Raspberry Pi gains network installation system capabilities

Raspberry Pi gains network installation system capabilities without the need for additional equipment

Raspberry Pi gains network installation system capabilities without the need for additional equipment.

Raspberry Pi Imager is an official disk mirroring tool for Raspberry Pi.

This tool greatly reduces the difficulty for users to use microSD cards to create system installation disks. The tool also supports Windows, macOS and Linux.

This saves the trouble of finding the latest system image and how to write the system to the micro SD card for newcomers to the Raspberry Pi (and also convenient for old users).

No matter how convenient for users, currently users need to use another device to install and run the Raspberry Pi Imager (or other disk utility) to write the operating system to the micro SD card when they get a new Raspberry Pi. For a versatile, feature-rich “little computer” like the Raspberry Pi, this approach seems less “advanced”.

After all, not everyone has another spare computer (the relatively low price makes the Raspberry Pi very popular in economically backward areas), and sometimes there is a situation where there is no other computer to use temporarily, so in such a situation In this case, how can the user write the operating system to the micro SD card and install it?

The Raspberry Pi recently announced that they have launched a bootloader that is still in the beta stage. With the new version of the bootloader, users can download and install the operating system over the network on the Raspberry Pi without a system, without the need for a second computer. 

The new network installation function allows the Raspberry Pi that is connected to the network (only supports wired network) but does not have a system to first download the Raspberry Pi Imager application through the network, and then run the Raspberry Pi Imager directly in the memory of the Raspberry Pi, and then Write the operating system to a blank micro SD card as usual and proceed with the installation.

Note: For the Raspberry Pi that has already been sold, the user needs to manually update the bootloader. Once the test period ends, the Raspberry Pi will be shipped with a new version of the bootloader by default;

So the whole process is divided into the following steps:

• When the Raspberry Pi with the new bootloader is powered on for the first time, the bootloader will still first check if the connected micro SD card/USB flash drive has the system. If the system is not found, a new web installation interface will pop up on the screen;

• After following the interface prompts (long press the Shiftbutton and connect to the wired network), the Raspberry Pi will automatically start to download the Raspberry Pi Imager;
• Once complete, the Raspberry Pi Imager will run on the Raspberry Pi’s internal memory and write the user-selected system to a blank micro SD card/USB stick;
• Use the prepared system installation disk to complete the system installation.

This new bootloader only supports Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 400 models. Raspberry Pi 3 and earlier versions do not have this feature. Of course, since the new bootloader is still in beta, it is best not to use it in a production environment. it.