How can I boot from SD but run OSMC from USB on a Raspberry Pi 2?

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1

I have plugged both the SD and USB key into my PC (running Fedora).

I have downloaded and run the osmc-installer.AppImage.

However I cannot see any installer option that allows me to put the /boot on the SD card and the rest on the USB stick, I can only get to put everything on the SD card or everything on the USB stick

What am I doing wrong?

2

Last time I looked it was not obvious but I think what you do is burn a SD card choosing the ā€˜USBā€™ as the destination. Then insert both that card and your (blank) USB into the Pi and boot up. The installer then copies the filesystem onto the USB. I donā€™t think OSMC yet supports booting from USB but thereā€™s been some progress recently on that.

3

I think it was select ā€œfrom a USB stickā€ instead of ā€œfrom a SDā€ when the installer asks but when it asks for the destination you select the SD card that you have plugged into your PC. The USB drive doesnā€™t get involved until you plug it into the Pi with the SD to install the OS.

4

Thanks grahamh and darwindesign for the hints which led me to get it to work

When running the installer on your PC, you only need the SD card plugged in to the PC. You do not need the USB key yet.

After selecting your language and device, the installer will ask you:

  • which OSMC version do you want?
  • where would you like to run OSMC from? This is where you say ā€œfrom a USB stickā€
  • configure your netwroking
  • where would you like to write the OSMC install files to? This is where you choose your SD card from the list of devices present
  • after a few confirmations, installation of the OSMC install files on your SD card will have finished.

Plug your SD card and your USB stick into the Raspberry Pi and power it up. It will warn you that you have 60 seconds to prevent overwritting your USB key. Leave it alone and installation to your USB key will begin leaving the boot files on the SD card.

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