Raspberry Pi Forums

I am looking to see if there is a way to install to a USB HDD on a Pi 4 without installing from an image.

I want to boot of some media, probably SD card, and do an install process to USB HDD just like I might do on x86 PC/VM hardware.

Is such a thing possible?

Does "installation media" even exist for Raspberry Pi 4?

For the inevitable "why?" - I am a UNIX admin by day, I like control over what gets installed and how. I want to choose my filesystems & use LVM etc.

Thanks in advance

JHam wrote: ↑

Sat May 30, 2020 3:37 am

I am looking to see if there is a way to install to a USB HDD on a Pi 4 without installing from an image.

I want to boot of some media, probably SD card, and do an install process to USB HDD just like I might do on x86 PC/VM hardware.

Is such a thing possible?

Does "installation media" even exist for Raspberry Pi 4?

For the inevitable "why?" - I am a UNIX admin by day, I like control over what gets installed and how. I want to choose my filesystems & use LVM etc.

Thanks in advance

Any Raspberry Pi compatible Operating System can be imaged to a suitable USB MSD, providing the model of Raspberry Pi is supporting USB Boot and the Operating System has been proven to be able to boot from USB MSD, such as Raspberry Pi OS.

You would just need to "compile" your own Operating System and create an .IMG file.

Any Raspberry Pi compatible Operating System can be imaged to a suitable USB MSD, providing the model of Raspberry Pi is supporting USB Boot and the Operating System has been proven to be able to boot from USB MSD, such as Raspberry Pi OS.

You would just need to "compile" your own Operating System and create an .IMG file.

Thank you for your time. I am trying to get away from "golden image" installs.

For CentOS on x86, I "burn" the minimal install CD ISo to a thumb drive and boot from it and install to my HDD.

I'm looking to see if there is a similar process for PI OS's.

Following the steps above, I'd take the install media and burn it the SD card.
When the Pi boots, from the SD card, it would walk me through the process of installing on to my USB HDD, allowing me to chose partition sizes, Use LVM if I choose and create filesystems of whatever size and type I want.

I'm getting the impression that the answer is no, which is a little disappointing.

You are correct. The short answer is: NO

And most of the people who respond will have no idea why it matters to you (*) and will instead assume that you are confused about some other part of the process.

(*) I do get it.

PS and BTW: this question has come up before. Dyed in the wool admin types (like you) seem to prefer "regular" installs and periodically ask why the RPi doesn't have that. The short answer is that it is what it is, but I think it also has something to do with the "educational mission" of the RPi. They want something that it is easy to install (just slap it on and go), rather than something that requires an "admin" to do it.

BTW, there are good reasons for wanting a "regular" install - but it does make the process more involved for the first timer.

You could start with Raspbian Lite
Then add stuff as needed.

GlowInTheDark wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 01, 2020 12:01 am

You are correct. The short answer is: NO

And most of the people who respond will have no idea why it matters to you (*) and will instead assume that you are confused about some other part of the process.

(*) I do get it.

PS and BTW: this question has come up before. Dyed in the wool admin types (like you) seem to prefer "regular" installs and periodically ask why the RPi doesn't have that. The short answer is that it is what it is, but I think it also has something to do with the "educational mission" of the RPi. They want something that it is easy to install (just slap it on and go), rather than something that requires an "admin" to do it.

BTW, there are good reasons for wanting a "regular" install - but it does make the process more involved for the first timer.

Thank you taking the time to respond.
I'm not suggesting the golden image install method should be replaced, it is great for getting up and running quickly for pretty much anyone. I have used it plenty of times.
What I hoped was that there was an alternate, more traditional OS install from media type method.
I'll use one of the image methods and maybe see if I figure out how to get kickstart or something working.

JHam wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 01, 2020 4:28 am

GlowInTheDark wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 01, 2020 12:01 am

You are correct. The short answer is: NO

And most of the people who respond will have no idea why it matters to you (*) and will instead assume that you are confused about some other part of the process.

(*) I do get it.

PS and BTW: this question has come up before. Dyed in the wool admin types (like you) seem to prefer "regular" installs and periodically ask why the RPi doesn't have that. The short answer is that it is what it is, but I think it also has something to do with the "educational mission" of the RPi. They want something that it is easy to install (just slap it on and go), rather than something that requires an "admin" to do it.

BTW, there are good reasons for wanting a "regular" install - but it does make the process more involved for the first timer.

Thank you taking the time to respond.
I'm not suggesting the golden image install method should be replaced, it is great for getting up and running quickly for pretty much anyone. I have used it plenty of times.
What I hoped was that there was an alternate, more traditional OS install from media type method.
I'll use one of the image methods and maybe see if I figure out how to get kickstart or something working.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... /README.md

What you consider "traditional" is a machine with a BIOS, which the Raspberry Pi SBC does not have !!

What does having a BIOS have to do with anything?

For the record, it would certainly be possible to put together a system for the RPi with the following workflow:

1) Boots up from SD card with some kind of "initial image".
2) Boots into an "installer" type program that looks, acts, feels, etc like a normal Linux installer.
3) Accesses the Internet to get programs to install (so, it it is, in fact, acting like a normal "netboot" type Linux installer).
4) Sets up the SD card to boot into the new system.
5) Reboots into the newly installed system.

Note that the initial image would still be a "golden image" type thing - but then again, that's common, in one form or another, with "normal" Linux installers.

Not too hard, but there doesn't seem to be any real reason for anyone on the official side of things to expend the effort.

Note also that I went the went of getting the stuff from the Internet, but you could just as easily have some kind of CD image (with, of course, there being a requirement that the user have a CD drive attached), if you really want to go "old school" with this...

People have used iso files before. E.g. viewtopic.php?t=190511