As a long-time Raspberry Pi user, I most often use an external USB-3 NVMe SSD enclosure as the root/boot drive. Is it ok to burn a RS OS ISO file to a SSD and have it work correctly? I have only just ordered my RS kit and have not yet had a chance to explore how the software is configured.
I generally use a 512GB or 1TB SSD with good results for both RaspPiOS and Ubuntu installs. This arrangement greatly extends the storage lifespan and performance of the RaspPi.
Your advice?
With my thanks,
Chuck Munro
VA7UL New Westminster, BC, Canada
Again, just my opinion, but the NVME hat may be an issue, not for running the software, but for electromagnetic interference with the sensor, depending on proximity. Maybe you have another option for feeding it in as a usb boot device, but I think you are implying a hat. Frankly, it is overkill for the RPI, and an SD card is much simpler and works just fine.
Like you, I’m curious to read the tech support reply.
The NVMe M.2 is in a small aluminum USB-C adapter enclosure, connected with a shielded USB-3.1 6-inch adapter cable, so there may not be much RF leakage if any. I doubt there is room in the Shake case for an NVME adapter hat, and I seem to remember the Shake hat doesn’t allow stacking another hat. Of course I can always try both arrangements to see if there is any appreciable noise from the M.2 adapter.
I do have a few extra “High Endurance” uSD cards so that may provide a decent life span. Like most ham radio operators, I am a devout tinkerer. LOL
Technically, it should be possible to do what you suggest, as (if I remember correctly) more modern Pi boards should support booting from USB. And our Shake OS is a customized Linux image in the end, so it should be recognized.
You’re correct about the Shake hat not allowing the stacking of another. You’ll have to go with your USB solution, or potentially use a GPIO splitter. However, we have not tested such setups, so when you try it, let us know how everything goes!
My RaspPi 4B has 4GB of RAM and the latest 2026 version of the eeprom boot loader code.
I burned a 64GB SDcard with the v21 RS operating system from github, and it booted fine. Of course the web UI complained (and froze, as expected) because I have not yet received the RS hardware, but at least it boots correctly and it did allow me to use my credentials and location.
But here is where things fell apart …
I burned the same RS OS to the 120GB external M.2 SSD and it started to boot, but after a 30-second pause it froze at the “vcc-sd: disabling” point during boot. I re-burned the same image using dd just in case the Imager had a problem. After that, I burned the latest RaspiOS 64 bit version (“Trixie”) to the same SSD, and it booted correctly (and very quickly).
One interesting observation … when I burned an older RaspPi OS “Buster” image, it had an unrelated set of boot problems, but I didn’t pursue that issue.
So it would appear there is something about the RS OS configuration that hangs the boot process in the M.2 SSD. It doesn’t matter if the eeprom boot order is USB-first or SDcard-first.
In all cases, I used the Raspberry Pi Imager app on a Mac rather than using dd, simply because it’s a lot faster.
Try partitioning the SSD with a boot partition no larger than 64GB, reinstall the OS to that, and try booting. It could be a limit to addressing a boot device with that many blocks.
Just a suggestion entirely off the top of my head.
That is an interesting suggestion. My new 3D is already up and running nicely with a Transcend High Endurance 64GB SD card, but I do have a spare Pi-4 that I can use to try this trick. I’m unsure how installing to a specific partition of the SSD works with the ISO file’s partition scheme … might not align correctly. Worth a try when I get the time.