Raspberry Pi Firmware Updater; Easy but Not for the Faint of Heart

If you have already received your Raspberry Pi computer and have been tinkering around with it and having a blast, you might have already had to re-install the firmware onto what is a blank image pretty often. Now, to make that process just a little easier, a developer with the handle Hexxeh has made a Raspberry Pi computer firmware updater for all to use and experiment with. He offered a brief explanation behind the creation of the Raspberry Pi firmware updater and how it can help you get the most from your $35 bundle of delight.

He said, “Whilst I’m hacking on Raspberry Pi images, I have to reinstall the firmware onto a blank image quite a lot. I thought it’d be easier if there was a tool that did this for me. Such a tool would also be useful for normal Raspberry Pi users who want to keep their kernel/firmware up to date to try the latest and greatest new features out. So I wrote a tool that does just that. It’s called rpi-updater. Be warned however, that it’s rather experimental and could break your image, causing it not to boot. You can’t do any permanent damage to your Pi though. So as long as you’re not afraid to recreate your SD card, give it a shot.”

If you fit the description and you’re “not afraid to recreate your SD card”, Hexxeh has posted up instructions on how anyone can install and use the tool over at his GitHub account which you can access by just clicking here. Of course, like Hexxeh himself has said, the firmware updater is still very much in the experimental stage so all this is at your own risk. If you’ve given it a try however, do let us know how it went.

Pradeep Chandrasekaran
Categories: Computers, Web
Tags: raspberry pi