How to run Superbacked OS on Raspberry Pi

Requirements

• Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 (4GB min, 8GB or more recommended)
• Raspberry Pi 15W USB-C Power Supply
• Raspberry Pi keyboard and mouse (or equivalent)
• Raspberry Pi Micro HDMI to Standard HDMI (A/M) Cable (or equivalent)
• microSD card or USB flash drive (used to run Superbacked OS, 16GB min, faster is better)
• Plug-and-play webcam with USB-A connector (1080p min)
• HDMI display (1080p min)

Recommendations (optional)

Running Superbacked OS on flash drive with signed firmware and write protection enabled such as Kanguru FlashTrust™ Secure Firmware USB 3.0 Flash Drive (WP-KFT3-16G) is recommended.

Superbacked OS microSD or USB flash drive guide

Step 1: install Raspberry Pi Imager

macOS or Windows

Go to https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/, download and install Raspberry Pi Imager.

Ubuntu

Heads-up: depends on Qt.

$ sudo add-apt-repository --yes universe

$ sudo apt install --yes rpi-imager
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Step 2 (optional): opt out of Raspberry Pi Imager telemetry

Select “App Options”, disable “Enable anonymous statistics (telemetry) collection” and click “Save”.

Step 3: download Superbacked OS

Heads-up: for additional security, verify Superbacked OS release.

macOS or Ubuntu

$ cd ~/Downloads

$ for number in $(seq 1 2); do curl --fail --location "https://github.com/superbacked/superbacked/releases/download/v1.10.0/superbacked-os-arm64-raspi-1.10.0.img.xz.part$number" || break; done | cat > superbacked-os-arm64-raspi-1.10.0.img.xz
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Windows

Heads-up: requires WSL to be installed first using wsl --install (if applicable).

Heads-up: replace Sun Knudsen with your username.

$ wsl

$ cd /mnt/c/Users/Sun\ Knudsen/Downloads

$ for number in $(seq 1 2); do curl --fail --location "https://github.com/superbacked/superbacked/releases/download/v1.10.0/superbacked-os-arm64-raspi-1.10.0.img.xz.part$number" || break; done | cat > superbacked-os-arm64-raspi-1.10.0.img.xz
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Step 4: copy Superbacked OS to microSD or USB flash drive

Open “Raspberry Pi Imager”, click “OS”, then “Use custom”, select superbacked-os-amd64-1.10.0.img.xz, click “Storage”, select microSD or USB flash drive, click “NEXT”, then “WRITE” and, finally, click “I UNDERSTAND, ERASE AND WRITE”.

Raspberry Pi Imager, release semver may differ

Step 5 (optional): enable write protection

If using Kanguru FlashTrust™ Secure Firmware USB 3.0 Flash Drive or equivalent, enable write protection.

Usage guide

Step 1 (if applicable): unplug Ethernet cable

Step 2: boot Superbacked OS

Heads-up: password is “superbacked”.

If scanning blocks does not work, please try using a higher quality 1080p webcam such as the Razer Kiyo X.