ROOL Download pages

Now that the Rpi4 can boot from a device connected to a USB3 port, much of the material on the Downloads > Raspberry Pi page is not telling the whole story. It presumes that you have to boot from an SD card, which is no longer the case. Should that page be updated? I presume that RISC OS can be booted from other media than SD-cards on the Rpi4, though I would like that confirmed by those more expert than myself.

Yes, I’ve done it on the Pi4 and Pi400. The Pi 3 should also work, but I’ve not tried it myself. In essence you just write the “RISC OS Pi” image to a USB memory stick instead of to an SD card, attach the USB stick to the Pi, remove the SD card and switch on.

However it isn’t all plain sailing. Some of the problems you will encounter are mentioned here.

One item not mentioned on the wiki page:

• Older Pi 4 units (i.e. those manufactured before September 2020) may need an EEPROM update to enable “boot from USB” functionality.

To summarise: It’s doable, but not something you’d necessarily recommend to a beginner.