Rpi4 b - USB 3.0 boot

[Doug64]

I see there is now a beta update for the Rpi4 so you can boot from the Usb3. 0 port without the SD card. 

Doug 

Edited May 21, 2020 by Doug64

[pete_l]

It's been possible since RPI 3 days.
Have a look at this youtube explanation for how to do it with an RPi 4

 

[freiform]

The video does not cover natively booting from USB3. The method described still boots from the SD card and then points to the SSD.

 

CS

Sven

[fozzybear]

1 hour ago, Doug64 said:

I see there is now a beta update for the Rpi4 so you can boot from the Usb3. 0 port without the SD card. 

Doug 

Doug,

Could you send me the link to have a look at

Cheers

Andy

[Doug64]

Hi,

I'm new to all this so don't fully understand it so won't be able to do it yet but here is the link to the forum discussing it.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=274595

Doug

Edited May 21, 2020 by Doug64

[stash_old]

2 hours ago, pete_l said:

It's been possible since RPI 3 days.
Have a look at this youtube explanation for how to do it with an RPi 4

 

unfortunately not on RPI4 until now - Still had to boot from SD and run the system from SSD 🙂

[wornish]

I have been running my RPi4 off USB3 SSD for almost year.  Yes it still has a small (cheap)  SD card as well but then that is only used for the initial firmware loading.  The performance difference is massive.

I have made a few posts on this topic that give links and storage benchmark info.

I will wait until it comes out in the next release of Raspbian though rather than risk a Beta.

 

[Doug64]

39 minutes ago, wornish said:

I have been running my RPi4 off USB3 SSD for almost year.  Yes it still has a small (cheap)  SD card as well but then that is only used for the initial firmware loading.  The performance difference is massive.

I have made a few posts on this topic that give links and storage benchmark info.

I will wait until it comes out in the next release of Raspbian though rather than risk a Beta.

 

I'm doing the same and waiting, in the meantime I'll run my SSD via the micro SD.

Doug

[freiform]

I just updated the bootloader as described in the link proveded by @Doug , and the system boots sucessfully from the SD in an USB3 card reader. Now I just have to migrate the system to a SSD and I should be set (famous last words)...

 

Sven

[freiform]

And it is working!

Using James Chambers benchmarks for the SD (Toshiba M203 32 GB):

  Category                  Test                      Result
HDParm                    Disk Read                 40.83 MB/s
HDParm                    Cached Disk Read          40.55 MB/s
DD                        Disk Write                7.1 MB/s
FIO                       4k random read            2978 IOPS (11912 KB/s)
FIO                       4k random write           115 IOPS (461 KB/s)
IOZone                    4k read                   9293 KB/s
IOZone                    4k write                  2083 KB/s
IOZone                    4k random read            7767 KB/s
IOZone                    4k random write           255 KB/s

                          Score: 653

and for the SSD (Samsung 830 128 GB via StarTech USB3S2SAT3CB):

     Category                  Test                      Result
HDParm                    Disk Read                 258.46 MB/s
HDParm                    Cached Disk Read          281.51 MB/s
DD                        Disk Write                141 MB/s
FIO                       4k random read            17109 IOPS (68437 KB/s)
FIO                       4k random write           4303 IOPS (17213 KB/s)
IOZone                    4k read                   26985 KB/s
IOZone                    4k write                  20848 KB/s
IOZone                    4k random read            14347 KB/s
IOZone                    4k random write           23584 KB/s

                          Score: 5969

 

While those are nothing new, the SD card is gone. Neat!

 

Sven

Edited May 23, 2020 by freiform

[wornish]

Thats a similar improvement to what I achieved.  It makes the RPi4 really perform much quicker in most tasks. It feels faster than my laptop!