If you are into embedded development, Single Board Computers (SBCs), or just tinkering with cheap tablets, you have likely encountered an Allwinner chip. From the aging A10 and A20 to the popular H3, H5, and H6 found in Orange Pi and NanoPi boards, Allwinner SoCs power a massive chunk of the hobbyist ARM world.
While Linux users have a straightforward command-line workflow, Windows users often find themselves stuck between shady "PhoenixSuit" releases and driver signature enforcement headaches. This is where sunxi-tools comes into play.
In this post, we’ll explore what sunxi-tools is, why you should use it on Windows, and how to get your device up and running.
Three practical approaches exist, each with trade-offs:
Let’s walk through a typical workflow for booting a device in FEL mode and writing to its memory.
“sunxi-fel: No FEL device found”
usbipd wsl attach was successfulMSYS2 build fails at libusb
pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-libusb and install the correct header path manually in Makefile (but honestly, WSL is easier)Permission denied on /dev/ttyUSB0
/dev/ttyUSB0 in WSL1/2 well. Use Windows native serial tools like PuTTY or wsl + screen was unreliable. Better to use a separate serial tool.WSL (specifically WSL2) gives you a real Linux kernel and environment. Since sunxi-tools communicates over USB, you'll need to install a few extra packages.
Steps:
usbipd-win package. (This passes USB devices to WSL.)sudo apt update && sudo apt install git build-essential libusb-1.0-0-dev
git clone https://github.com/linux-sunxi/sunxi-tools
cd sunxi-tools
make
sudo make install
usbipd on Windows, then use sunxi-fel inside WSL.Pros: Full functionality, up-to-date tools, just like Linux. Cons: Requires WSL2 setup and USB/IP configuration.
Use usbipd-win (Windows USB passthrough for WSL):
usbipd wsl list
usbipd wsl attach --busid <BUSID>
Then inside WSL2, sudo sunxi-fel version will work.
sunxi-fel.exe or compile via MSYS2.libusb-1.0.dll (32-bit).sunxi-fel.exe version.With these tools at your disposal, the barrier between Windows development and embedded Allwinner hacking has officially been removed.
For developers and hobbyists working with Allwinner SoC-based devices like the sunxi-tools sunxi-tools windows
an essential command-line suite for low-level hardware manipulation
. While natively built for Linux, using these tools on Windows is a popular way to avoid the USB mounting issues often found in virtual machines when flashing firmware. Key Utilities in the Suite
The Windows version of sunxi-tools provides several critical functions for board configuration:
: The primary tool for communicating with the Allwinner BROM over USB. It allows you to put devices into
to load SPL (Secondary Program Loader), read/write memory, or flash SPI storage. sunxi-fexc (fex2bin / bin2fex)
: A compiler/decompiler for Allwinner's hardware description files. It converts human-readable files into the binary format used by legacy kernels.
: Used to manipulate and debug GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) settings directly. sunxi-bootinfo Flashing Allwinner Devices on Windows: A Guide to
: Dumps technical information from Allwinner boot headers to help identify firmware versions or DRAM settings. Setting Up on Windows Because sunxi-tools depends on
, standard Windows drivers often won't recognize the device in FEL mode. Driver Installation Zadig USB tool to replace the default driver with libusb-win32 for the detected Allwinner device. Binary Acquisition : While you can find pre-compiled versions on , many users prefer compiling from source using Code::Blocks to ensure compatibility with the latest SoC versions. FEL Mode Activation
: Most boards require holding a specific physical button (often labeled "UBOOT" or "Recovery") during power-on to be detected by the Common Use Cases Firmware Recovery
: Rescuing "bricked" devices that cannot boot from an SD card by pushing a minimal bootloader over USB. Hardware Tweaking : Modifying script.bin
to change CPU voltages, DRAM timings, or HDMI settings without re-imaging the entire system. NAND Partitioning sunxi-nand-part
to reconfigure internal storage on older Allwinner tablets or development boards. to flash a specific board?
"sunxi-tools" refers to a set of tools used for working with Allwinner SoC (System on Chip) based devices, such as various Android tablets, single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi alternatives (e.g., Orange Pi, Banana Pi), and other embedded systems. These tools are particularly popular among developers and enthusiasts who want to customize, debug, or repair devices powered by Allwinner chips. Check Device Manager → Universal Serial Bus devices
The term "sunxi" itself is derived from "sun" (as in, the sun rising, a reference to the Chinese company Allwinner, which produces these SoCs) and "xi" which is short for "xin" meaning "new".
When you add "Windows" to the search term "sunxi-tools," you're likely looking for versions of these tools that can run on the Windows operating system. Sunxi-tools originally comes from a Linux background, as most development and hacking tools for such devices do. However, there are efforts and adaptations to make these tools available on Windows, either through native builds, Cygwin, or Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).