Can i download raspberrian to a thumb drive/external hard drive?

[mynameisntavailable]

Hello, i am very interested in making a magic mirror but i am super new to it and will not actually be getting the raspberry pi for another month, however i am curious and very excited. I was wondering i can by chance just download raspberian to a thumbdrive or even an external hard drive and start the project so that i will just need to make the frame when i get the raspberry pi? And then just install it to the device when i get done?

[sdetweil]

@mynameisntavailable you can run without any mirror

i have a 55 in tv as my monitor

[sdetweil]

@mynameisntavailable. pis dont boot a usb stick.

[evroom]

@sdetweil said in Can i download raspberrian to a thumb drive/external hard drive?:

pis dont boot a usb stick.

Actual they can, at least Pi 3 Model B and Pi 3 Model B Plus can.
I replaced my SD-cards with USB sticks recently.

@mynameisntavailable
Send this info to determine it;

$ cat /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/model;echo
$ vcgencmd otp_dump | egrep '^17|^30|^66'

You will need to change the config.txt once and reboot (using the Pi that runs on the SD-Card):

/boot/config.txt
program_usb_boot_mode=1
program_usb_boot_timeout=1

With these settings you can replace the SD-Card by a USB-Stick.

17:3020000a
30:00a02082
66:01009daa

There are people out there that actually have an external SSD drive running.
The only thing that can be tricky I the power-supply as the USB Stick may draw too much current.
I am using those little USB sticks (USB flash drive).

[evroom]

Here is what I know on this topic.

OTP means One Time Programmable Memory.
Meaning, you can set it only once, no return possible.

vcgencmd otp_dump

vcgencmd otp_dump | egrep '^17|^30|^66'

vcgencmd otp_dump | grep ^17
Use program_usb_boot_mode=1 to change.

vcgencmd otp_dump | grep ^30
Use max_usb_current=1 to change.

vcgencmd otp_dump | grep ^66 
Use program_usb_boot_timeout=1 to change.

/boot/config.txt
program_usb_boot_mode=1
program_usb_boot_timeout=1
max_usb_current=1

Address 17 – bootmode register
Bit 21 - Enable booting from SD card
Bit 28 - Enable USB device booting
Bit 29 - Enable USB host booting (ethernet and mass storage)

Address 30 – revision code1 
Bit 32 - Disable overvoltage

Address 66 - advanced boot register
Bit 24 - Extend USB HUB timeout parameter

Green LED flashing due to absent SD card:

dtoverlay=sdtweak,poll_once

I would try this first:

program_usb_boot_mode=1

and if booting does not work:

program_usb_boot_timeout=1

So, first boot from SD card.
Change config.txt to set program_usb_boot_mode=1.
Boot again from SD card (sudo shutdown -r now).
Halt system (sudo shutdown -h now)
Remove SD card and place USB stick.
Boot from USB stick.

If boot fails, remove USB stick, place SD card.
Boot from SD card.
Change config.txt to set program_usb_boot_timeout =1.
Boot again from SD card (sudo shutdown -r now).
Hold system (sudo shutdown -h now)
Remove SD card and place USB stick.
Boot from USB stick.

When it succeeds, remove the entries from config.txt again.

program_usb_boot_mode=1
program_usb_boot_timeout=1

Be patient when rebooting from USB card.
It takes a bit longer than with SD card.

[retroflex]

I run an SSD with my Pi 3B. Regarding the one time thing, it means it will always try to boot from USB first but if it doesn’t find a bootable USB device, it will boot from SD card instead. Disclaimer: this is what I’ve read, I have not tested myself.

I also remember that there were some issues with USB booting and Pi 4. Don’t know whether that has been resolved.

[sdetweil]

i boot from SD, but run from SSD (on pi4 and odroid)
https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/boot-raspberry-pi-4-usb

[evroom]

@retroflex
I also did not leave both SD and USB in.
I thought it will boot from SD first, especially since it is ready faster than the USB.
But someone that does, will find out.

Concerning Pi 4, I read that a beta fix is ready, but still under test. It appears to have some dependencies that could cause problems.
But I do not yet use a Pi 4.
What Sam does is the way to go at this moment.

[evroom]

@sdetweil said in Can i download raspberrian to a thumb drive/external hard drive?:

on pi4 and odroid

Sam, which Odroid do you use?
And will a Pi 4 with 8Gb RAM be fast enough for MM these days?

I use a Pi 3 and am planning to install Grafana and Influxdb on the same host.
Perhaps asking for problems or warrants an HW upgrade.

[sdetweil]

@evroom my 4gb PI 4 is good enough for MM… so 8 gb would seem too much only using just under 2 gb

              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           3905         534        1593         261        1777        2960
Swap:            99           0          99

I use an odroid XU4 with fan. had 2, one died… I think power failure…
also have a jetson nano

[retroflex]

@evroom Yeah, you’re right. It will boot from SD first and then USB if you have enabled USB boot. So there’s really nothing that will screw up by enabling the one time change. Here’s more info:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=225812

That also says the newer RPi3+ has enabled USB boot by default.