Beginners • Re: Multiple OS

Yes, it's common to use different boot media for different OS. Unless, that is, you're willing to jump through some extra hoops.

One of the reasons for that is that the normal installation methods replace all data on the target drive.

RPiOS full vs lite is somewhat of a special case. Except for the extra packages and the default of booting to a logged in desktop they're pretty much the same. They use the same kernel , the same shared libraries, and the same OS repositories. So much so that these days rather than install lite I install the desktop image and reconfigure it to boot to console without auto login.

If I do need a local desktop (I usually run desktop application over ssh -x) I can login and start it manually or change the default behaviour and reboot.

There's also PINN. Try a forum search for more on that - I can't comment on it as I don't use it.

Other methods include:

• Different OS on different types of media combined with a GPIO based filter in the EEPROM config to change boot order.
• Run the second OS inside the first using a KVM.
• Manual partition setup and OS copy combined with the os_prefix= directive in config.txt and a GPIO filter. Non trivial and require a reasonable level of Linux admin knowledge.
• Manual partition setup and OS copy combined with autoboot.txt and, you guessed it, a GPIO filter.
• Manual partition setup and OS copy combined with tryboot and reboot n.

Have a browse of the official documentation for more on those config options. I've not used either of the last two.

Statistics: Posted by thagrol — Tue Sep 23, 2025 11:27 pm

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