Guide: How to boot Umbrel in rpi4 from SSD (avoiding microSD problems)

Guides
1

Hi There,

I am @PeterMcBTC and I want to share with you how I set up Umbrel in Raspberry Pi 4 using only an SSD, avoiding the slow and not reliable microSD. This guide is based in raspibolt.org:

-download and install Raspberry Pi Imager (https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/)
-select “Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit)” as OS and your ssd as your drive
-open advances options and set hostname, ssh (username + password), and wifi (option)
-write the drive with the new configuration.
-Attach the written drive and the power supply to the rpi4
-Wait 5 mins until debian is installed (you will see whats going on attaching a hdmi cable to your tv from the rpi4)
-ping your rpi, it will show you something like 192.168.0.XX
-ssh from your computer to the rpi4, doing “ssh NAMEDEVICE@192.168.0.XX”
-upgrade the packages: write “sudo apt update”, “sudo apt full-upgrade” and “sudo apt install git --install-recommends”
-create data directory: “sudo mkdir /data” and “sudo chown admin:admin /data”
-increase swap file:
“sudo nano /etc/dphys-swapfile”
#comment “#CONF_SWAPSIZE=100” to not apply this limitation , do control+o to write the new
changes, do control+x to exit
“sudo dphys-swapfile install” and “sudo systemctl restart dphys-swapfile.service”
-now the best part, to install umbrel: “curl -L https://umbrel.sh | bash”
-chill

I hope this guide helps you.
Just say hello in twitter and tell me if it worked! @PeterMcBTC

2

So, it’s not running Umbrel from ssd, it’s running a normal Debian from SSD and then running Umbrel off the docker image. Thanks anyway, just looks a little bit too complicated :slight_smile:

3

Has anyone tried this recently? Do I need to start with Legacy Bookworm? Given the year this was posted I think it was Bullseye being used as the Raspi OS Lite. My two Pi 5s are tied up in other projects. I have a Pi 4 8gig collecting dust I’d like to use for this if it still works. Or is the new Umbrel image for the Pi 4 RTR out of the box/github repository?

4

@RyukenKai you can skip Raspberry Pi OS entirely. This guide is from the old install-script days; the current umbrelOS image is a complete OS, so no Bookworm or Bullseye needed.

Your Pi 4 8GB can still run it. For an SSD-only setup, flash umbrelOS directly to the SSD using Raspberry Pi Imager or balenaEtcher, then connect it to the Pi, remove any microSD card, plug in Ethernet and power it up. Flashing will erase the SSD, so copy off anything you want to keep first.

The main thing to watch with an older Pi 4 is its bootloader: it may need updating before it’ll boot from USB. The current official umbrel guide covers that and links the image to use: Installing umbrelOS on Raspberry Pi | umbrelOS Support

5

@aidencole Thank you!