Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USB • Hacker News Board

Re: Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USB

#11

Post by angryold » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 7:27 PM UTC

sdfhbdf wrote: post #2

From this page [1] on Raspberry Pi's Docs it seems like it's been like that for a while. Had there been a big change with this ROM specifically? [1]: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberry...

It was previously in beta (may still be). I've been using this feature for some time now (at least 2-3 months I feel?).

Re: Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USB

#12

Post by omnifischer » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 7:29 PM UTC

Please add rpi4 to the title

Re: Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USB

#13

Post by Wowfunhappy » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 7:30 PM UTC

Uehreka wrote: post #9

This sounds pretty cool! Features like this really open up exciting ways to deploy RPis, even for DIY folks like me who use them to do things like control projectors in a theatre show. But man oh man, this page is a striking reminder that GitHub could probably use finer grained controls for commenting on issues. I sympathize with the person who wanted to close the issue originally, it looks like it just became a magn…

You can already lock conversations to collaborators. I can see how the ability to do that while still allowing reactions would be a pleasant enhancement, but it doesn't strike me as such a significant limitation.

Re: Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USB

#14

Post by _x5tx » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 7:30 PM UTC

Honest question, why did this take so long? Is this feature technically too difficult to implement?

Re: Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USB

#15

Post by pronoiac » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 7:35 PM UTC

Oh man I feel for the maintainers here, with the many "this isn't the place for that" and now-deleted comments.

It's on my mind, as I just set up a vpn gateway on a Pi, and while I sorta want to document the process, I don't want to support randos.

Re: Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USB

#16

Post by sokoloff » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 7:36 PM UTC

sdfhbdf wrote: post #2

From this page [1] on Raspberry Pi's Docs it seems like it's been like that for a while. Had there been a big change with this ROM specifically? [1]: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberry...

I've been doing this on a 3B for almost a year now. (At least I think it's a 3B; it's not a 4 in any case. The article title has since been updated to clarify that the change is relevant to the 4.)

Re: Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USB

#17

Post by Florin_Andrei » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 7:36 PM UTC

sdfhbdf wrote: post #2

From this page [1] on Raspberry Pi's Docs it seems like it's been like that for a while. Had there been a big change with this ROM specifically? [1]: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberry...

I believe this applies to the RPi4 only.

Re: Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USB

#18

Post by geerlingguy » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 7:41 PM UTC

FYI the EEPROM page in the Raspberry Pi docs still says:

> USB boot support is currently being beta-tested. See > the "USB mass storage boot" section of the Bootloader > Configuration Page for further details.

But in general, it seems like it works without having to change your 'FIRMWARE_RELEASE_STATUS' setting from 'critical' to 'stable' anymore.

Re: Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USB

#19

Post by FullyFunctional » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 7:41 PM UTC

It's nice but I'm honestly baffled that it's seen as such a big deal as it's pretty trivial to make grub boot off USB, leaving the SDcard only being used doing the initial boot. Is it just about the convenience?

Re: Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USB

#20

Post by vkaku » Fri, Sep 18, 2020, 7:42 PM UTC

This is such a misleading title. 2 and 3 have had this for a while, one can do this with 4.

I'm currently using a recent MicroSD card on my Pi 4 though, haven't had any real issues with it.