Peter Gamma (Physiologist & Director) Meditation Research Institute Switzerland (MRIS)

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How to install Raspberry Pi OS on the BIGTREETECH Raspberry Pad 5 & 7?

Posted bypg@petergamma.org

Last Updated on June 20, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org

Is the BIGTREETECH Raspberry Pad 5 not a great device?:

  • I bought a BIGTREETECH Raspberry Pad 5 after I saw how tricky it is to install LibreOffice on the Pinephone:

https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=16614

  • The BIGTREETECH Raspberry Pad 5 has a different architecture.
  • What is promising about this product is that Raspberry Pi OS should run on it.
  • And as soon as Raspberry Pi OS runs on it, whe have for instance the Pi apps store.
  • And there we can find a lot of applications which are aleady available.
  • For instance LibreOffice runs also on Raspberry Pi OS
  • We have discussed this previously for instance it runs on the Raspberry Pi zero 2 w.
  • So I was looking for alternatives to the Pinephone
  • The Pinephone is is relatively expensive in Switzerland and does not fit very well for my needs.
  • Especially the installation process as for instance for LibreOffice seems to be difficult.
  • With Raspberrry Pi OS this is easier to install applications.
  • So I became interested in Raspberry Pi products as an alternative to the Pinephone.
  • The Pinephone catched my interest for serveral years, but does not full-fill my needs up to the present day.
  • The first device which I found interesting personally as an alternative to the Pinephone was the BIGTREETECH Raspberry Pad 5.
  • It has about the same size of the Pinephone and fits in a pocket.

Here we have another review from leepspsvideo about the BIGTREETECH Raspberry Pad 5

  • So I bought a BIGTREETECH Raspberry Pad 5 and tried to install Raspberry Pi OS but failed.
  • And I still do not know where the problem is.
  • The installation process is difficult.
  • Later on I saw that the Raspberry Pad 5 is mainly used with Octoprint.
  • But later on I found it as a:

Raspberry Pad 5 Cyberdeck

Raspberry pad 5 cyberdeck
byu/Machine_Aware incyberDeck
  • And we can see in the above example that this cyberdeck runs Raspberry Pi OS, that is what we want.

Decktility uses also the BigTreeTech Raspberry Pad 5 IPS touchscreen

  • And I don t know if it uses also the BigTreeTech motherboard for the CM4:
  • Also the Decktility looks great and has a similar size than the Pinephone:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/deckility-handheld-pc-magpimonday

And now i found that :

Jean-Luc Aufranc from CNXSoft explains how to install Raspberry Pi OS on the Bigtreetech Pad 7:

Jean-Luc Aufranc from CNXSoft explains how to install Raspberry Pi OS on the Bigtreetech Pad 7
  • Jean-Luc Aufranc from CNXSoft himself wrote the installing Raspberry Pi OS on the BTT Raspberry Pad Pi 7 is not so easy and took him some time.

Here I found a very detailed instruction how to install Mainsail OS on the BTT Raspberry Pad Pi 5:

  • This instruction shows also nicely the correct positions of the dip switches for the installation.
  • It is an instruction which was done very carefully and in detail.
  • We have also to change some parameters in the the config.text which is stored somewhere on the BIGTREETECH Raspberry Pad 5.
  • I suppose this is stored in the eMMC storage of the CM4.
  • Some CM4 modules have seMMC storage, but the light ones have no internal storage.
  • And I don’t know if it is possible to boot from an SD card which is sticked into the SD card slot of the CM4 carrier board.
  • The instruction shown in the above video shows step by step how to install MainsailOS.
  • This is the most detailed instruction how to install and OS on the BIGTREETECH Raspberry Pad 5 which is known to me.
  • I suppose it similar as to install Rasperry Pi OS.
  • One issues seems to by that that there are CM4 modules on the market with integrated eMMC storage and light modules which do not have intergrated eMMC storage.
  • And another question is if it is possible to boot from the SD card slot of the CM4 mother board?
  • And what is if we only have a CM4 light without integrated eMMC?
  • Then the only option is to boot from a SD card.
  • But this procedure seemst to be difficult.
  • Leepspsvideo reported in one of his videos that he had issues with:

: “Did I break my CM4? USB Boot eMMC CM4 test”:

  • If you are interested in the BIGTREETECH Raspberry Pad 5 & 7
  • These are two great products which use the Raspberry Pi compute model 4
  • We think it is worth going through this information step by step ontil we manage to install Raspberry Pi OS on these devices.
  • This is something i failed up to the present day to do on the Raspberry Pi Pad 5.
  • But I am putting together all the information for people who are interested in the product and how to install Raspberry Pi OS on it..

With All of this information we hope that it is sufficient now for everybody to install Raspberry Pi OS on the BIGTREETECH Raspberry Pad 5 & 7

Information for product sellers who do stock market speculation and scalping with products mentioned by Peter Gamma on www.petergamma.org

According to the little experience of Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org, many of the products listed here are still full of issues which need to be resolved. If you do stock market speculation and scalping with those, you will loose Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org as a buyer of these products and as a reviewer. Is this not risky? Will you not loose a majority of your costumers as well?

And is it not so, that society in general does not accept stock market speculation and scalping with products as those which are listed here? And will you not be politically incapable of finding a majority of the voters if you do stock market speculation and scalping with these products?

And as a consequence will you not be condemned and punished by a political referendum soon? Especially if you do this to a Swiss, since are not majority of Swiss against stock market speculations and scalping with people on a budget? And people in Switzerland are known for a lot of political referendums, since we have direct democracy in this country.

And Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org will fight up to the European Court of Human Rights against people who do stock market speculation and scalping with the products which are mentioned on www.petergamma.org. And if they do not have yet the legal basis there to do so, he will fight for it.

What is a scalper?

A scalper is someone who buys something and resells it at a price far above the initial cost. For instance some says: “He got theater tickets through a scalper”: Someone who buys tickets to an event in order to resell them at a profit. And is it not also scalping if you take reviews from this site to make out of it a new product offer, and sell it for a higher price? We doubt that you will be successful with it. Since Peter Gamma will review your product and will user not come back to www.petergamma.org after that?