On second thoughts, I just went here for the armbian images:

https://armbian.systemonachip.net/archive/bananapim2zero/archive/

Wrote to SD card with the raspi imager - choose your own image from downloaded and extracted image file. (https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/ )

Went for the ubuntu focal image, just for tests, may change later.

Important side note to _self: https://forum.banana-pi.org/t/banana-pi-m2-zero-latest-armbian-images/9224

Hooked up mouse and keyboard through a convenient 3-port usb hub that has a mini-usb connector for use with these kinds of boards. Well, at least temporary, for setting up this kind of device.

Oh and, I had to use a different HDMI device, apparantly the raspi works a little better out of the box detecting the display.

I'll probably have to tweak some settings to get the rounded display working again, will keep you posted.