Then we need two mountpoints for the boot and rootfs directories. Sudo losetup -P /dev/loop0 Downloads/-raspbian-stretch-lite.img Then you could burn the image to an USB flash drive, but we gonna do something clever, we gonna setup a loop device. Now we gonna unzip this image: unzip -raspbian-stretch-lite.zip Then download the latest Raspbian Stretch image to your download directory Downloads. $ make Prepare your laptop: Raspbian Stretch image Follow the instructions to compile the program. USBBoot utilityįirst start by downloading the USBBoot utility. If you’re using open standards and open source, you’re open to the world. Lubuntu is running fine on a 1GB Pentium 4 or similar. Share code, not your privacy! Github über Facebook. Why? Free the world and free yourself, make computers open, honest and transparent: no backdoors, no secrets, no patents. We assume you’re running a free Linux OS Debian. And you know what? Back to the basics make the little gem shine!! So we gonna run the poor Raspberry Pi headless (=no monitor), armless (=no keyboard or mouse) and brainless (=no memorycard). Yes, we use a standard USB cable to power, connect, provide internet-access, an OS and storage for the Pi Zero. And remember we’re running the Zero without any SD card, which costs are higher then a Raspberry Pi Zero. It is surprisingly comfortable once you’ve set it up.

In this post we will boot the Zero with the latest Raspbian Stretch (lite) from an common Ubuntu laptop, running 16.04LTS. Boot a RPI Zero from your laptop without SD card Now they came up with USBBoot, a tiny program that pushes the bootcode over the USB to the Raspberry Pi Zero (Raspberry Pi model A, Compute Module, Compute module 3 and Raspberry Pi Zero and Raspberry Pi Zero W), so it can boot without a micro SD-card. Luckily the great minds of the Raspberry Pi Foundation developed new boot modes: ethernet boot and USB Mass Storage Device (MSD) boot for the Raspberry Pi 3.

Still the RPI Zero was using a micro SD card. In an earlier post I explained how you can run and connect to a Raspberry Pi Zero with just an USB cable.

Raspberry pi zero w setup headless