Support for boot from USB? Pi 4b

Patchbox OS
1

Does patchbox OS support booting from USB since this is now supported in the new Raspberry Pi firmware?

Sorry if a basic question just want to be sure, I want to avoid SDCard corruption and decrease boot time by using an SSD.

As described in this article:

Many thanks!

1 Like
2

Someone has to just try it out. :slight_smile: It’s unclear just from the article whether the kernel must be of some certain version or if the firmware upgrade is enough.

3

Yeah I was hoping someone already had :slight_smile:

I will give it a go soon and post back.

4

In case it doesn’t work with the realtime kernel build Patchbox OS uses, you may try switching to regular kernel:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install raspberrypi-kernel
1 Like
5

Okay, I just tried it, and it’s working! Pi 4 (4GB) with a Kingston DT50 (USB 3.0, 32GB) USB drive.
Won’t lie, being an absolute noob at using raspberry pi, linux, etc., I’m feeling pretty good about myself :smiley:
Well, just followed the instructions from the article posted above.
To sum up, though…

  1. I followed the exact instructions given here until I reached step #7.
  2. Instead of copying the SD card to the flash drive (since I wanted patchbox and not the RPi OS that’s on the SD card), I flashed an image of patchbox on my usb drive using balena etcher.
  3. Continue from step #8 onwards

In case you’re looking to set a boot priority order and other settings, this is the page to refer to.

Side note:
The reason I was so desperately to do this is that my raspberry pi was running ridiculously slowly, enough to be practically unusable. A quick Google search revealed two possible reasons - Bad power supply and SD card speed. I’ve been using a OnePlus Dash charger (rated 5V, 4A), so just ordered the official RPi adapter. But meanwhile decided to check if the SD card might be the reason too. I was using a Samsung EVO+ 64GB which is supposed to be class 10, but some people suggested that it might be fake/corrupted, and besides a USB 3.0 SSD or flash drive would be much faster anyway.

I’m happy to report that the painful sluggishness is gone, although, this being my first time using a pi, I have no real reference as to the ideal/expected speed for making a proper comparison. Also, the power supply might still be a factor, which I’ll find out once my official adapter arrives.

2 Likes
6

Great to know you’ve got this working! Haven’t got round to trying myself yet but i’m sure this will help.Thanks.