Skip to main content

Getting Started with Raspberry Pi 4 & 5

The Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 are widely used for prototyping, development, and industrial applications. This guide walks you through setting up your Raspberry Pi for general use as well as configuring it for commercial and industrial environments.

Quick Setup: Installing the Operating System​

For most users, the simplest way to get started is to install Raspberry Pi OS using the official Raspberry Pi Imager.

Option 1: Using Raspberry Pi Imager​

  1. Download and install the Raspberry Pi Imager.
  2. Insert a microSD card into your computer.
  3. Open Raspberry Pi Imager and choose:
    • OS: Raspberry Pi OS (or another supported OS).
    • Storage: Select your microSD card.
  4. Click Write and wait for the process to complete.
  5. Insert the microSD card into your Raspberry Pi and power it on.

For advanced users, Raspberry Pi OS can also be installed manually. Follow the official guide for details.

Industrial & Commercial Use Setup​

For production environments, a more robust setup is recommended, focusing on reliability, storage, and update management.

1. Storage Considerations​

By default, Raspberry Pi uses a microSD card, but for industrial applications, alternative storage solutions are preferred:

  • Compute Module with built-in eMMC (preferred for embedded applications).
  • External NVMe disk via a USB 3.0 adapter for higher durability and performance.

2. Over-the-Air (OTA) Updates with RAUC + Particle​

For long-term maintenance, OTA updates with RAUC and Particle’s update service ensure reliable firmware and OS upgrades.

  • Particle provides a hosted RAUC service, allowing seamless OS, kernel, and firmware updates.
  • A/B partitioning ensures safe updates with rollback functionality in case of failure.
  • Updates are cryptographically signed and distributed securely via Particle’s platform.

3. Configuring Bootloader & Firmware Updates​

For full control over hardware parameters and kernel settings, Raspberry Pi devices support firmware updates through the rpi-eeprom utility.

  • The latest bootloader and firmware can be installed using: 
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install rpi-eeprom
    sudo rpi-eeprom-update -a

      •	Configuration changes can be made in /boot/config.txt or /boot/firmware/config.txt (for newer versions).

For additional details, refer to the official Raspberry Pi bootloader documentation.

Alternative Multi-Boot & OS Management: PINN

While Particle’s RAUC-based OTA update service is the recommended approach, you may also explore PINN (Persistent Installation of NOOBS) for multi-OS installations. However, PINN does not provide a native OTA update mechanism and requires manual partition management.

Other Raspberry Pi Models

While this guide focuses on the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5, older models such as Raspberry Pi 3 (and even 2) should also work. However, we have not explicitly tested or documented those models at this time.

If you encounter issues with older Raspberry Pi versions, we’d love to hear your feedback!