Talk:Raspberry Pi Install Guide

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A comment [[User:Larry|Larry]] 13:52, 13 May 2024 (UTC)
: A reply [[User:Sally|Sally]] 11:44, 3 October 2024 (UTC)
:: Your reply ~~~~

Pi6 - Typo or speculating ?

I just read in Overview: «(…). The method should work for the Pi6 and beyond.».

I'm asking instead of replacing the number by 5, because I want to be sure. Is it a typo ?

Regards, Kévin GASPARD DE RENEFORT (talk) 09:45, 30 July 2024 (UTC)

(no) Request validation for translation tags

Proposed changes to section Ignore this until the page is _really_mature - Please make edits here until a final revision is agreed upon.

As said…

Hello, since this page seems pretty mature I added languages and translations tag, would be happy to do it in French.

It asked for my own addition to be validated it before translation: "This page contains changes which are not marked for translation.".

Regards, Kévin GASPARD DE RENEFORT (talk) 09:45, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

 With further reading, I was saying dog crap : The page isn't mature, some are in a process to migrate on this one and things will change.
 So this discussion is « done » until it has been solved.
 My bads.
Regards, Kévin GASPARD DE RENEFORT (talk) 10:11, 30 July 2024 (UTC)

Pi Zero 2 W

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This discussion needs a response from its author.

The creation of the partitions in this new guide does not appear to work for the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. I faithfully followed the partition creation and while my final disk works fine on a Raspberry 4B, the same disk will not book on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. This is because the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W requires a bootable first partition. I then created another disk following the guidance of https://data.engrie.be/RaspberryPi/Raspberry_Pi_-_Part_16_-_Devices_Partitions_and_Filesystems_on_Your_Pi.pdf and I was able to get postings... however, I ended up with a kernel panic relating to Broadcom. I'll document what I did differently to create the bootable SD HC, and, more importantly, how I overcame the kernel problem (which I am hopeful to accomplish in the future). Note I am using kernel 6.6 or 6.7 as I wanted something at 6.2 or above in order to pick up some Realtek wifi modules. Let this comment serve as a warning that treatment for the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W will be slightly different. I had been using the GenPi64 images and found I could use the same card either on a Raspberry Pi 4B or Zero 2 W. What I ended up doing was building out my Gentoo image on the Rpi4B and then using the card on the Pi Zero 2 W to run my data gathering without needed a lot of RAM. I decided to break away from the GenPi64 project and try this guide which averts the very long build time that the GenPi64 project takes (it builds everything to assure a working image) (there also was a personality clash). I'll update more with my findings. I logged a topic on the Raspberry Pi Forum

Update 3/28/24: I have posted a long explanation on the Raspberry Pi Forum on the topic just referenced about the importance of not using a GUID Partition Table if you card is to be used on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W.

Jlpoole (talk) 05:01, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

This used to be true with older GPU code. Only MSDOS partition tables were supported and the bootable flag had to be set.
How old is the GPU firware?
--NeddySeagoon (talk) 18:34, 15 February 2024 (UTC)
What does GPU stand for? I regret that I have difficulty keeping track of acronyms.
--Jlpoole (talk) 03:01, 20 March 2024 (UTC)
Graphics processing unit.
Based on a quick google search, you can check it by running vcgencmd version from media-libs/raspberrypi-userland.
Waldo Lemmer 05:43, 2 June 2024 (UTC)

Firmware Instructions apparently out of date

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This discussion needs help.
Tip: To get this fixed sooner, use {{Proposal}}.

Recent changes to the raspberrypi/firmware repo appear to invalidate the firmware installation instructions. Following the instructions printed here as of this date yields this error in the rpi firmware bootloader:

Trying partition: 0
type: 16 lba: 2048 'mkfs.fat' ' V       ^ ' clusters 62429 (16)
Read config.txt bytes      359 hnd 0x200f
usb_max_current_enable default 0 max-current 5000
Device-tree file "bcm2712-rpi-5-b.dtb" not found.

The installed operating system (OS) does not indicate support for RaspberryPi 5
Update the OS or set os_check=0 in config.txt to skip this check.

I was able to boot by rsyncing the boot partition from a previous gentoo installation, into which I had compiled the kernel from raspberrypi/linux, version 6.7.4-v8-16k+. I might suggest that the instructions be updated to include cross-compilation instructions from x86, straight from the downstream repo.

Device-tree file "bcm2712-rpi-5-b.dtb" not found. is odd. The Pi has found the /boot partition, read config.txt but cannot find bcm2712-rpi-5-b.dtb so the kernel is missing the addresses of the hardware.
In my view the main page of this guide is too big already and it should be split into a number of sub pages. Cross compiling the kernel could then be included as a sub page or as a reference to a separate page. It's a common practice for embedded systems, not just Pi's. A common shared page may help to reduce the clutter and maintenance.
--NeddySeagoon (talk) 18:45, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Rpi5 Wifi & Bluetooth

In the instruction prior to the section 4.3.4 "Raspberry Pi 5 WiFi/Bluetooth Firmware" ("WifiBluetooth"), you have the reader stationed under /mnt/gentoo/home. In WifiBluetooth, the command line example shows just "#root" with no directory path prefixing the prompt. I think for sake of consistency, the current directory should appear presumably as "/mnt/gentoo/home #". Or, is the user suppose to change directories? I am assuming the user is supposed to be under /mnt/gentoo/home and then performs a "git clone" to create the directory "firmware-nonfree".

--Jlpoole (talk) 02:51, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

6.3 [/etc/]fstab

I am referencing this wiki for an installation of Gentoo on an NVMe on a Raspberry Pi 5. I have a Raspberry 4 running off of a USB drive, /dev/sda, and just realized for NVMe, things might be different. I'm just making note here that consideration for an NVMe install should not be overlooked/forgotten. I'm reading Jeff Geerling's blog NVMe SSD boot with the Raspberry Pi 5 now. My Pimoroni NVME with a Crucial 500 GB P3 Plus, PCIe 4.0 NVME M.2 SSD shows up within Raspberry's latest release (Bookworm?) as /dev/nvme0n1 which I have divided into 4 partitions: boot, swap, home, & root as directed by this guide. I don't expect problems at this time, but saw the reference re: /dev/sda and thought mention of NVMe would be appropriate. Update: no problems, just have to reference /dev/nvme0n1 which I think is hard-coded by the lower firmware/system files if an NVMe is active.

Jlpoole (talk) 23:14, 27 March 2024 (UTC)


The basic premise of this guide is that enough of the install can be accomplished on random ARCH, so that no arm/arm64 code needs to be executed to boot the Pi the very first time.
At the time of writing, an NVMe install did not qualify as NVMe was not in the boot order, so it could not be booted the very first time.
A first boot is required to modify the boot order.
As you say, NVMe may need different /etc/fstab entries. PARTUUID, UUID, LABEL still work but /dev/... entries will not.
Maybe NVMe booting deserves a sub page in the Pi5 Section?

--NeddySeagoon (talk) 13:53, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

WiFi/Bluetooth Firmware

There is a section Raspberry Pi 5 WiFi/Bluetooth Firmware which ostensibly was created to help people get Rpi5 installed. Nontheless, we must not forget the other models. This is an area where roads may diverge meaning what model of Raspberry Pi you are preparing for will determine which files to copy over. For instance, I'm on a Rpi 5 building a master build directory to copy images for Rpi4 and Pi Zero 2 W, so the possible divergence what firmware may be needed become crucial.

Here is a colorized listing in HTML of the Raspberry Pi Foundation's tree showing the relation of files to soft links for various Rpi models: https://salemdata.us/Gentoo/wikis/RaspberryPiInstall/rpi_firmware-nonfree_tree_20240327_Wed_155418.script.html [Edit added:] Likewise, here is a colorized HTML listing of the Bluetooth tree: https://salemdata.us/Gentoo/wikis/RaspberryPiInstall/RaspberryPi_Bluetooth_firmware_20240327_Wed_162440.script.html

While the colored tree above will help me determine what I need, I'm not sure how working with the file listing should be articulated and look forward to some suggestions.

Jlpoole (talk) 23:14, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Excellent points.
Its one of my aims to merge the remains of the Pi3 and Pi4 guides to this page under model specific sub page
Meanwhile,its a mess and reference needs to be made to Raspberry Pi4 64 Bit Install or Raspberry Pi 3 64 bit Install which are both out of date but an "mostly harmless".

--NeddySeagoon (talk) 14:16, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

CFLAGS in make.conf

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This discussion is still ongoing as of 2024-06-01.

Hi, I've been working with Gentoo with a Raspberry Pi Zero W recently and noticed that this page hasn't included anything substantial regarding make.conf. I think this should include at least the relevant CFLAGS for each board, or possibly how to work out what you should do to gather the information needed to make your own.

For example, the Raspberry Pi Zero W uses the armv6j stage 3 which has CFLAGS set to `-march=armv6j`. This will cause some major headaches for certain software that actually looks at that such as nodejs (which I got a little stung on when trying to build). Adding SBC specific CFLAGS and potentially linking to gcc arm options as well as telling users to read the relevant Raspberry Pi page to gather the information needed to write a more accurate CFLAGS arg.

For reference, reading through the above link and reading about the Pi Zero W from the raspberry pi processor page, then reading through the arm1176jzf-s documentation linked to on that page, my CFLAGS looks like the following: `CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -march=armv6zk+fp -mcpu=arm1176jzf-s -mtune=arm1176jzf-s -mfpu=vfpv2 -mfloat-abi=hard"`

I just want there to be good documentation and believe this will help others unfamiliar with installing gentoo on an arm board.

Brushdemon (talk) 08:26, 01 June 2024 (UTC)

GPIO, Serial and Related Functions

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This discussion is still ongoing as of 2024-06-17.

I've recently added the GPIO section to the wiki but understand that the GPIO pins can be configured also for Serial/Uart. I recently found Neddys' serial page which conflicts a bit with the udev rules I pointed to in the section I wrote. Personally, I'm not opposed to changing the section I wrote to be a bit more in-line with Neddys' page. Would be happy to get a little feedback on said section :)

Brushdemon (talk) 03:59, 17 June 2024 (UTC)


Neddys' serial page ...
Its not my page. I've only ever used Gentoo on Pi ... right from day one in 2012, when it was lower cost to buy an original 256MB Pi than a replacement keyboard for my Sun U10 that used to run Apache. The Pi 1 could keep my uplink busy at that time.

--NeddySeagoon (talk) 14:02, 5 July 2024 (UTC)

Sorry for getting that wrong. I read the acknowledgements incorrectly. I have one of those 26 pin Pi's as well :)
I've split off the GPIO info now. Probably for the best since I went a bit overboard on the info.
--Brushdemon (talk) 04:37, 14 July 2024 (UTC)