Flash an EVE-OS installer or live image

Before you start

This guide describes how to flash an EVE-OS installer or live image on to a portable storage device, such as a USB stick or an SD card. Using your flashed portable storage, you will be able to either install EVE-OS or live-boot EVE-OS on your edge nodes.

Prerequisites

You must have a blank bootable storage device: either a USB drive or an SD card, depending on your edge node’s requirements.

You must have an EVE-OS image. If you don't, see the article on getting an EVE-OS image or generating a single use-installer.

Flash an EVE-OS installer or live image

ZEDEDA Flash supports .raw, .img, .wic, .zip, .gz, .xz, .iso, and .zst file formats.

On macOS

1. Go to https://github.com/zededa/zflash/releases/latest.  
2. Download ZFlash.Imager-<x.y.z>.dmg.
3. Navigate to your downloads. By default the path is /Users/<name>/Downloads/ZFlash.Imager-<x.y.z>.dmg.
4. Double click ZFlash.Imager-<x.y.z>.dmg.
5. Drag zflash.app to your /Applications folder (or preferred location).
6. Double click zflash.app.
7. If it does not open, but you get an error:
   1. Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security.
   2. Scroll to Security.
   3. Find the message “zflash.app was blocked to protect your Mac”. 
   4. Click Open Anyway.
   5. Confirm Open Anyway.
   6. Enter your system password.
8. When ZFlash opens, click Choose OS and select from one of the choices:
   • Select a custom image file from your computer and choose the one you created during Get EVE-OS or generating a single use-installer.
   • Select a generic EVE-OS version that can be downloaded from GitHub.
9. Connect your USB or storage drive to your computer.
10. Click Choose Storage.
    1. Select your storage device from the list.
11. Click Next until finished.

On Linux

1. Go to https://github.com/zededa/zflash/releases/latest.
2. Download ZFlash-<x.y.z>.AppImage.
3. Navigate to your downloads.
4. Set the executable permission on the downloaded file:
   chmod +x ZFlash-<.x.y.z>.AppImage
5. Execute the AppImage file:
   ./ZFlash-<.x.y.z>.AppImage
6. When ZFlash opens, click Choose OS and select from one of the choices:
   • Select a custom image file from your computer and choose the one you created during Get EVE-OS or generating a single use-installer.
   • Select a generic EVE-OS version that can be downloaded from GitHub.
7. Connect your USB or storage drive to your computer.
8. Click Choose Storage.
   1. Select your storage device from the list.
9. Click Next until finished.

On Windows OS

1. Go to https://github.com/zededa/zflash/releases/latest.
2. Download ZFlash-Image-<x.y.z>.exe.
3. Navigate to your downloads.
4. Double click the downloaded installer file to begin the installation.
5. Follow any installation instructions.
6. Launch the ZFlash app.
7. When ZFlash opens, click Choose OS and select from one of the choices:
   • Select a custom .img from your computer and choose the one you created during Get EVE-OS or generating a single use-installer.
   • Select a generic EVE-OS version that can be downloaded from GitHub.
8. Insert your USB or storage drive.
9. Click Choose Storage.
   1. Select your storage device from the list.
10. Click Next until finished.

For Raspberry Pi devices

For Raspberry Pi (RPi) devices, you need to use a live EVE-OS image. See Get an EVE-OS live image (to live-boot from USB or SD) for an EVE-OS image that you can live-boot on an edge node without onboard storage. You need EVE-OS version 14.0.0-LTS or greater if you want support for RPi5. Note that EVE-OS on RPi can only be booted from the SD card.

To flash a live EVE-OS image onto an SD card for Raspberry Pi devices, follow these steps.

1. Install the Raspberry Pi Imager.
2. Plug your SD-compatible USB drive into your local machine.
3. Insert your SD card into your USB drive’s SD port.
4. Open the Raspberry Pi Imager.
5. Choose which Raspberry Pi model you want to install EVE-OS onto from the Raspberry Pi Device dropdown.
6. Select Use Custom from the Operating System dropdown.
7. Select your USB drive from the Storage window.
8. Click Next.
9. Click No when prompted for OS customizations.
10. Click Yes, when warned that existing data on the SD card will be erased.
11. Click Continue to finish the flashing process.
12. Close the imager and eject your SD card.

You can now connect your flashed SD card to your edge node and boot into EVE-OS.

Next steps

If you flashed an EVE-OS installer image, you’re ready to install EVE-OS onto your edge nodes.

If you flashed an EVE-OS live image, you’re ready to live-boot EVE-OS on an edge node.