01 Imaging - schmoomers/Schmoomer-s-Wiki GitHub Wiki

1. Imaging

NOTE: Issues have been reported by people using Etcher, Win32DiskImager, and a few others. It is recommended to use Raspbery Pi Imager. No issues have been traced back to using Pi Imager software at this point. See details below on how to use it.

Follow Raspberry Pi guidance on how to install images. Software can be found here (Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu):

Raspberry Pi Software

A video on how to install an image can be found here:

How to install an image

NOTE : be sure to select a custom image instead of the Raspbian OS in the video

A video on how to create a backup of an SD card using Win32DiskImager by Mr. Sujano:

How to make a backup of an SD Card

NOTE: For writing images, it is recommended to use Raspberry Pi Imager, However since RPi Imager does not include the capability to do this on windows, you can use the above video for guidance.

Patching Older Images

Some images will boot with an error that says something similar to 'This board requires newer software'.

This is a misleading error because the firmware on the board is newer than what the image was built with in many cases.

To resolve this follow the below steps:

The Problem (This board requires newer software)

The Fix The way to fix this problem is outlined below: Obtaining Raspberry Pi firmware. For the Pi 4B and Pi 400, the procedure to follow is:

  1. Go to the appropriate firmware page on GitHub https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware
  2. Click on “boot”.
  3. Click on “fixup4.dat”
  4. Click on the Download button.
  5. Click on your browser’s BACK button.
  6. Click on “start4.elf”.
  7. Click on the Download button.

Installing the new firmware. From Windows/macOS/Linux:

  1. Insert the SD Card with the image on it into a SD card reader (or external media if you are booting from an alternative source) and then connect to a Windows/macOS/Linux machine.
  2. Open windows explorer and find the SD Card (The Big Schmoo) usually labelled “Boot” and will contain files with names such as config.txt, fixup.dat, fixup4.dat, riscos.img, start.elf and start4.elf.
  3. For a Pi 4B or Pi 400, delete the files “fixup4.dat” and “start4.elf”, replacing them with the new versions you downloaded above.
  4. Safely eject the SD Card (on macOS this option is labelled “Eject”) and wait for its icon to disappear. You may instead get a message of the form “It is now safe to disconnect the device”.
  5. Unplug the SD card from the card reader and reinsert the SD card into the Pi and allow to boot up.