Install on a Raspberry Pi Compute Module

Write the MCX-RTOS image to the built-in storage of a Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module over USB.

  2 minute read  

A Raspberry Pi Compute ModuleA Compute Module is a Raspberry Pi on a small board, built into another device. The Compute Module 4 can have built-in eMMC storage instead of an SD card slot. with built-in storage has no SD card to take out. Instead, you make its storage show up on your PC as a USB drive and write the image to it there. This procedure was tested on a device built around a Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module.

Before you start

  • The Raspberry Pi image, downloaded from the store: see Download.
  • A Linux PC and a USB cable between the PC and the device.

Write the image

  1. Put the Compute Module in USB boot mode with the boot jumper on the carrier board. Where the jumper is depends on the device.

  2. Connect the device to your PC with the USB cable. The cable powers the device and gives your PC access to it.

  3. Download and build the usbboot tool from github.com/raspberrypi/usbboot.

  4. Make the built-in storage visible to your PC:

    sudo ./rpiboot

  5. Write the Raspberry Pi image to the new drive, with Disk Image Writer on Ubuntu or with Raspberry Pi Imager as for an SD card.

  6. Unplug the USB cable, so the device is off.

  7. Remove the boot jumper.

  8. Start the device as usual.

Next: Step 2: connect your PC.