Install FydeOS on Raspberry Pi

Last Updated: 2025-02-19

Important Note for FydeOS for SBC Users: Starting with FydeOS v17, you can directly flash the downloaded image to your boot drive. This means you can skip the initial micro SD card flashing and installation to the final storage drive – enjoy full functionalities and OTA updates right away!

Ready to run FydeOS on your Raspberry Pi? This guide will walk you through booting FydeOS, openFyde, or Chromium OS on your Raspberry Pi 4 or Pi 400, no matter if you’re using macOS, Linux, or Windows. Just follow the steps for your operating system and you’ll be exploring FydeOS in minutes!

New to FydeOS, openFyde, and Chromium OS and wondering what the difference is? Get a quick explanation here in the TL;DR:.

Before you begin: If you’re new to Raspberry Pi, we highly recommend checking out the official Raspberry Pi documentation and videos on their official site. Getting familiar with basic Raspberry Pi operations will make this process even smoother.

Creating Your FydeOS Boot Drive

Let’s get your Raspberry Pi ready to boot FydeOS! We’ll use balenaEtcher, a user-friendly tool for flashing OS images to SD cards or USB drives. It works great on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Note

Important: We’ve noticed that using the official Raspberry Pi Imager can sometimes cause issues with FydeOS auto-expansion, leading to storage problems. For the most reliable flashing, we recommend balenaEtcher or Rufus (especially on Windows).

Due to recent compatibility issues with balenaEtcher, please choose one of these methods:

• Recommended: Extract the .img file from the downloaded .xz archive and flash the .img file directly using balenaEtcher.
• Windows Users: For the most consistent results on Windows, use Rufus instead of balenaEtcher.

Download and Flash with balenaEtcher

Available OS Images

FydeOS for SBC

Get the FydeOS for SBC image from our download page.

openFyde

Find the latest openFyde releases for Raspberry Pi on GitHub.

Chromium OS

Download Chromium OS for Raspberry Pi from the releases page on GitHub.

Flash the OS Image

1. Download balenaEtcher: Go to the official balenaEtcher website and download the version for your operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux). Install balenaEtcher on your computer.

2. Download the OS Image: Choose the FydeOS version you want to install from the tabs above (Available OS Images) and download the corresponding OS image for your Raspberry Pi.

3. Flash the Image:

   • decompressed the xz file.
   • Open balenaEtcher.
   • Click “Flash from file” and select the OS image file you decompressed.
   • Click “Select target” and choose your SD card or USB drive. Make sure you select the correct drive as this process will erase all data on it!
   • Click “Flash!” to begin flashing the image to your chosen drive.

4. Wait for Completion: balenaEtcher will validate the flashing process. Once it’s complete, you’ll see a “Flash Complete!” message.

5. Boot Your Raspberry Pi: Safely remove the SD card or USB drive from your computer, insert it into your Raspberry Pi, and power it on. Your Raspberry Pi should now boot into FydeOS!