How to set up OpenMediaVault on Raspberry Pi 4

The Raspberry Pi 4 is the latest offering from the Raspberry Pi foundation, and it’s incredible. It’s the first device in the Raspberry Pi microcomputer lineup with 4 GB of RAM, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and USB 3.0 ports. These new upgrades make it perfect to use as a low-cost OpenMediaVault server.

In this guide, we’ll go over how to set up OpenMediaVault, as well as how to install Raspbian Lite, the underlying operating system required to run the software.

Note: do you have an older Raspberry Pi device? Want to set up OpenMediaVault on it? Follow this guide here.

Before we begin

Raspberry Pi 4 is a fast device. However, you will still need a high-speed Micro SD card to run a server. If your Pi 4 does not already have a quick Micro SD Card in it, consider replacing it with one of the following on the list below.

• Samsung 32GB 95MB/s (U1) MicroSDXC EVO
• SanDisk Extreme PRO 32GB 100 MB/s

Setting up NOOBS (AKA New out of the box system)

Sadly, for the Raspberry Pi 4, the OpenMediaVault project has decided to forgo creating easy, flashable images with OpenMediaVault pre-installed. Instead, if you plan on using OMV on the Pi 4, you must set it up yourself on Raspbian, by hand.

There are quite a few ways to install Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi 4. However, the quickest, most straightforward way is to use the NOOBS installer, a tool that can auto-install Rasbian. To get NOOBS working, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Head over to the “Downloads” page on Raspberrypi.org, as that is where NOOBS is distributed to the public.

Step 2: On the “Downloads” page, locate the black “NOOBS” icon and click on it with the mouse. This icon will take you to the download area for the “NOOBS” installer.

Step 3: At the “NOOBS” download page, locate the “Offline and network install” option, and click the “Download ZIP” button to start the download.

Do not use the “Download Torrent” option for NOOBS unless you know how to Torrent files on Linux.

Step 4: Plug in the Micro SD card into your PC. You must then, format it to the Fat32 file system. If you are using Mac or Windows, skip steps 4-7. You will need to consult with your computer manual to format your SD card to Fat32.

Are you using Linux? Open up a terminal window and install Gparted.

Ubuntu – sudo apt install gparted

Debian – sudo apt-get install gparted

Arch Linux – sudo pacman -S gparted

Fedora – sudo dnf install gparted

OpenSUSE – sudo zypper install gparted

Step 5: Find the drop-down menu on the right in Gparted, and click on it. Select your Micro SD card in the list.

Unsure about how to find your SD card inside of the menu? Click on the device that matches the memory capacity of the Micro SD card. For example, if you have a 32 GB Micro SD card, click on the device that is 32 GB. However, keep in mind that some SD cards round up the data. So 32 GB may be 29 GB, etc.

Step 6: Select and delete all present partitions on the SD card. When all partitions are deleted, you should see  “unallocated.”

Be sure to click the “Apply” button to confirm the deletion of the partitions.

Step 7: Right-click on “unallocated” with the mouse and select “New.” Then, find the “File system” drop-down menu and set it to Fat32.

Click “Add” to confirm, and “Apply” to write the changes to the disk.

Step 8: Once your Micro SD card is formatted to the Fat32 file system, open up the Linux file manager, and mount it.

Not sure how to mount your SD card in the Linux file manager? Find it on the left-hand side, and double-click on it to mount it.

Step 9: With the SD card mounted, open up a second Linux file manager window, and click on the “Downloads” folder. Then, find the NOOBS ZIP archive, and right-click on it with the mouse.

Step 10: Copy all files extracted from the NOOBS ZIP folder to the Micro SD card.

Step 11: Unmount the SD card, plug it into the Raspberry Pi, and turn the Raspberry Pi on. Be sure also to connect your HDMI cable, Ethernet cable (required for OpenMediaVault to run well), mouse, and keyboard.

Setting up NOOBS on Raspberry Pi is pretty straightforward. That said, if you are having trouble following along with our guide, check out the Raspberry Pi foundation’s official NOOBS setup information for more guidance.

Installing Raspbian Lite

With the Raspberry Pi 4 turned on, follow the step-by-step instructions below to install Raspbian Lite on the Raspberry Pi.

Step 1: As NOOBS starts up on the Raspberry Pi 4, you will see a “Please wait while NOOBS initializes” message. Sit back, be patient, and wait.

Step 2: Look through the list of available operating systems to install and check the box next to “Raspbian Lite.” This OS is required to run OpenMediaVault, as it is lightweight, and does not contain a desktop environment.

Step 3: Click the “Install” button at the top to start the installation of Raspbian Lite.

Step 4: Sit back, be patient, and allow the NOOBS installer to set up Raspbian Lite on your Raspberry Pi 4. When the installation is complete, you will see a message that says, “OS(es) Installed Successfully).

When Raspbian Lite is done installing, your Pi 4 will reboot.

Installing OpenMediaVault

Raspbian Lite is set up on your Raspberry Pi 4. Now all that is left to do is to install OpenMediaVault. To do this, start by logging in with the username pi and the password raspberry.

Upon logging in, you will need to update the system. To update, run the following commands in the console prompt.

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade -y

Following the upgrade, install OpenMediaVault with the official installation script.

wget -O - https://github.com/OpenMediaVault-Plugin-Developers/installScript/raw/master/install | sudo bash

The installation of OpenMediaVault can take quite a bit of time. Be patient. When the process is done, open up a browser tab on any computer on the same network as the Pi 4 to access the OpenMediaVault web UI.

https://raspberrypi/

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