Network Boot With Raspberry Pi: Everything You Need to Know

After USB boot was added a few years ago, we can now boot a Raspberry Pi from nothing. An Internet connection and blank media is now enough to get started, you no longer need a computer to flash your first SD card. Want to give it a try? I’ll explain every step in this article.

The network boot on Raspberry Pi is a way to install an operating system directly from the Internet on a blank SD card. Once the Raspberry Pi firmware is up-to-date and the device is connected to the Internet, it will download the system image directly onto the SD card.

This is a really nice new feature on Raspberry Pi, but let’s start from the beginning. I want to make sure you understand the theory before trying it on your device.

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What is Network Boot on Raspberry Pi?

The network boot feature on Raspberry Pi is a way to download a new operating system during boot. When connected to the Internet, the Raspberry Pi will start a minimal interface (looking like Raspberry Pi Imager), to flash the system you want on your media (SD or USB).

I know that network boot could mean different things to different people. I was a sysadmin, and when I saw the “network boot” announcement, I thought of powering the Raspberry Pi on remotely (wake on LAN) or even having a server to remotely deploy custom systems on Raspberry Pi. But this isn’t what we are talking about here.

But it’s already an exciting feature. Until now, installing a Raspberry Pi without a computer was really complicated. I did a video explaining how to install it from your phone, but it wasn’t that easy. Now, people buying a Raspberry Pi as a low-cost computer at home can install almost anything on it directly.

The only requirement to use this feature is to have a way to connect your Raspberry Pi to your network with an Ethernet cable (RJ45). Currently, it’s not possible to use this feature with Wi-Fi directly (but I’ll give you a workaround if you don’t have another option).

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How to Use Network Boot on Raspberry Pi?

Here are the required steps to use network boot on Raspberry Pi:

• Make sure your firmware is up-to-date.
• Remove all media and plug the Ethernet cable.
• Start the Raspberry Pi and follow the instructions.

Let’s learn how to do this.

Update the Bootloader

There is a small piece of software stored on the Raspberry Pi board directly to boot the device. When you start a Raspberry Pi without any media, that’s the part that will handle the display and try to detect your SD card.

That’s what I call the “bootloader” or “firmware”, we need to update it to handle network boot, as it’s a new feature (like for the USB boot support a few years ago if you already did it at that time).

To do this, you need to start on an existing Raspberry Pi OS installation.
Then, follow these steps to update your firmware:

• First, open a terminal and make sure your system is up-to-date with:
  sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
• Then, update the firmware with:
  sudo rpi-update
sudo rpi-eeprom-update -d -a

If there is a new version available, it will do the update, and it’ll use the latest version on the next reboot. In any case, after typing these commands, you’re ready to test the network boot on your Raspberry Pi – even if it does nothing.

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Connect the Raspberry Pi to your network

You can now shut down the Raspberry Pi. Just make sure it’s connected to your network with an Ethernet cable, that’s the only requirement.

Tip: If your Raspberry Pi is too far from your Internet router, or you don’t have Ethernet cables that can reach, here’s what I’m doing at home:

• I use a Wi-Fi extender like this one on Amazon.
• It’s connected to my Wi-Fi, but have a switch on it.
• I can then use an Ethernet cable to connect my Raspberry Pi to it and use network boot, even though I’m not directly connected to my router.

It’s a nice trick if you can’t plug your Raspberry Pi directly into your router.
By the way, you can find cheaper alternatives if you only have one Raspberry Pi to plug (this one is great for example).

Start the Raspberry Pi and Use Network Boot

By default, the Raspberry Pi will try to boot on the SD card or USB drive if there’s one connected. So first, you need to remove all media.

You can then follow these steps to test network boot:

• Power the Raspberry Pi on.
• You should get a screen like this:
  

  

  
  
• Press and hold the SHIFT key to start network boot.
• If the network is working properly, it will then start downloading the installer:
  

  

  
  
• After a few seconds, you’ll get a screen that looks like Raspberry Pi Imager, directly on the Raspberry Pi monitor:
  

From there, we can now move forward and install a new operating system on the Raspberry Pi.

Install a New System with Network Boot

If you are used to Raspberry Pi Imager, you’ll feel at home here.
The interface is almost the same, with the same OS list and almost the same steps.

• Start by adjusting the language and keyboard layout at the bottom if needed (especially if you’ll use the advanced options).
• Click Choose Device to select your Raspberry Pi board.
• Click Choose OS, and select the operating system you want to install from the list.
• Insert a media storage (USB drive or SD card), and click Choose Storage to select it.
• Finally, click Next to start the flashing process.
• With some operating systems, advanced options will be available.
  You can use it to connect to your Wi-Fi network, set the first user and password, etc.
  More details about this in my dedicated Raspberry Pi Imager guide.

Once done, the Raspberry Pi will automatically reboot and start on your SD card or USB drive. There is nothing else to do.

From there, you can follow the same steps as if it was a brand-new installation created from your computer (read this for Raspberry Pi OS, for example).

Related: 15 Tweaks to Get the Most Out of Your Raspberry Pi Server

That’s it! You now know how to use network boot on a Raspberry Pi. I hope you enjoyed it, and please leave a comment in the community if you have any additional questions about this new feature, I will do my best to answer them.