up your network with raspi-config, but you’ll find advanced settings in armbian-config, under Network (static IP, hotspot, Bluetooth, etc.).
• Localization: If you need to make some changes to the initial configuration (timezone, locale, etc.). I would probably use raspi-config for this, but you can do it there too.
• Software: Armbian has a third-party software installer, where you can for example install Plex, Pi-Hole, or Home Assistant in one click.
  
  That’s something I would love to see on Raspberry Pi OS by default.

Install a Desktop Environment on Armbian Minimal

As Armbian is based on Debian, you can use any of your favorite desktop environments with it. All of them are available in the default APT repository and can be installed easily on the CLI version of Armbian.

Install a Desktop Environment with Tasksel

I already have a detailed tutorial on how to install a Desktop environment on a Lite version of Raspberry Pi OS, and the steps will be the same here. So, if it’s your first time, you might need to check the other article. But I’ll give you the short version here.

I recommend using tasksel to simplify the steps, as this tool will handle all the dependencies for you:

• Install tasksel with:
  sudo apt install tasksel
• Run it:
  sudo tasksel
• Select the desktop environment you want to install.
  (For example, use arrow keys to go to XFCE and press SPACE to mark it for installation).
• Press TAB to highlight the OK button, and press ENTER to start the installation.

It might take a while depending on your choice, Raspberry Pi model and Internet speed, but it will install everything you need to get a GUI on your system.

Once done, reboot your system, and you should get access to a basic desktop interface:
sudo reboot

Install Synaptic to Get New Applications

From there, you’ll need to install everything else manually.

While the desktop version of Armbian comes with a bunch of applications preinstalled, you don’t get them if you just install a desktop environment on the minimal version. So there is almost nothing on your system right now.

You can use the same apt command to install the basic apps, for example:
sudo apt install vlc
sudo apt install chromium-browser
sudo apt install libreoffice

But if you prefer, Synaptic is a great tool to manage packages on a Debian distribution. It looks a bit like the “Add / Remove software” tool on Raspberry Pi OS:

You can install it on Armbian with:
sudo apt install synaptic

From there, you should be able to install everything you need and have the best experience possible with your new system. Enjoy it!

Not getting the same result?

Even when you follow every step, small differences in OS version, hardware or config can change the outcome. Instead of wasting time guessing, get help from people who have already fixed the same kind of issue.

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