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How-To Write eMMC

Description

The Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 comes with or without onboard eMMC memory. It's main purpose is to replace the SD card as the main start or boot medium. The memory size ranges from 8 GB to 32 GB.

cm4_top_emmc_wifi

Requirements

  • Micro-USB to USB-A cable or adapter
  • 24 volts power supply with 2 pin power plug for the Pi-Tron CM4
  • Development computer or another Raspberry Pi

  • The rpiboot program from https://github.com/raspberrypi/usbboot

  • For Windows: A Windows installer can be found here: rpiboot_setup.exe

  • Raspberry Pi users will have to build the program, please follow the instructions on the rpiboot Github page.

  • The Raspberry Pi Imager program, to write an image to the eMMC memory of the CM4.

  • Visit https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/ to get the program, if not installed.
  • Of course any other SD card writing program can be used, if you feel more comfortable in doing so. This How-To is based on the Raspberry Pi Imager, please adapt the shown steps to fit your image writing program.
  • Optional
    • Keyboard, mouse and HDMI monitor for a non-headless boot, in case the username and password for the Pi-Tron CM4 are not pre-set when using the Raspberry Pi Imager. See the how-to below for more information.

How-To

For Windows development computers:

Download and run the rpiboot Windows installer to install the drivers and boot tool for the Compute Module 4 with eMMC.

Danger of data loss

It is strongly recommended to disconnect any other USB removable storage if possible, before continuing with this How-To. If an SD card image is written by accident to any attached USB storage device other then the CM4 eMMC memory, the data on the device will be lost.

  • Connect the Micro-USB cable to the Pi-Tron CM4 and plug in the other into the development computer. Don't power on the Pi-Tron yet.

  • Start the rpiboot program

  • Now power on the Pi-Tron CM4

    • Verify that the green led next to the OTG port is on as well as the blue led next to the CM4, signaling an active OTG (USB) connection.
      pi-tron-cm4-otg-led_320

  • Wait until rpiboot finds the Pi-Tron CM4 and mounts it as a new removable drive in Windows.
    rpiboot

  • Start the Raspberry Pi Imager and choose an image from the image list provided or select your own image, if you have a pre-made one.
    rpi-imager-program

  • Once you have chosen an image, a cog symbol rpi-imager-settings will appear in the lower right corner. Clicking on the symbol will open the settings page.
    On the settings page you can

    • enable the SSH server, needed for remote network login
    • pre-configure Wi-Fi settings, if only Wi-Fi access is available
    • change the default hostname
    • and more...
  • It is recommend pre-setting a username and password as well as enabling the SSH server. This way the Pi-Tron CM4 can be booted and run headless.
  • Under Storage chose the removable drive created by rpiboot, usually the drive to pick has "RPI-MSD" in it's name.
  • Click on Write to write the selected image to the eMMC memory of the CM4.
    • Note: The process will take a while!
      Also keep in mind that after the image is written to the eMMC memory, that the Raspberry Pi Imager also verifies the written data which requires additional time to complete.
  • Once the write process has finished, the removable media is ejected automatically.
  • Power off the Pi-Tron CM4.
  • Unplug the Micro-USB cable from the Pi-Tron CM4.


This concludes the How-To.

You can now power on the Pi-Tron CM4 again and it should boot the OS from the image you have just written to it's eMMC memory.

Restrictions

  • No known restrictions