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There is no reason at all to boot a raspberry pi 4 from an sdcard in 2021. It's the wrong tool for the job and the worst option you can choose. https://github.

There is no reason at all to boot a raspberry pi 4 from an sdcard in 2021. It's the wrong tool for the job and the worst option you can choose. https://github.com/pftf/RPi4 https://github.com/pftf/RPi4 enables several alternatives, all faster and more reliable * usb3 -> sata * usb3 -> nvme * iscsi * ipxe * netboot.xyz via pxe or usb * usb thumbdrive

swiley 5y ago
With stuff like this the "right tool" is whatever you have and usb3 -> sata adapters aren't all that common while functioning SD cards are. Yeah there are crappy ones but if you stick to ~2GB and decent vendors (like most people do) you're unlikely to deal with them.
- moondev 5y ago
  I just checked and it looks like netboot.xyz provides an sdcard image so no excuses :) https://boot.netboot.xyz/ipxe/netboot.xyz-rpi4-sdcard.img https://boot.netboot.xyz/ipxe/netboot.xyz-rpi4-sdcard.img Edit - ok I guess being airgapped would be one, fair enough!
- monocasa 5y ago
  Decent vendors don't save you at scale, until you're in the millions of units per year kind of scale. Until the all but the 'industrial' cards are crappy. I've had the displeasure of trying to track down their issues before professionally.
joezydeco 5y ago
I hope you guys get eMMC someday. It's great.
- blacksmith_tb 5y ago
  Depends on which RPi you use, the Compute Module 4 comes in 2/8/16/32MB eMMC flavors[1] 1: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/compute-module-4/ https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/compute-module-4/
marcodiego 5y ago
If you have no external drive or network with a "boot server" like is probable most cases of use with RPi, is there a better option than an sdcard? Also, how is a usb thumbdrive better than a sdcard?
- noja 5y ago
  reliability
geerlingguy 5y ago
With the Compute Module 4, two more possibilities open up: * NVMe (native) * eMMC (SATA can be used natively, too, but you can't yet boot from a SATA drive on the Pi.)
crispyambulance 5y ago
But it's not uncommon to have devices boot from sdcards-- even industrial boards. Are you talking about "all" sdcards? Or just consumer stuff whose actual partnumber could change from order to order?
- depereo 5y ago
  It's more uncommon nowadays. VMware has officially recommended against sdcard boot, which used to be fairly popular. The SD card option is still usually available but generally recommended against when getting blades or pizzaboxes from HPE, Cisco and Dell. For various reasons it's now nearly the same price to toss 2x nvme drives in, instead of the SD card raid controller and SD card mounting assembly. TCO is definitely lower due to the write resilience of your typical nvme flash drive compared to an SD card, physical work swapping parts can be way more expensive than a small capital increase.

swiley 5y ago

With stuff like this the "right tool" is whatever you have and usb3 -> sata adapters aren't all that common while functioning SD cards are. Yeah there are crappy ones but if you stick to ~2GB and decent vendors (like most people do) you're unlikely to deal with them.

moondev 5y ago
I just checked and it looks like netboot.xyz provides an sdcard image so no excuses :) https://boot.netboot.xyz/ipxe/netboot.xyz-rpi4-sdcard.img https://boot.netboot.xyz/ipxe/netboot.xyz-rpi4-sdcard.img Edit - ok I guess being airgapped would be one, fair enough!
monocasa 5y ago
Decent vendors don't save you at scale, until you're in the millions of units per year kind of scale. Until the all but the 'industrial' cards are crappy. I've had the displeasure of trying to track down their issues before professionally.

joezydeco 5y ago

I hope you guys get eMMC someday. It's great.

blacksmith_tb 5y ago
Depends on which RPi you use, the Compute Module 4 comes in 2/8/16/32MB eMMC flavors[1] 1: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/compute-module-4/ https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/compute-module-4/

marcodiego 5y ago

If you have no external drive or network with a "boot server" like is probable most cases of use with RPi, is there a better option than an sdcard? Also, how is a usb thumbdrive better than a sdcard?

noja 5y ago
reliability

geerlingguy 5y ago

With the Compute Module 4, two more possibilities open up: * NVMe (native) * eMMC (SATA can be used natively, too, but you can't yet boot from a SATA drive on the Pi.)

crispyambulance 5y ago

But it's not uncommon to have devices boot from sdcards-- even industrial boards. Are you talking about "all" sdcards? Or just consumer stuff whose actual partnumber could change from order to order?

depereo 5y ago
It's more uncommon nowadays. VMware has officially recommended against sdcard boot, which used to be fairly popular. The SD card option is still usually available but generally recommended against when getting blades or pizzaboxes from HPE, Cisco and Dell. For various reasons it's now nearly the same price to toss 2x nvme drives in, instead of the SD card raid controller and SD card mounting assembly. TCO is definitely lower due to the write resilience of your typical nvme flash drive compared to an SD card, physical work swapping parts can be way more expensive than a small capital increase.