3. Preparing the SD card image

First we download and install the Raspberry Pi Imager for Ubuntu [1], luckily it works with Debian without any hassle. We choose to install the `Raspberry Pi OS (other)` -> `Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit)` image as it seems the most light weight. Done that, the Raspberry is booted once from the SD card to do some pre-configuration, i.e. creating a user, etc.

The partitioning that comes with the image looks like this:

Label: dos

Partition 1:

Size: 512 MB

Type: W95 FAT32 (LBA)

FS: vfat

Partition 2:

Size: remaining space

Type: Linux

FS: ext4

I've added `fstab` entries on my local PC to make it easier to mount the SD card partitions as a user:

grep sde /etc/fstab
/dev/sde1               /media/sdcard0  auto    noatime,nodiratime,noauto,user          0       0
/dev/sde2               /media/sdcard1  auto    noatime,nodiratime,noauto,user          0       0

I'm copying an image of the SD card to my hard disk to be able to fall back to a working configuration whenever needed:

cat /dev/sde >rpi.img

We can then later mount the partitions from the image like this:

# set up loop device, the loop device number will most likely differ for you
losetup --partscan --find --show rpi.img
/dev/loop3

# mount partitions
mount /dev/loop3p1 /media/loop0
mount /dev/loop3p2 /media/loop1

# unmount when finished
umount /media/loop0
umount /media/loop1

# free up the loop device
losetup -d /dev/loop3

[1] Raspberry Pi OS

⬅ 2. Making a plan

➡ 4. EEPROM update and configuration

⬆ The minimal Raspberry 4 project

🏠 callistix Gemini capsule

Created: 6/Jan/2024

Modified: 21/Jan/2024