Armbian Imager 2.0

Bol released Armbian Imager 2.0 — a major update of the official Armbian utility for recording images to SD cards, USB drives, and other media for single-board computers. The new version has revamped the interface and recording engine, with the main change being the ability to prepare a primary setup profile in advance: after flashing, the board can boot with the user-defined settings, network, locale, and SSH access already configured. Release v2.0.0 was published on GitHub on June 6, 2026, and the official Armbian announcement was made on June 7.

Armbian Imager — a free cross-platform program for installing Armbian OS on SBC. The utility can choose the board and image, download and unpack it, check the SHA checksum, write the image, and then verify the written data against the original image. The source code is distributed under the license GPL-2.0.

Hlavné zmeny

• Primary system setup profiles.
  In Armbian Imager 2.0, you can create a profile in advance with a username, password, SSH key, Wi-Fi settings, country, timezone, locale, and shell. This data is written directly to the image's file system during flashing and applied on the first boot of the board. This is especially useful for headless scenarios where the device is deployed without a monitor and keyboard.

• Support for the same approach for Qualcomm boards via QDL.
  The announcement separately states that Qualcomm boards flashed via QDL receive the same preconfiguration mechanism. This is important for devices where installation occurs not only through the traditional image writing to the card but also through USB flashing mode.

• A new unified selection interface.
  The old pop-ups have been replaced by a single step-by-step screen: choosing the manufacturer, board, OS, and target storage is now integrated into one flow. This makes the process closer to an installer wizard: the user sees the entire path from SBC selection to image writing without navigating through disparate dialogs.

• More informative image gallery.
  For images, the build date, environment tags, and kernel branch are displayed, along with a mark for files already downloaded. A separate filter is provided for rolling/trunk builds with a warning before use. Images that cannot be written to the card, such as VM disks, are hidden from the list.

• Byte-for-byte recording verification.
  Po stiahnutí sa obraz kontroluje pomocou SHA256 a po zápise nástroj prečíta médiá späť a porovná údaje so zdrojom. To znamená, že úspešný zápis znamená nielen dokončenie operácie bez chyby, ale aj zhodu obsahu média s obrazom.

• Prepracovaný manažér cache a offline režim.
  Cache teraz zobrazuje, aké údaje zaberajú miesto, podľa kategórií, a umožňuje rýchlejšie čistenie nepotrebného. Offline režim bol tiež prepracovaný: už stiahnuté a používateľom vytvorené obrazy zostávajú dostupné aj bez pripojenia k sieti.

• Podpora používateľských obrazov.
  V Imageri môžete preniesť vlastný obraz. Nástroj uvádza podporu img, iso, xz, gz, bz2 a zst, s rozbalením pred zápisom. To robí program vhodným nielen pre oficiálne obrazy Armbian, ale aj pre lokálne zostavy alebo testovacie varianty.

• Krosplatformové zostavy a lokalizácia.
  Armbian Imager 2.0 je dostupný pre Linux, Windows a macOS, vrátane x64 a ARM64 variantov. Rozhranie je preložené do 18 jazykov, jazyk sa vyberá automaticky podľa systémovej lokality; tiež sú dostupné svetlé, tmavé a automatické témy.

V praktickom zmysle Armbian Imager 2.0 zabezpečuje inštaláciu Armbian bližšie k normálnemu hromadnému nasadeniu SBC: kartu je možné pripraviť raz, vložiť do dosky, zapnúť napájanie a okamžite sa pripojiť k už nastavenému systému cez sieť. Pre domácu laboratória, stánky, mini-servery a sériovú prípravu dosiek to značne skracuje manuálne nastavenie po prvom spustení.

Zdroj: linux.org.ru