Delete me: Installing RISC OS on the Raspberry Pi 4 (Rev #11)

Raspberry Pi Imager

For both the Pi 4B and Pi 400, the easiest way to install RISC OS is to use Raspberry Pi Imager (Windows/macOS/Linux) as follows:

• Click on “Choose OS”, scroll down to “RISC OS Pi” and choose “RISC OS 5.28”.
• Click on “Choose SD card” and select the card to write to (2GB minimum).
• Click on “Write”.

See below for usage instructions.

Do-it-yourself (Pi 4B and Pi 400)

You will need the following items:

• A 2GB (or larger) MicroSD card
• The RISC OS Pi image from the Downloads page

Unpack the RISC OS Pi archive and use a utility such as Win32DiskImager (Windows) or Etcher (Linux/macOS) to copy the image to the MicroSD card. This will create an SD card in a suitable format, but only the first 2GB of the card will be usable by RISC OS.

Using the SD card in the Pi 4B / Pi 400

1. Connect a suitable power supply to the USB-C (power entry) port.
2. Connect a mouse to one of the USB ports.
3. (Pi 4B only) – Connect a keyboard to one of the USB ports.
4. Connect the HDMI cable to the HDMI port closest to the SD card slot.¹
5. (Optional) – Connect the Ethernet port to your broadband router (or equivalent network port with Internet access).
6. Insert the SD card into the Pi and power on. If all is well, the system will boot² to the RISC OS desktop at the monitor’s native resolution (e.g. 1920×1080).

With some monitors (particularly 4K monitors) you may find that the desktop is displayed at a low resolution (e.g. 640×480). You can increase this to 1920×1080 via Configure > Screen in the usual way.

¹ If you connect it to the other port you will get a picture but no sound.

² It can take 30-40 seconds for the boot-up progress screen to appear. You should be at the RISC OS desktop some 50 seconds after powering-on (roughly twice as long as it takes on a Pi 3).

Boot-up issues

If you experience problems starting RISC OS, check the Boot-up issues page in the first instance.

Further information

See Using RISC OS on the Raspberry Pi for information applicable to all models of Raspberry Pi.