The Raspberry Pi Foundation has been developing its project to release new board models and improve the software, including official operating systems that you can install on your single-board computer's SD card. One of these efforts is embodied in the project known as NOOBS.
In June 2013, the NOOBS application was released online, and you'll love it if you have a Raspberry Pi and want to try out different operating systems without the hassle of removing one from your SD card to install another. This project makes it easy to have them all and choose which one you want to boot from…
About NOOBS
NOOBS stands for New Out of Box Software . It's a utility that simplifies the installation of multiple official operating systems compatible with the Raspberry Pi onto a single SD card, making it easy for the user. It can be downloaded completely free of charge as a ZIP file from the official website.
After downloading and extracting the file, you can place it on your Raspberry Pi's SD card , provided it has at least 4GB of storage. Once the SD card is loaded and inserted into your Raspberry Pi, the first boot will display a menu allowing you to select the operating system you wish to install.
Installation can be done locally if you already have some images loaded onto the free space of your SD card, or by downloading them from the internet if you have a connection. In fact, newer versions of NOOBS have changed compared to the earlier ones, not only in the operating systems they support, but also in their features. They now include an integrated browser.
You can access its menu by holding down the Shift key on your keyboard during startup, allowing you to reinstall a different operating system or choose a different one. You can also edit the configuration file called config.txt.
Variants of NOOBS
You can find two variants of NOOBS on the official Raspberry Pi website:
- NOOBS: one of them is the basic one, which contains an installer for the Raspbian OS and LibreELEC operating system. It provides the ability to alternately select between one or another operating system, and download and install other different systems from the Internet. You already know that Raspbian is basically a Debian modified for Raspberry Pi, while LibreELEC is what you are looking for if you need a mediacenter.
- NOOBS Lite: It is a light version of the previous one, without the operating systems included, so it is a lighter package to download. It provides the same selection menu to choose Raspbian or other images, but it must be downloaded and installed from scratch.
config.txt
The NOOBS configuration file , config.txt, is one of its key elements. In it, you can configure various settings to alter the normal operation of this utility.
To configure it, you can use the built-in editor included with NOOBS or from another operating system with any text editor. It comes in plain text and is well-commented, so you'll know what each option you can change does.
Generally, you don't need to change anything , but if you need advanced settings to adapt the options to your needs, such as connection type, screen settings, etc., you can take a look…
NOOBS menu
As for the graphical menu, NOOBS has a simple interface with the following options:
- Install / Install: is the button to select the operating systems of your SD card and install them. You can select more or less from the list.
- Edit configuration / Edit Config: allows to open the config.txt with the included text editor and to be able to alter the configuration of the systems.
- Help / Help: Get online help.
- Exit / Exit: is the option to be able to exit NOOBS and restart the Raspberry Pi.
- Language / Language: is the menu to select your native language in which the interface is displayed.
- Keyboard Language / Keyboard Layout: allows you to select the keyboard language, for example, Spanish (ES).
- Display Mode / Display Mode: By default the HDMI port is used for the display, but you can change it to use composite video cables, PAL mode, NTSC, etc.
Install NOOBS:
Installing NOOBS on your SD card is quite simple. Just follow these steps on your PC:
- Have an SD memory card of more than 8GB and formatted correctly. It's nothing special, it just needs to be in FAT32 format.
- Insert the card into your computer's reader.
- Download the NOOBS ZIP from the official website.
- Unzip the ZIP.
- The extracted content must be copied to your SD.
- Now insert the SD in the slot of your Raspberry Pi and you can start it ...
Raspberry Pi Imager (alternative)
The Raspberry Pi Foundation promotes the use of the Raspberry Pi Imager project for beginners, as it allows you to install Raspbian and other operating systems on the SD card in a super fast and easy way.
You'll find it on the official website for macOS, Windows, and Linux . Of course, it's completely free.
Raspberry Pi 4 problems
If you have a Raspberry Pi 4 and it won't boot , the SPI EEPROM memory might be corrupted. This is easily fixed: remove the SD card from the board, disconnect the SBC from the power supply, and reconnect it. If the green LED doesn't light up, then the memory is corrupted.
To fix it, follow these steps :
- Use an SD that is empty. Insert this into the card reader of your PC.
- Download Raspberry Pi Imager for your OS.
- Select "CHOOSE OS" and then "Misc utility images", then "Pi 4 EEPROM boot recovery".
- Now insert the SD card and click on the Imager «CHOOSE SD CARD» and select the card you just inserted. Then click on "WRITE".
- Once finished, remove the SD from your PC and insert it into the Raspberry Pi 4.
- Plug in the Pi to boot. When the process is finished, you will see the green LED blink rapidly.
- Disconnect the Pi from power, and remove the inserted SD.
- Now you can use the SD with the operating system you want and use it normally. It should have been repaired.
Another alternative to fix the problem with the Pi 4 is to download the bootloader yourself from GitHub, extract it to an empty SD card formatted as FAT, insert it into the Pi, connect it, and wait for the green LED to blink rapidly…
Buy cards with NOOBS already included
Another option, if you want more convenience or don't want to use your SD card for this, is to buy an SD card with NOOBS pre-installed , so you only have to connect it to your Raspberry Pi and it's running. Plus, by doing this you're contributing to the foundation, since these cards are official…
You can find them in various online stores , such as Amazon. They also come in different capacities, for example:
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Of course, you can always buy the SD card yourself with the capacity you need , and install it manually using the steps I have described above.
With that and your Raspberry Pi board , you'll have everything you need to get started…