Hi everyone, in our previous lesson we learned what is Raspberry Pi and we got to know Raspberry Pi models. In this lesson, we will learn how to install Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian), which is the official operating system on Raspberry Pi, and different operating systems developed for Raspberry Pi. In this article, we will perform the installations with the Raspberry Pi 4 – 4GB model. You can also perform this setup on different Raspberry Pi models with the same methods.

Necessary materials:

• Rasberry Pi 4 – 2GB
• Raspberry Pi 4 Licensed
• Power Adapter 5V 3A USB-C
• Micro SD Card
• Micro HDMI Cable

Raspberry Pi Imager Installation
In order to install the Raspberry Pi OS (Raspbian) operating system on the Micro SD Card, we need to install the Raspberry Pi Imager program, which is the official software of Raspberry Pi, on our computer. First, let’s download the Raspberry Pi Imager version that is compatible with your system from the Raspberry Pi website.

Let’s run the downloaded installation file on our computer and click the “Install” button to start the installation.

After the installation is finished, let’s click the “Finish” button and wait for the Raspberry Pi Imager program to open.

Raspberry Pi OS Operating System Installation

Raspberry Pi OS is a Debian-based operating system developed by Raspberry Pi. It is the most preferred operating system in Raspberry Pi models due to its interface and ease of use. In addition, it is an operating system that can be used for robotic coding training due to programs such as Scratch and Thonny IDE that come pre-installed in the operating system. Now that we know Raspberry Pi OS, we can continue the installation from where we left off.

Method #1 – Quick Download with Raspberry Pi Imager

We will start with the simplest method for installing Raspberry Pi OS and other operating systems. In this method, we will not need to download the Raspberry Pi OS (Raspbian) operating system to our computer, Raspberry Pi Imager will do this for us.

First, let’s insert the Micro SD Card into our computer. Then click the “Choose OS” button on the interface.

When you click on the “Choose OS” button, multiple options will appear. The options on this tab are compatible operating systems for Raspberry Pi. “What is a Raspberry Pi? Models and What Can Be Done?” As we mentioned in our article, there are many open source operating systems developed for Raspberry Pi and we can install the operating system we want from this tab.

We will first start with the Raspberry Pi OS installation. Let’s click on the “Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit)” option that comes first in the tab that opens. When you click it, the tab will be closed and the “Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit)” operating system that we selected under the “Operating System” text on the interface will be written.

By clicking the “Choose Storage” button, we can select our Micro SD card and start the installation. A new tab will open, from this tab we need to select the Micro SD Card that we have inserted in our computer.

Since the steps after this stage are the same as the 2nd method, I explained the rest under the heading of “Method #1 and Method #2 Common Steps” after Method #2.

Method #2 – Manual Download via Browser

This method is a little more complicated than the first method, but you can install all operating systems with this method. If you like to try different operating systems like me, I recommend you to learn this installation method well.

There are 3 different operating systems available on the website. The features of these operating systems are as follows:

• Raspberry Pi OS with desktop and recommended software: In this image, both an interface and some applications recommended by Raspberry Pi (such as LibreOffice) are available. That’s why it’s the largest image in size.
  Raspberry Pi OS with desktop: There is also a desktop in this image, but the download size is lower since there are no recommended applications.
  Raspberry Pi OS Lite: There is no desktop in this image, you do all your operations via terminal.

I will continue the installation by downloading the image of “Raspberry Pi OS with desktop and recommended software”.

After the Raspberry Pi OS image is downloaded, let’s open the Raspberry Pi Imager program and click the “Choose OS” button. Since we will use the image we downloaded, let’s click on the “Use custom” option at the bottom.

Let’s find the file location of the Raspberry Pi OS image file we downloaded, select it and click the “Open” button.

After clicking the “Open” button, the file name of the image we selected will be written under the “Operating System” section on the Raspberry Pi Imager. Now let’s select the Micro SD card and continue with our installation.

By clicking the “Choose Storage” button, we can select our Micro SD card and start the installation. A new tab will open, from this tab we need to select the Micro SD Card that we have inserted in our computer.

Method #1 and Method #2 Common Steps

NOTE: This step and the next steps are common to both methods.

After selecting our Micro SD Card, the “Write” button will now be active. Click the “Write” button and wait for the Raspberry Pi OS (Raspbian) operating system to be downloaded and written to the Micro SD Card. Clicking the “Write” button will display a warning screen that all data on the Micro SD card will be deleted. Click the “Yes” button to continue the process.

A progress bar will appear on the screen. The duration of this process will differ depending on your Micro SD card read/write and internet speed.

After the write operation is finished, the verification process will begin to check that the write operation is performed correctly. If you don’t want to waste your time, you can skip this step quickly by clicking the “Cancel Verify” button.

If you canceled or finished the verification process, we can now start using our Raspberry Pi by removing the Micro SD card from our computer and inserting it into the Micro SD card slot under the Raspberry Pi.

Raspberry Pi OS Interface Settings

Let’s connect the keyboard & mouse, HDMI and power cables so that we can use the Raspberry Pi. When the Raspberry Pi boots up, the start screen will welcome us.

When we click the “Next” button, we start the Raspberry Pi OS settings with the language selection screen. From here, let’s choose the country, language and time zone according to the region we are in.

Let’s continue by clicking the “Next” button again. Our next step is the password setting screen, here you can set a password for your Raspberry Pi if you want. I will skip this step for now.

Now let’s set the screen settings. Many monitors and Raspberry Pi models that I have used so far have black borders on the edges as in the screenshots at the first installation. If your monitor also has these black borders, you can remove the black borders by ticking the checkbox. Note: The black borders will remain until you restart the Raspberry Pi.

Now we can connect our Raspberry Pi to the internet. On this screen, it asks us to select a wireless network. If there is no Wi-Fi available in your environment, you can continue by clicking the “Skip” button. At this stage, I will continue by connecting to my home Wi-Fi network.

You can continue by entering your Wi-Fi password.

After the updates are finished, a screen will appear for us to restart the Raspberry Pi. Let’s restart by clicking the “Restart” button.

When Raspberry Pi restarts, you will see that our settings are applied, the language is Turkish, and the black borders are gone. Now you can use Raspberry Pi with peace of mind and you can realize amazing projects.

Raspberry Pi Ubuntu Installation

We can use the Ubuntu operating system, a widely used Linux distro, on Raspberry Pi. Ubuntu has a desktop interface and applications just like Raspberry Pi OS. The difference from Raspberry Pi OS is its appearance and the possibilities it offers us.

Installing Ubuntu on Raspberry Pi is very similar to the Raspberry Pi OS installation I described in Method #1. Let’s open the Raspberry Pi Imager program and click the “Choose OS” button.

Then, in the tab that opens, let’s click on the “Other general purpose OS” option in the 2nd row. In the new window that opens, you will see multiple operating system options.

Let’s click on the “Ubuntu” option. In this window, there are different operating system options. We can summarize these operating systems as follows.

Ubuntu Desktop 21.04 (RPi 4/400): 64 bit Ubuntu operating system with user interface compatible with Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi 400 models. For this operating system, the RAM must be 4GB or 8GB.
Ubuntu Server 21.04 (RPi 2/3/4/400): A 32-bit operating system where you can create a server with Raspberry Pi. Ubuntu Server 21.04 is compatible with Raspberry Pi 2, Raspberry Pi 3, Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi 400 models.
Ubuntu Server 21.04 (RPi 3/4/400): You can use the 64-bit version of the previous operating system only with Raspberry Pi 3, Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 400 models.
Ubuntu Server 20.04.2 LTS (RPi2/3/4/400): 20.04.2 LTS version of Raspberry Pi Server operating system. This 32-bit operating system is compatible with Raspberry Pi 2, Raspberry Pi 3, Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi 400 models.
Ubuntu Server 20.04.2 LTS (RPi 3/4/400): You can use the 64-bit version of the previous operating system only with Raspberry Pi 3, Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 400 models.
Ubuntu Core 20 (RPi 2/3/4): Ubuntu Core has been developed for IoT systems. You can use this 32-bit operating system with Raspberry Pi 2, Raspberry Pi 3 and Raspberry Pi 4 models.
Ubuntu Core 20 (RPi 3/4): You can use the 64-bit version of the previous operating system only with Raspberry Pi 3 and Raspberry Pi 4 models.

Keep Learning More About Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi is a platform that has many advantages and is loved by developers. Raspberry Pi, which makes learning loveable with the support and comfort it provides in electronic projects, computer science and robotics studies, is developing more and more every day. So, don’t you want to develop more? We take you on a journey with the Raspberry Pi to improve your Linux knowledge, get into the world of electronics and sign fun projects! We have listed the different operating systems you can experience with Raspberry Pi:

What is Windows 10 IoT Core?

Raspberry Pi supports many Linux distributions. Did you know that with Raspberry, you can also install an operating system that supports Windows 10 and is specially designed for card-computers?

What is Windows 10 IoT Core? In our article, we have discussed how you can install step-by-step, the differences between the IoT Core version and Raspberry OS, and example uses.

Installing Ubuntu and Other Linux Distributions

Raspberry Pi is one of the most suitable environments to experience other operating systems. Many of the operating systems that are Linux-based and specially released for board-computer models can work with Raspberry. You can review the guide we have prepared for the installation of the most popular Linux distribution, Ubuntu and Other Linux Distributions.