Direct install on SSD [Solved]

Archive HASSbian
1

Hi everyone,

I’m new to the PI and HA world.
I’ve got myself a PI 3B+, ZiGate and Zwave stick to controls various hardware I already have.
I’d like to install Hassbian on a SSD and boot straight away from it.
Is that even possible?
Or do I have to boot from the SD first?

If you have pointers to a good tutorial for this, I would appreciate. I’ve been looking for a few days but what I found is either quite old or, I think, not suitable for my case.

I know my way around PC but almost nothing about PI.
I can do the regular install on SD as I’ve seen a few tutos online, but none covers straight boot from SSD, only transfer to existing fr SD.

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help.

2

Here’s some simple instructions you could use https://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-3-With-Bootable-SSD-Drive/

3

Seems great! I’ll try out in the next few days (maybe a couple weeks).

Thanks a lot for the fadt answer!

4

CAUTION! That instruction is for Hassio HassOs image, not Hassbian.
I am running a venv install on Raspbian Lite on a 240Gb Laptop SSD connected by USB. My install is similar to Hassbian, but without their scripts. I used Etcher to flash Raspbian Lite to the drive.

I understand the current Hassbian image is based off Raspbian Buster which has not yet been released as stable and has no projected release date.

5

:thinking:. Then I’m not clear, I thought HASS OS was Hassbian, not HassIo (but then I’m really to new HA so I might be mixing things up)
And I read multiple times that HassIo couldn’t run on a SSD (as of yet). Has it changed?
I’d rather use Hassbian, is there a way to do so?

6

Hasbian from an SSD? Sure.I am running on a a spare laptop SSD.

  1. I bought this case to convert to USB. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K72TY63/

  2. I I would use Balena Etcher to flash the latest Hassbian to the SSD. https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/installation/hassbian/installation/

  3. Follow these instructions to tell the Pi to boot from USB. https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/bootmodes/msd.md

I have done it with Raspbian Lite, but it should work with Hassbian too.

2 Likes
7

Thanks a lot!
So it would be that simple? It was looking so complicated…
I’ll give it a try asap :slight_smile:

Thanks again

8

I like this idea too.
Am I gone run in some problems with my USB Aeotec ZWave stick you think?

I don’t like the fact that it cannot be undone.

Thanks

Erik

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I am not sure. I put my SD Card back in & booted from it. I suspect it gets priority over USB boot.
I then later booted back to USB.

10

It might be worth reading this post on the Raspberry Pi forum to get a feel for the different boot options and how to achieve them.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=225812

1 Like
11

What makes you think you might have problem with Aeotec stick?
I plan on using it too so I’m wondering.

You have a 3B+ ?

12

I have a Pi3.
I don’t know about the USB… just wondering too :wink:

13

I use a USBZB-1 stick with no issues.

14

I just did the change to SSD and it looks like everything works!!

E.

1 Like
15

Ok thanks for the heads-up!
I’ll let you know as well when I have the chance to try the whole thing.

16

It took me about 1h.
25 minutes to take an image of the sd card, do the procedure to boot from a external ssd and then put the image on the ssd. Done!

E.

17

Another cool option to mention is a Asus Tinkerboard S, this has a 16GB SSD built-in.

I have this running for over 6 months now with Hassio on TinkerOs (Debian) :slight_smile:

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So to the original point of this topic: I installed Hassbian (not Hass.io) on my ssd the exact same way you would do it on an SD card and it worked straight away.
Same for the ZiGate connected a USB hub, it has been recognized automatically. Perfect so far :slight_smile:

Thanks all for your answers!

19

Might be an old response, but I think you just saved my life!
After booting from SSD the whole systems becomes so much more responsive.

Thanks for sharing those links.

20

If you are writing about the setting allowing to boot as a USB host, you are right it cannot be undone. However, the only feature you losse by doing so is the capacity to boot the RPi as a USB device.

In all honesty, this is not something I expect anyone to use that frequently. This use case is so different from using your RPi as a server that I bet you’ll by another one the day you’ll need it.