HOWTO not touch emmc install any OS

Which system do you use? Android, Ubuntu, OOWOW or others?

LInux & Android

Which version of system do you use? Please provide the version of the system here:

redhat 6 to Debian

Please describe your issue below:

THIS WILL NOT TOUCH THE EMMC WHATSOEVER.
If you have built your VIM1 PC with a CMOS battery,
boot into Android and set the clock, because you cannot hwclock --systohc
Use mains PSU, use healthy TF card

Obtain rEFInd refind-flashdrive.0.14.2.zip (or bootloader of your choice)
unzip & dd img to a drive, mount drive and cp -r EFI to /root

Bootable TF card:
Obtain VIM1.u-boot.sd.bin Thankyou hyphop
fdisk /dev/sda Set the first sector to 4096
mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1
dd if=VIM1.u-boot.sd.bin of=/dev/sda conv=fsync,notrunc bs=1 count=442 && sync
dd if=VIM1.u-boot.sd.bin of=/dev/sda conv=fsync,notrunc bs=512 skip=1 seek=1 && sync
Thankyou Andrey, count=442
mount /dev/sda1 and cp -r EFI to card

I have debian-12.8.0-arm64-netinst.iso
I have dd the iso to a TF card and put the card in a USB adaptor

Put bootable TF card in mmc slot
Put Debian (or any arm64 Linux,) installer in USB slot
Boot VIM1 and press Function button 3 times
The VIM1 will boot from the TF card and chainload rEFInd to Debian installer
CAREFULLY remove bootable TF card,
and put a TF card in the mmc slot, which you are going to install the OS onto
OR obtain a USB hub !

Install OS, need 512MB bootable EFI partition
Initially I installed GRUB, it works
When you install GRUB you do not need to touch nvram entries
subsequently
I have not installed GRUB (piece of crap,)
I have Alt F2 chroot /target
mounted a drive,
and installed sysvinit-core and dependencies, and refind and dependencies

Put bootable TF card into mmc slot, and OS card in a USB adaptor.
Boot, press Function button 3 times.
Wait

I recommend a USB wireless adaptor until you have /lib/firmware for board.
THIS WILL NOT TOUCH THE EMMC WHATSOEVER.

Post a console log of your issue below:


**Delete this line and post your log here.**

REVISION:
I have only had my VIM1 for 1 week.
As I expected, arm64 flies, and arm is the present|future.
Somebody will immortalize refractasnapshot and port it to arm64
Perhaps it is a good idea to make your EFI partition more than 512MB, say 2048MB.
That way you can reinstall and change your EFI partition size so that the OS is not written to the same place.
Even if you cpufreq-set -u to the lowest value, dd will always cook your storage device somewhat, and the best Chinese doctors of nanotechnology, and silicon technology, on the planet, understand that an electrical electronic computer, is a mechanical artifact.
Even though I can handball this pain, I have gone back to installing GRUB (for now,) because vanilla refind on the OS depends on openssl which is always a certainly not small at all vulnerabilty, and ca-certificates.
I need to progress and obtain firmware for the onboard ethernet and wireless, amongst other things.
My nationality is British, I am an English old man, but born post 62 mind.
I endeavour to write absolutely correct simple English, British English actually, world readable.
What Khadas need to do is produce a fantastic tiny USB data splitter cable device.

systemd works
sysvinit hangs, does not get to login
brcmfmac: brcmf_sdio_htclk: HT Avail timeout (1000000): clkctl 0x50
I hope that somebody may be kind enough to contribute

I fixed the brcm problem, firmware voodoo.
However, still unable to boot sysvinit.
.bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1089323