Hi,
Can i use USB flash drive to boot raspbery pi instead of using SD Card.
Thanks
Mahesh
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Joe Schmoe
- Posts: 4277
- Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:11 pm
Re: Booting Pi using USB flash dirve
No. You can use it "in addition to" using the SD card, but you always need an SD card.maheshvmr wrote:Hi,
Can i use USB flash drive to boot raspbery pi instead of using SD Card.
Thanks
Mahesh
And some folks need to stop being fanboys and see the forest behind the trees.
(One of the best lines I've seen on this board lately)
(One of the best lines I've seen on this board lately)
Re: Booting Pi using USB flash dirve
k Joe...thank you for your reply.
Re: Booting Pi using USB flash dirve
Have a search of the forums - Joe's way has been done (including by me)
Re: Booting Pi using USB flash dirve
Joe's answer is spot on, but here's some background information on the why you can't do it 
The way the R-pi works is the SoC (System on a Chip) once it gets power immediately looks to the SD card for instructions on how to boot (basically, it's a little more complicated than that, but I'm guessing you don't want a 10 page dissertation
). This is hard written into the SoC and 100% cannot be changed. Not by us, and not even by the RPF. So without the SD card the system just sits there. It would be as if you motherboard lacked a bios, the computer just wouldn't be able boot! Several in the community have been looking at either using a USB device (be it hard drive or flash drive) as the main partition or setting up the SD card such that it loads a boot loader rather than boot directly into Linux. I think the second option is still a ways off from having a working implementation, but I think a couple people have successfully made use of an attached USB device
The way the R-pi works is the SoC (System on a Chip) once it gets power immediately looks to the SD card for instructions on how to boot (basically, it's a little more complicated than that, but I'm guessing you don't want a 10 page dissertation
). This is hard written into the SoC and 100% cannot be changed. Not by us, and not even by the RPF. So without the SD card the system just sits there. It would be as if you motherboard lacked a bios, the computer just wouldn't be able boot! Several in the community have been looking at either using a USB device (be it hard drive or flash drive) as the main partition or setting up the SD card such that it loads a boot loader rather than boot directly into Linux. I think the second option is still a ways off from having a working implementation, but I think a couple people have successfully made use of an attached USB device Dear forum: Play nice