CoreELEC for Banana Pi

These instructions explain how to install and boot CoreELEC on Banana Pi SBC's from µSD Card by use of a Windows PC. The instructions can easily be adapted for other Operating Systems.

These Single Board Computers come without an Operating System pre-installed.
Prior to installing CoreELEC, the Android firmware has to be flashed to the SBC.
Instructions how to flash the firmware are included in this document.

BPI-M5
BPI-M2 Pro

PC with Microsoft Windows
Android mbox variant ui image (release 2021-05-20, Android 9.0 kernel 4.9.113)
AML USB Burning Tool v 2.2.3.3
Jackpal Terminal for Android
USB A-Male to Micro B Data Cable (M2 Pro)
USB A-Male to USB C cable (M5)
USB Remote Controller (ex: MX3 Air Mouse) or other USB controlling device (keyboard, mouse).
USB Flash Drive (for file transfer)
µSD Card (for CoreELEC)
Memory Card Reader

Download Jackpal Terminal Emulator for Android and copy the file to the USB Flash drive.
Download the Abdroid mbox variant ui image for BPI-M5 (at the time of writing release 2021-05-20, Android 9.0 with kernel 4.9.113)
Download and install the AML Usb Burning Tool

Visit the CoreELEC website
Select a version to download
The Download Helper will pop up
Select Skip that and just show me all download options
Download the generic image (CoreELEC-Amlogic-ng.arm-xxx-Generic.img.gz)
Write the downloaded image to a μSD Card

Device	Edition	DTB	SoC
BPI-M2 Pro	2G	sm1_s905x3_bananapi_m2pro	S905X3
BPI-M5	4G	sm1_s905x3_bananapi_m5	S905X3

Extract the BPI-M5 firmware archive
Start Amlogic USB Burning Tool
Import aml_upgrade_package.img (file / import image)
Ensure only 'erase flash“ and “erase bootloader” are checked and “normal erase” is selected
Press start
Connect the SBC with the corresponding USB Cable to an available USB slot on the PC.

Press stop
Disconnect USB Charger Cable from PC

Insert Remote Controller USB Adapter
Reconnect USB Charger Cable to PC USB slot
The SBC should boot into Android

Once booted into Android:

Insert USB Flash drive with Jackpal Terminal Emulator apk
Insert µSD Card with CoreELEC
Install Jackpal terminal with apk installer (under Android aps)
Start Jackpal terminal
Type update reboot in the terminal and hit the enter key.
The SBC should restart from SD Card and start expanding the storage partition. Allow for the CoreELEC pre-installation script to finish.