In this tutorial, I go through the steps of installing Raspberry Pi Flint OS. I also do a brief overview of what exactly the operating system (OS) is and any setup that you will need to do on first boot.

FlintOS is an operating system that is built on the open source version of Chromium OS. Unlike Chromium OS for SBC that I have covered earlier this one is still being worked on. It’s a lot more stable with most of the basics working just fine.

Not all of the Chromium OS apps will run on the Raspberry Pi as some of them are quite intensive and need a fair bit of resources. For example, “Cut the Rope” will run the first mission and that’s as far as you will get.

Flint OS is perfect if you only need a basic operating system that is able to run a popular range of applications such as Google docs or even the web versions of Microsoft Office apps. You’re able to access the Chrome web store, so you have a wide range of extensions, applications, themes and much more to install.

It’s important to note that if stability is hugely important to you, then I do not recommend installing this operating system until it has been worked on a little bit more. However, if you love experimenting and trying out new things, then you should totally try this out.

Equipment

If you’re interested in the equipment that you will need for this tutorial, then you can find a handy list right below. I highly recommend that you use a Pi 3 for this tutorial.

Recommended:

Raspberry Pi 3

8gb+ Micro SD Card

Ethernet Cord or Wifi dongle (Raspberry Pi 3 has WiFi inbuilt)

Raspberry Pi Power Supply

Optional:

Raspberry Pi Case

USB Keyboard

USB Mouse

Installing Raspberry Pi Flint OS

The process of installing Raspberry Pi Flint OS is basically the same as any other operating system that you would install for the Pi. I will detail how to get it installed below.

1. First head over to the Flint OS website and download the latest zip file. Once downloaded, unzip the file, so you’re left with a .img file.

2. Next, you will need some tools to be able to write the image to the SD card. Previously I have used Win32diskimager, but for this tutorial, I used Etcher (mentioned on the Flint OS website).

So first download the program over at the Etcher website. (It’s available for Linux, Mac, and Windows)

3. Open Etcher and select the image that we downloaded and unzipped earlier.

4. Next, select the SD card, make sure you double check to ensure it is the SD Card otherwise you might accidentally wipe a hard drive.

5. Next, click flash and wait while it writes the image to the SD card.

6. Now safely remove the SD card from the computer and insert into the Raspberry Pi.

7. It’s now time to move onto booting the Pi up.

First Boot

Setting up Flint OS is incredibly easy, so you shouldn’t run into any issues. Below are the very few steps that you will need to follow so you can get this all setup correctly.

1. First, you will need to connect to a network. If you have a Pi 3, then the onboard WiFi is supported in the latest version. Dongles and Ethernet should also work.

It will now check for updates, and this shouldn’t take more than just a minute.

3. You will now need to login to your Google account. Alternatively, you can continue as a guest.

It will now log in and load up all your previous information (If you have used Chromium OS with the account before).

You’re now able to use Flint OS.

There isn’t a huge amount to talk about when it comes to using a Chromium operating system. It’s very simple and straightforward, however, if you need more information, then this information from Google is handy.

Note: Some of it refers to features that are only on Chrome OS which is different to Chromium OS.

Troubleshooting

At the time of writing this tutorial, Flint OS has a few issues here and there but is in much better shape than Chromium OS For SBC. Flint OS is also still in active development, so a lot of the issues are likely to be fixed in the future.

If you find your screen has frozen wait a minute as sometimes it lags and takes a bit of time to catch up. If it’s still not doing anything, then you will need to reset the Pi.

Most of the basics work just fine such as profile changing, installation of apps, extensions from the web store and much more.

The Flint OS subreddit is probably the best place to go to talk about issues, development, and anything else related to the operating system.

I hope this tutorial has helped you install Raspberry Pi flint OS without any issues. I also hope that it has shown you yet another cool OS that’s being developed for the Pi. If you have any feedback or anything else related to this tutorial, then be sure to leave a comment below.