Noobs only has Raspbian

[toque_]

I just purchased and set up a Rasberry pi 2. When I booted it, Noobs 1.4 was on the SD card. It only contained Raspbian. Why did it not come containing the other OS options as stated on the website.

[W. H. Heydt]

You can load other OSes through NOOBS, but you have to have an active, wired, network connection. NOOBS used to have several OSes on the card. So far as I know it was reduced to just Raspbian to cut down on the space needed, because--in general--those using NOOBS are not yet sophisticated users and Raspbian is the default, best supported OS for the Pi, and issues with maintaining the correct image format for OSes other than Raspbian.

Personally, I think there should be either a "Fat NOOBS" (not necessarily directly on the download page) or a set of "pre-packaged" image directories that could be easily added to a NOOBS card. I don't hold it against those maintaining NOOBS that this is not done, though. Anyone who wants a different OS should be able to download and install it on their own. If someone is not able to do that, then they would be well advised to stick to NOOBS and Raspbian until the gain more experience using the Pi and loading SD cards.

[KLL]

It only contained Raspbian. Why did it not come containing the other OS options as stated on the website.

depends what website you look at? https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/noobs/

[toque_]

Ah yes I found that in the documentation after your reply.

It only says a network connection not a wired network connection. It's not possibly of wifi?

Thanks for the reply

[fruitoftheloom]

Ah yes I found that in the documentation after your reply.

It only says a network connection not a wired network connection. It's not possibly of wifi?

Thanks for the reply

WiFi not supported in the NOOBS chooser / installer.

NOOBS was changed to not include additional Distros last September.

[KLL]

if no network connection better use the NON NOOBS way,
download the OS image you want and burn it to a SD card,
procedure is different from noobs SD setup.

[KLL]

I think there should be either a "Fat NOOBS" (not necessarily directly on the download page) or a set of "pre-packaged" image directories that could be easily added to a NOOBS card.

i also think it should be possible to make a NOOBS SD like with the NOOBS_v1_4_1.zip and then pull other OS into the /os/ dir,

so when you later move the SD to the RPI/localHDMI../ no ethernet cable would be required.

is there a procedure for this?

[Joe Schmoe]

The right way to approach this problem is to have 2 SD cards available to work with (and a USB SD card reader/writer), and follow this recipe:

1. Use NOOBS (or, better, NOOBS Lite, provided you have the required wired ethernet connection) to get Raspbian up and running on the first SD card. Now, you have a working, usable Linux system. Do not be tempted to screw around with any of the Windows/Mac "solutions" that you often see bandied about on these forums.
2. Use that working, usable Linux system to work on setting up other OSes on the other card.

[W. H. Heydt]

I think there should be either a "Fat NOOBS" (not necessarily directly on the download page) or a set of "pre-packaged" image directories that could be easily added to a NOOBS card.

i also think it should be possible to make a NOOBS SD like with the NOOBS_v1_4_1.zip and then pull other OS into the /os/ dir,

so when you later move the SD to the RPI/localHDMI../ no ethernet cable would be required.

is there a procedure for this?

There are ways to do that. The problem is not the OS image files, it's the files to tell NOOBS what it's got. There have been posts on how to it.

[W. H. Heydt]

Ah yes I found that in the documentation after your reply.

It only says a network connection not a wired network connection. It's not possibly of wifi?

Thanks for the reply

With some additional hardware (about $20 worth), there's a way around that so that you could actually use a wireless connection that NOOBS could handle. Basically, you need a Access Point device configured as a client. To configure the AP, you'd need to connect it to either another system, or to a Pi with an installed OS. The AP I use, in the extremely rare circumstances that I want that sort of connection, is a TP-Link WR702N. What you wind up doing is connecting the configured AP to the Ethernet jack of the Pi--so the Pi thinks it has a wired connection--while the AP takes care of the WiFi connection.

Once you have a Pi set up, you could swap out the AP for a switch plus a WiFi dongle and provide a wired connection for other Pis (that is, use a Pi as an AP/router), so the AP is really just a "bootstrap" device. Or you can continue to use the AP (or give/loan it to someone else with the same problem). It's up to you. I keep a couple of them around in case of need (mine or someone else's).

One could argue that this method gets one out of the "beginner" category.

[KLL]

I think there should be either a "Fat NOOBS" (not necessarily directly on the download page) or a set of "pre-packaged" image directories that could be easily added to a NOOBS card.

There are ways to do that. The problem is not the OS image files, it's the files to tell NOOBS what it's got. There have been posts on how to it.

??
funny, but i think different:
-a- i not find anything with search about HOW TO make your "FAT NOOBS"
-b- pulling the OS files was very difficult for me, i needed a hour to learn "wget"
( we talk here only about the officially provided noobs OS options, not any external image file...)
-c- you not need to tell NOOBS what "OS" is on the card, it finds it.
i copy 7 OS from the repository into NOOBS/os/ and
booted via HDMI... ( but no internet connection )
see 7 + 2 entries with the SDcard symbol on the right, ( and not one with the network symbol )
selected 2 of them and installed them.
_______________________________________________
now, i still think it is very good not to waste the space of the SDcard ( in the recovery partition ) with all the optional OS.
so adding the additionally "needed" at request is good.
and with internet connection at noobs installation no problem.
but if you prepare the SD card anyway ( means if you not buy a noobs SD )
you download the noobs.zip, format SD card and copy the noobs files
you can already download and add at that moment "your OS" too.
so actually the "FAT NOOBS" would be just a directory on your PC,
and when you make the SD card write your "MY NOOBS" only.
________________________________________________
i tested a winwget on PC, but if you want to do it via linux or even RPI Raspbian linux
make a script:
nano getOS.sh

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
# NOOBS add OS
# for copy to USB stick use:
#cd /media/MYUSBSTICK/NOOBS/
# for mount cardreader: (while sda1 is USB stick )
# just do a manual mount / no fstab..
sudo mount -t vfat -o uid=pi,gid=pi /dev/sdb1 /mnt/
cd /mnt/os/

MYOS='pidora'
RPIORG='http://downloads.raspberrypi.org'

wget -r --level=1 -nH -e robots=off --no-parent --reject "index.html*" $RPIORG/$MYOS/

ls
cd

chmod +x getOS.sh
./getOS.sh loads the OS "pidora" to the noobs setup SD