So I have bought a Banana Pi R1 few years ago, but I have left it to dust after testing it for a while since it doesn’t do what I wanted to do (Use it as a Router). Well, it didn’t work, maybe my knowledge is just limited to make it work. So what’s the reason that I want to pick up this device and play again, well, I want to make it as a file server. The reason I write this is that I noticed that the software didn’t update that much anymore, so I just want to put down the information here so I can reference it later.
Here is a list of step and reference that summaries the Banana Pi R1 installation and Setup:
You can see more board information in the post Banana Pi R1 Board Information
The most important part is to know which micro-usb is for power, I always have no idea which one to plug, even though plugging both of them works, I just want to use the one that is intended to be used.
Banana Pi R1 Image/ROM
I have been searching for the image for Banana Pi R1, but it’s quite hard to find or download. Here is the list of website that I found (I am using Bananian after trying a few rom that doesn’t work, note that the version of Bananian is quite old):
https://www.bananian.org/download
http://www.banana-pi.org/downloadall.html
http://wiki.banana-pi.org/Banana_Pi_BPI-R1#Image_Release
https://dev.banana-pi.org.cn/Image/BPI-R1/
https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/lamobo/lamobo_bananapi_r1
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4PAo2nW2Kfndjh6SW9MS2xKSWs
http://www.banana-pi.com/exzzx_view.asp?id=24
https://www.banana-pi.org.cn/r1-download.html
Format the SD Card
- Go to the SD Association’s website and download SD Formatter 4.0 for either Windows or Mac.
- Follow the instructions to install the software.
- Insert your SD card into the computer or laptop’s SD card reader and make a note of the drive letter allocated to it, e.g. F:/.
- In SD Formatter, select the drive letter for your SD card and format it.
Preparing the SD Card
- Extract the image files from the zip.
- Visit etcher.io and download and install the Etcher SD card image utility.
- Run Etcher and select the image you unzipped on your computer or laptop.
- Select the SD card drive. Note that the software may have already selected the right drive.
- Finally, click Burn to transfer the image to the SD card. You’ll see a progress bar that tells you how much is left to do. Once complete, the utility will automatically eject/unmount the SD card so it’s safe to remove it from the computer.
Start the Banana Pi R1
- Insert the SD Card that you prepared into the Banana Pi R1
- Plug the power to the Micro-USB
- Plug the HDMI
- Plug the LAN
- Plug the Keyboard (If you don’t have the keyboard, you can find the IP of your Banana Pi R1 using your router or you can “ping bananapi” and SSH into R1)
- The default username and password of Banana Pi R1 (username: root, password: pi)
- After you login, you should config your R1 using the command “bananian-config” (Let me know if you need the steps to configure this)
- So there you go, your Banana Pi R1 is ready
Hello, were you ever able to get it to work as a router?
Not Really, I tried the OpenWRT, but its hard to make it work as a router.