Jari Pennanen

I don't understand why Raspberry Pi OS needs to be 'installed'. Why it can't come as pre-installed image? I just tried to install it via USB and takes sometimes a long time to install and USB stick gets really hot in the process.

Also, what I want is ability to 'reset' the OS without recreating image. I might need to search for immutable linux distro, it would suit me better.

#RaspberryPi #Linux

Oct 5, 2025 at 4:15pmWeb
Show threadLerkOct 5, 2025

@Ciantic It is actually a feature. You can install all sorts of dedicated OS or Linux software configurations to SD and swap them as needed.

Speaking of which, this image is immutable. https://kairos.io/docs/installation/raspberry/

RaspberryPi

Install Kairos on RaspberryPi

Show threadJari PennanenOct 5, 2025

@Lerk I must look at Kairos, I did read Talos Linux would be interesting, but I want to SSH to my box not just run containers. I also like the idea of using podman...

This is headless Raspberry PI, so I want to be able to reset it via SSH.

Show threadLerkOct 5, 2025

@Ciantic When you say "reset" are you referring to a stateless system? If so, you could set up your current build to be stateless after you have your ssh and other software ready to go. There are also stateless images available without customizing.

When you reboot, it would return back to the original state. For such a configuration, temp files etc are setup to run from RAM.

Show threadJari PennanenOct 5, 2025
@Lerk I test Raspberry Pi, get it full of junk, then I want to 'restart'. Having my own partition won't help here, because whole Raspbian OS is built on premise you need to 'install' it. I want OS that when I reset it I get latest version of it. Kind of like Chrome OS reset.
Show threadLerkOct 5, 2025

@Ciantic Stock Raspberian works the same as Windows, MacOS, and Linux Desktop.

If you want ChomeOS, just install this on the SD Card instead https://github.com/FydeOS/chromium_os-raspberry_pi

Or install it on a separate card and jump back between Raspberian and Chromium whenever you like.

GitHub - FydeOS/chromium_os-raspberry_pi: Build your Chromium OS for Raspberry Pi 4B, Pi400 and the latest Raspberry Pi 5

Build your Chromium OS for Raspberry Pi 4B, Pi400 and the latest Raspberry Pi 5 - FydeOS/chromium_os-raspberry_pi

GitHub
Show threadTorf und SchneeOct 5, 2025
@Ciantic You can buy an SD card with pre-installed OS if you want to. I guess it is just not so convenient for the majority of people.
Show threadJari PennanenOct 7, 2025

@torf What I'm referring to here is that when I use Raspberry Pi Imager and insert SDCard to PI, it for some reason installs it on first startup. That is useless step.

It could come pre-installed image, with rootfs already unrolled to usable form. The settings one provides in the configurator just changes some files in /etc/...

Show threadTorf und SchneeOct 7, 2025
@Ciantic Ah, this. Now I understand. I've always thought about this step as about "resizing" (as it is claimed in the installer AFAIR, on an SD card it was always quite a fast step), which could make sense if people install without any imager app, just by a plain dd of similar tools. Indeed, the dedicated installer might take care about proper resizing or whatever (actually it *does* care about a lot of stuff in the recent versions, even such as user+ssh+wifi setup to make the Pi perfectly headless from the very beginning).
Show threadJari PennanenOct 7, 2025

@torf I guess I'm just super sensitive on this because I used to run multiple headless Raspberry Pi 4 installations, Raspbian (back then it was such named) was not ideal to those, and it *still* is not.

My ideal setup for fully headless setup is such that it can upgrade atomically whole operating system, switch to new partition if it succeed and restart. I used Balena OS to run such swarm, but it is way too heavy setup.

Show threadTorf und SchneeOct 11, 2025
@Ciantic I fully understand and second this attitude, I now have an old Pi which would be nice to upgrade, but it is 1000+ km away from me and folks who have physical access are not specifically familiar with the stuff. Like, there are still a few solutions, none of which is pleasant and risk-free. In the same time, Mint allows for remote upgrades without any problems (unless there is a power or internet shortage, but it is another story).