Well now, let’s talk about this Raspberry Pi 4 thingy. My grandson got one, says it’s a little computer, can do all sorts of stuff. He’s always fiddlin’ with it. He showed me how to make it start up from a USB stick, like those little thumb drives ya get. Said it’s faster that way, or somethin’. He calls it “booting,” sounds fancy, but it just means turnin’ it on, far as I can tell.
First off, ya gotta get that Raspberry Pi 4, that’s the main thing. And a USB stick, gotta be big enough to hold all the stuff. My grandson says at least 16GB, whatever a “gee-bee” is. And ya need a computer to put the files on the USB stick, and a way to connect the USB stick to that computer. He’s got a little adapter thingy. Kids these days with their gadgets!
So, this “booting from USB” thing, it means the Raspberry Pi starts up using the stuff on the USB stick instead of that little SD card it usually uses. It’s faster, see? Like gettin’ on the highway instead of takin’ the back roads. My grandson says it’s more reliable too, those little SD cards can go bad, he says. Wouldn’t know, I still use cash.
- First, ya gotta get the Raspberry Pi Imager, that’s a program on the computer. My grandson downloaded it from the internet, said it’s free. He says it helps put the operating system on the USB stick. Operating system? Sounds complicated. It’s like the brains of the computer, he says.
- Then, ya stick the USB stick in the computer, and use that Imager program to put the Raspberry Pi stuff on it. Ya gotta pick the right operating system, my grandson says. He always picks the one with the desktop, so it looks like a regular computer. He told me somethin’ about Raspberry Pi OS but I forgot.
- After that, ya gotta change some settings on the Raspberry Pi. My grandson says you gotta tell it to look for the USB stick when it starts up. He did somethin’ in the “EEPROM”, whatever that is. Said it’s like the Pi’s memory or somethin’. He says you have to update it or somethin’. Sounds like fixin’ the tractor to me.
- Then, ya plug the USB stick into the Raspberry Pi, and turn it on. If ya did everything right, it should start up from the USB stick. My grandson says you can tell because it’s faster. I can’t really tell, looks the same to me.
My grandson says there’s all sorts of things you can do with a Raspberry Pi. He’s got it hooked up to the TV, uses it to watch movies. He says you can use it to control lights, or build robots, or even make your own video games. Sounds like a lot of work to me. I’d rather be out in the garden.
He showed me how to check if the Raspberry Pi is booting from the USB stick. He typed some stuff in, all kinds of letters and numbers, and it showed him some information. He said it showed that the “boot order” was set to USB first. Boot order? Sounds like makin’ a grocery list. He said somethin’ about “USB mass storage boot”, talkin’ gibberish I tell ya.
Anyway, this whole “boot from USB” thing seems pretty handy. My grandson says it’s faster and more reliable, and it makes it easier to try out different operating systems. He’s always changin’ things, can’t sit still that boy. He says the Raspberry Pi 4 has this capability built in. And now you can even boot the Raspberry Pi 400 from USB, he says. He’s always got a new gadget, keeps me on my toes.
So, if you got one of these Raspberry Pi thingamajigs, and you wanna make it faster, try bootin’ it from a USB stick. It ain’t too hard, even an old woman like me can kinda understand it, once my grandson explains it a few times. He says it’s “super easy”. Easy for him to say. Just remember, get a good USB stick, use that Imager program, change the settings, and you’re good to go. It’s all about settin’ it up right, he says. And that’s all there is to it, far as I can tell. Now, where’s my tea?
Tags: [Raspberry Pi 4, Boot from USB, USB Boot, Raspberry Pi OS, USB Flash Drive, SSD, Tutorial, Guide]
