Finally! Raspberry PI 4 boot from SSD, no MicroSD required!

Installation
83

Excellent guide! Thank you.

1 Like
84

I read that few people were doing this and I gave it a try. Yes, you need to take those two steps you described. Check the guide below.
Here it is: https://forum.smartapfel.de/forum/thread/6048-anleitung-installation-von-home-assistant-auf-einem-pi4b-mit-einer-ĂŒber-usb-ange/?postID=90748#post90748

I have been running it for a week and no problems. Just remember that under the Supervisor there will be a message to upgrade the OS. Just ignore that.

Update Available :tada:

Operating System 4.12

You are currently running version 5.1

85

hey all,
not sure if anyone can help

i was running rpi4 on v5.0 64bit, for 3months+
stupidly i hit the wrong button and ugpraded to the latest “v4x” version

this obviously killed everything and now im not sure how to get my daily backup (on the SSD) back, so i can rebuild on v5.1 and load up my old v5 backups?

i have a MicroSD plugged in, which gets me to the command line of the pi, using the pi user, however im not sure how to get to the SSD and then save my daily backups?

or, if easier, how do i upgrade the SSD which has v4x on it, to the latest v5x, without doing a format of the data? just the upgrade only?

86

Got it working :slight_smile:
What are the steps to upgrade from v5x to v5xx via putty as you can’t do it in the UI

87

To update HassOS to a specific version, use the command:
ha os update —version x.y

3 Likes
88

The version 5.2 is out, but until now there is no version for Pi4B. Last time it took a day or so.

89

What did you do to fix it?

90
91

using the ssh terminal to update to 5.2 has my rpi4 unable to boot.

followed the guide to check firmware on rpi4, it did have an update, but it still isnt seeing my ssd and booting like normal.

would post error messages but im going to search the info at the link above.

92

This is very cool! The german how-to guide details that some SSDs might have a problem with this setup. Any suggestions for a working SSD? Any cheap rather small one (64Gb or 128GB) would probably be OK for my needs. Is it better to have a USB3 (or 2?) SSD or just a sata SSD with a USB adapter?

93

I bought this enclosure last week then updated it via windows with a utility from the Sabrent site. Works great with my SSD without using Quirks and with UASP and trim both working.

UASP
/: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 5000M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 5000M
/: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/1p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M

TRIM
/: 464.7 MiB (487219200 bytes) trimmed

Old Orico - No UAS

iozone test complete.
RandRead: 17138 - RandWrite: 24167 - Read: 23728 - Write: 20411

 Category                  Test                      Result

HDParm Disk Read 204.06 MB/s
HDParm Cached Disk Read 183.33 MB/s
DD Disk Write 144 MB/s
FIO 4k random read 4456 IOPS (17824 KB/s)
FIO 4k random write 5375 IOPS (21501 KB/s)
IOZone 4k read 23728 KB/s
IOZone 4k write 20411 KB/s
IOZone 4k random read 17138 KB/s
IOZone 4k random write 24167 KB/s

                      Score: 5733

Sabrent UAS
iozone test complete.
RandRead: 24486 - RandWrite: 33183 - Read: 35411 - Write: 29557

 Category                  Test                      Result

HDParm Disk Read 482.20 MB/s
HDParm Cached Disk Read 220.62 MB/s
DD Disk Write 180 MB/s
FIO 4k random read 18139 IOPS (72559 KB/s)
FIO 4k random write 10000 IOPS (40000 KB/s)
IOZone 4k read 32398 KB/s
IOZone 4k write 27829 KB/s
IOZone 4k random read 20053 KB/s
IOZone 4k random write 30981 KB/s

                      Score: 8071

Enclosure

Windows Updater Here

94

Correct, that is a Raspberry Pi 4 USB 3 problem. I can only tell what enclosure is working for me without any problem: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07D2BHVBD. The SSD that is build into it really doesn’t matter. The problematic part is the USB 3-SATA controller inside the enclosure!
I started with enclosures for M.2 SATA SSD, but I didn’t found an enclosure for them that works with the Pi 4.

95

Thanks for the tips. I probably didn’t think it through last week when I ordered this:

I think it’ll probably work, but I suppose it would’ve been cleaner to have a proper enclosure for the SSD itself. Well, maybe I’ll upgrade it at some point :slight_smile:.

96

If someone is searching for the guide. It can now be found here: https://homeassistantforum.de/thema/pi4b-nur-mit-einer-usb-ssd-betreiben-ohne-sd-karte/#post-1069

It is updated for the new Pi4B bootloader which can be very easy installed!

2 Likes
97

Does the SSD have to be USB 3?
Is this configuration also valid for a USB stick?

98

A community guide answering many topics of this thread:

2 Likes
99

I installed HA on an RPi in an Argon One M.2 case with a 120GB SSD. It works very well.

There were only 2 issues: How to flash HA to the M2 SSD and interference with a Zigbee controller.

Flash to M2 SSD: I installed standard Raspbian and found a version of Balena Etcher on Github. The only issue was that the Raspbian version of Balena Etcher does not allow one to enter a URL, so I had to first download the image. After that it was a very simple thing to flash the SSD and reboot. It immediately booted from the SSD. I had made the eeprom chnages earlier.

Zigbee Controller: I’m using the ConBee II and read somewhere about interference with USB3 and SSD. I could get nothing to connect when I plugged the ConBee directly into the USB slot. Even a 10cm extension didn’t solve the problem, so I went big and bought a 5m USB extension cable. Every Zigbee device now connects immediate using ZHA.

100

Flashing the M.2 SSD was very easy using the standard for flashing things for Raspberry Pi: „Raspberry Pi Imager“. I used a USB-A to USB-A cable connected to my Mac and the Argon Case and flashed the image onto the SSD.

Dresden Electronic has written in their manual that you should always use an extnsion cable. And it is even better to connect it to USB 2.

101

Flashed hassos (64 bit) on ssd (RPi4). One problem:

Supervisor Add-on store is empty. Can’t install e.g. zigbee2mqtt.

I noticed that during installation the raspberry time is set to Feb 2nd, 2021. While the supervisor certificate is dated for April 2021 → cert is not accepted (log is pretty red)

This leads to:

Version supervisor-2021.03.6
Newest Version supervisor-2021.05.4


with update error:

2021-06-03 09:51:09 ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.components.hassio] Failed to to call /supervisor/update - No supervisor update available - 2021.05.4

In CLI the “supervisor info” returns

version: 2021.05.4

Core log also contains:

2021-06-03 09:48:03 ERROR (MainThread) [aiohttp.server] Unhandled exception
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/aiohttp/web_protocol.py", line 485, in start
    resp, reset = await task
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/aiohttp/web_protocol.py", line 440, in _handle_request
    reset = await self.finish_response(request, resp, start_time)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/aiohttp/web_protocol.py", line 591, in finish_response
    await prepare_meth(request)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/aiohttp/web_fileresponse.py", line 115, in prepare
    st = await loop.run_in_executor(None, filepath.stat)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/concurrent/futures/thread.py", line 57, in run
    result = self.fn(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/pathlib.py", line 1197, in stat
    return self._accessor.stat(self)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/config/home-assistant.log'

Any hints how to fix? Just wait a month for the next supervisor release and the misaligned version numbers would allow update
? I flashed it twice, same issue both times. Rebooted everything also twice (core, supervisor, host), no effect.