Multiple operating systems on a single memory card

Versatility

© Lead Image © lightwise, 123RF.com

© Lead Image © lightwise, 123RF.com

Article from Issue 229/2019
Author(s):

BerryBoot turns your Raspberry Pi into a multiboot system, with several operating systems on a single card.

The Raspberry Pi is suitable for a wide variety of application scenarios; accordingly, a wide variety of operating systems are available for installation. Whether you want to use the small computer as a media center, a gaming console, or a solid all-rounder, you will find the right system for every application.

However, the most common operating systems are each installed on their own SD memory card; if you want to boot another system, you have to change the card. You can use your Rasp Pi in a far more elegant way with the BerryBoot [1] boot manager. BerryBoot allows the installation of multiple operating systems on a single SD memory card and supports a convenient selection dialog from a beautifully designed bootloader.

In the Cards

In contrast to conventional images with one operating system that is then copied to a memory card, you can download a BerryBoot ZIP archive with a minimal system from the project's website. Two different archives are available for download: The larger archive (~60MB) is suitable for all Rasp Pi models; the smaller archive (~40MB) is intended exclusively for models from the Rasp Pi 2 (RPi2) upward [2]. After downloading, unpack the archive directly on a memory card that has been formatted with the VFAT filesystem. Next, insert the memory card into your Rasp Pi and power it up. BerryBoot will now take you to a graphical configuration dialog.

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