How to install Umbrel on Raspberry Pi 5

Guides
1

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If you have a Raspberry pi 5 and want to test Umbrel but don’t want to wait for the official release to support RP5, you can install it like this:

1.Install Raspberry pi os lite 64 bit (no desktop) - optional (configure ssh and user/pass via Rasberry pi Imager)

  1. SSH to your Raspberry Pi (or just connect it to a monitor and use a keyboard).
  2. Install Umbrel via:
    curl -L https://umbrel.sh | bash
    after it finished installing you will get the IP address.

Please note:

  1. If you want to install Umbrel on an external device either change the path via:
    curl -L https://umbrel.sh | bash -s -- --install-path /some/path
    or install the whole OS on an external drive and boot from it.

  2. If the main OS is hosted on your SD Cart, you may need to change the default docker path to the external drive in order to prevent container images fill up your sd cart:

sudo systemctl stop docker
sudo mv /var/lib/docker /home/pi/docker
sudo ln -s /home/pidocker /var/lib/docker

run this command (or use nano):
sudo vi /etc/docker/daemon.json

add these lines:

{
  "data-root": "/newfullpath/"
}

restart docker:

sudo systemctl start docker

2 Likes
2

Hi there,
I did install umbrel on my pi 5 using ssh with the curl -L command https://umbrel.sh | bash but I’m not a linux novice.
Indeed bitcoin core is installed on the sd card and not on my ssd connected to a usb 3 port.
Can you tell me the exact commands to enter to solve this problem.

3

In that case, I would suggest you to install everything directly on the SSD and boot from it (don’t need a sd card at all).
That would be much easier.

4

That happened to me as well. Putting everything on ssd solved my problem with my pi5.

1 Like
5

Hi, first day umbrel user here.
I just installed whole thing to SSD .
Im capable to follow your tutorial and install to SD and apps only to SSD , but I dont know which solution is better. Is it worth ?

What are pros and cons of having OS on SDcard ? isnt it slower?

6

I didn’t have any luck installing everything on the external ssd. When trying to install Umbrel on it, after completing the previous steps and ssh into it, the installation stalled and gave many errors.

It’s been how many months since the pi 5 was released and still Umbrel doesn’t have their hands on one… exasperating.

7

Have you installed the RPi Lite OS on SSD as well?
If not just ignore SD card, install the OS on the SSD.

You can easily migrate everything to whenever they started supporting RPi5.

8

Hi!
Isolating data and OS can make it easier to backup data, update and restore in case of problem with the base OS.

I don’t think there is any gain in performance by separating data and OS.

9

Yes I had installed RPi Lite OS on the SSD as well. It’s strange because when I installed it the first time on a SD card I was able to install Umbrel.

Thanks for your reply

10

You can share the error maybe we can help. I didn’t have any problem with running everything on SSD.

11

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This is a screenshot of the terminal window. If you have a solution please be detailed since I’m new to linux.
thanks

12

This is a permission problem, I’ve seen this but mostly when people want to mount an external device manually.
I would just redo the OS installation and start over since doing that may actually take less time.

13

I flashed the SSD again and this time I plugged it into a different port on the back of the pi and everything works.
I think the secondary ports are slower USB transfer speeds but as long as it works.
Thanks for your help.

1 Like
15

Hello, I have this bug when installing on a Pi 5. What should I do?


btcnode@raspberrypi:~ $ curl -L https://umbrel.sh | bash
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100    41  100    41    0     0    119      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--   119
100  8053  100  8053    0     0  13710      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 13710
About to install Umbrel in "/home/btcnode/umbrel".
If you would like to install somewhere else you can specify a custom location with:

  curl -L https://umbrel.sh | bash -s -- --install-path /some/path

Waiting for 10 seconds...

You may press Ctrl+C now to abort the install.

Hit:1 http://raspbian.raspberrypi.com/raspbian bookworm InRelease
Hit:2 http://archive.raspberrypi.com/debian bookworm InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
W: http://raspbian.raspberrypi.com/raspbian/dists/bookworm/InRelease: Key is stored in legacy trusted.gpg keyring (/etc/apt/trusted.gpg), see the DEPRECATION section in apt-key(8) for details.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
fswatch is already the newest version (1.14.0+repack-13.1).
jq is already the newest version (1.6-2.1).
rsync is already the newest version (3.2.7-1).
curl is already the newest version (7.88.1-10+rpi1+deb12u5).
git is already the newest version (1:2.39.2-1.1).
gettext-base is already the newest version (0.21-12).
python3 is already the newest version (3.11.2-1).
gnupg is already the newest version (2.2.40-1.1).
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  libcamera0.1
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
avahi-daemon is already the newest version (0.8-10).
avahi-discover is already the newest version (0.8-10).
libnss-mdns is already the newest version (0.15.1-3).
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  libcamera0.1
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100     9  100     9    0     0     32      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--    32
main: line 130: yq_sha256[$system_arch]: unbound variable
16

Can I use this to install Umbrel without an SSD or HDD (only a micro SD card)?

17

It should work but I suggest you to wait until the UmbrelOS1.0 becomes available for Linux.

18

Curious to know why you’re suggesting we wait it out. I just installed 0.5.4 on a Pi5 with PiOS ‘bookworm’ and it’s running well so far. I know it’s not as pretty or polished as 1.x but at least it works, and I’m booting directly off my 2T NVMe drive. Did I just paint myself into a corner?

19

Yes it works, I suggest waiting just because you don’t have to update it again.
When using the standard method if sth goes wrong during update most of the time you can just flash another SD card and you’re good to go.

It’s just more complicated when you install it via “Curl”.

Of course if you’re ok with Linux you should be able to troubleshoot it if sth goes wrong.

20

Well, not really. But I can copy and paste commands in terminal based on directions. :wink:

I tried over the past number of days some two dozen times with Umbrel 1.x to recognize and use my NVMe drive and finally gave up. Turns out all those hoops I jupmed through were harder than just installing using PiOS and CURL. Since the machine is booting off the NVMe drive, I’m hoping at some point when Umbrel 1.2 arrives (and actually works with NVMe drives) that it won’t be too painful to upgrade

21

That’s basically me then.
My main Umbrel is installed on a NanoPi6 (OS on eMMC, data and docker images on NVMe).
Just make sure you have multiple backup from your Umbrel folder (you can skip blocks (bitcoin) directory if you want to make your backup light, then you can start some adventures.