Installing the Software

SBCs commonly use an SD card as their “disk.” At the same time, some people use SSDs. As with other areas of this documentation, if you know enough to argue with me about using an SSD, you know enough to be responsible for the changes.

Your hardware configuration may differ from the one used to create this documentation, so please adjust your steps accordingly.

Obtaining the Disk Image

You may obtain the WPSD disk image from WPSD.radio from the following URL:

https://wpsd.radio/#download-wpsd

Download the disk image file appropriate for your SBC. In most cases, you do not need to unzip the downloaded file.

Hint

if you don’t see a disk image in the matrix for your specific hardware, it doesn’t exist. (read the faqs)

Also included on the page is the file WPSD_SHA256-SUMS.txt. This file contains cryptographic signatures for the disk image files that you may use to verify the download you received has no errors or has not been tampered with in transit. Verifying the checksum is entirely optional and outside of the scope of this document. Check out the article How to Verify MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-256 Checksum in Windows for additional information.

Write the Image

There are several tools used to write your SD card. Some prefer graphical front ends, like Balena Etcher and Raspberry Pi Imager. Some classic OS tools like dd may also be used.

We recommend Balena Etcher for those less experienced people taking on this project. More experienced hams may have their preferences.

Using Balena Etcher

Tip

The WPSD Team recommends using Balena Etcher over other tools such as the Raspberry Pi Imager, etc. This because the WPSD disk images are pre-configured with many settings, etc., and using other disk imaging tools which allow for post-write modifications run the risk of breaking the installation. Caveat Emptor.

Balena Etcher is available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux for x86. Download the appropriate version directly from the Balena Etcher downloads page and install it.

  1. Insert SD: Insert the SD card into the computer using your adapter if required.

  2. Open Balena Etcher.

  3. Select Image: With the “Select image” button, navigate to choose the compressed disk image file you downloaded, e.g., WPSD_RPi-Trixie.img.xz.

  4. Select Drive: Select the SD card with the “Select drive” button, and choose the SD card you previously inserted into the computer.

  5. Flash: Select the “Flash” button and allow the program to write the disk image to the SD card. The writing process may take a while, depending on the speed of the SD card, the speed of the computer, and the speed of the card reader

  6. Balena Etcher will notify you when the writing and verifying process has finished. When complete, you may safely eject the SD card.

Using Raspberry Pi Imager

Raspberry Pi Imager is available for Windows, MacOS, and Ubuntu for x86. Download the appropriate version directly from the Raspberry Pi downloads page and install it.

  1. Insert SD: Insert the SD card into the computer using your adapter if required.

  2. Open Raspberry Pi Imager.

  3. Raspberry Pi Device: A window will pop up where you may select the device to flash. At the top, choose No Filter.

  4. Choose OS: A window will pop up where you may select the Operating System to flash. Do not choose one of the Raspberry Pi OSes; scroll nearly to the bottom and choose “Use custom.” The tool will present you with a file chooser window where you may navigate to and choose the image you downloaded, e.g., WPSD_RPi-Trixie.img.xz.

  5. Choose Storage: If you have inserted your SD card properly, it should show in the window.

  6. Advanced Options: Pay special attention to either NOT create a user or use the pi-star user. Adding any other user with this tool will break WPSD.

    1. Press Shift + Control + X to bring up the OS Customization screen.

    2. Do not set a username and password. If you cannot deselect this option, uncheck Enable SSH on the Services tab. SSH will be available to you no matter what.

      Warning

      The pi-star user and password are already on the disk image and are for many WPSD programs to function correctly. (You can change the “pi-star” user password from the WPSD configuration page after you first boot up WPSD.)

    3. Configure wireless LAN: Carefully type your local WiFi SSID and password. Select the appropriate Wireless LAN country, e.g., “US.”

    4. Set locale settings: to whatever is correct for your local use.

    5. Scroll down to the “Save” button, and you will return to the original screen.

  7. Select Next or Write and a pop-up will ask if you want to apply the customized settings. Select Yes and then Yes again to begin writing. The imager will take a few minutes to write and verify the image. When complete, you may safely eject the SD card.

You may insert the SD card into your SBC and continue to Initial Startup.

Debian / Ubuntu / MacOS

Using these tools is more advanced, and these instructions assume you are comfortable working at the command line.

You may use the dd command from the coreutils project to write the disk image file to the SD card. You must first decompress the .xz file, which can be piped into dd if desired.

  1. Open a terminal window and change the directory where you downloaded the compressed disk image file. Typically, this will be in ~/Downloads.

  2. Decompress the file using unxz, replacing $IMAGE with the file you downloaded.

    $ unxz WPSD_$IMAGE.img.xz

  3. Insert the SD card into the computer, and use lsblk to determine which device is the correct SD card.

    $ lsblk

  4. Write the disk image file to the SD card using dd. You may need to be root to do this or use sudo. Using /dev/sda as an example for your SD card:

    $ dd bs=4M if=WPSD_$IMAGE.img of=/dev/sda

  5. When the disk image writing process has finished, remove the SD card from the computer