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The ComfilePi OS

It is recommended that those with an existing solution currently running on older OS variant do not use the latest OS unless there is a compelling reason to do so.

For those that are embarking on the development of a new solution, using the latest OS is recommended.

After booting the OS, the software packages can be further updated to the most recent releases of the day by running sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade in a terminal.

Bookworm

The Bookworm OS contains many improvements and changes. Please see the ComfilePi Bookworm OS for more information.

OS Image Download Link	Date Released	Supported Models	Word Size	Release Notes and Checksum
ComfilePi Raspberry Pi OS 20250527	May 27, 2025	CPi-A, CPi-B, CPi-C, & CPi-S	64-bit	Release Notes and Checksum

Bullseye

OS Image Download Link	Date Released	Supported Models	Word Size	Release Notes and Checksum
ComfilePi Raspberry Pi OS 20250225	February 25, 2025	CPi-A, CPi-B, CPi-C, & CPi-S	64-bit	Release Notes and Checksum
ComfilePi Raspberry Pi OS 20240229	February 29, 2024	CPi-A, CPi-B, CPi-C, & CPi-S	64-bit	Release Notes and Checksum
ComfilePi Raspberry Pi OS 20230904	September 4, 2023	CPi-A, CPi-B, CPi-C, & CPi-S	64-bit	Release Notes and Checksum
ComfilePi Raspberry Pi OS 20230710	July 10, 2023	CPi-A, CPi-B, CPi-C, & CPi-S	64-bit	Release Notes and Checksum
ComfilePi Raspberry Pi OS 20230227	February 27, 2023	CPi-A, CPi-B, CPi-C, & CPi-S	64-bit	Release Notes and Checksum
ComfilePi Raspberry Pi OS 20221201	December 1, 2022	CPi-A, CPi-B, & CPi-C	64-bit	Release Notes and Checksum

OS Image Archive

The Bullseye OS image above is preconfigured for the CPi-S070WR. For other models, please replace the /boot/config.txt file with the appropriate model-specific one located in the /boot directory.

The CPi-C070WR4C v2.0 hardware revision replaces the SMSC9512 10/100 Ethernet IC with CM4's 1Gbps Ethernet. Therefore, if using an older OS with the CPi-C070WR4C v2.0 hardware, please remove the dtoverlay=noeth setting in the /boot/config.txt file to ensure the CM4's internal Ethernet is not disabled.

Installation Instructions

The installation procedure is the same as that used for the Raspberry Pi. See “Installing Images…” at the Raspberry Pi Installation Instructions. Using the Raspberry Pi Imager, from the “Choose OS” menu, select “Use Custom” and then browse the to the OS downloaded from the links above.

When the OS is installed and booted for the first time, it will automatically expand the file system to take advantage of the specific model's entire storage capacity, and then reboot automatically. Subsequent boots will boot directly to the desktop.

Flashing the eMMC Over USB

Obtain a USB-Type-A-to-USB-Type-A cable and connect it between the CPi panel PC and your desktop PC using the “USB Device” port.
Turn on the CPi-xxxx panel PC. Due to the USB cable being plugged into the USB Device port, it will automatically boot into a special mode allowing the eMMC to be flashed. Nothing will appear on the screen though. If it boots into the desktop, something is wrong. If that happens check to ensure the cables are properly connected.
Once the ComfilePi is powered on, download and install the rpi_boot program.
Once installed, from the start menu, run “rpi-boot-CM4-CM5 - Mass Storage Gadget” for the CPi-S and CPi-C panel PCs or “rpiboot-CM-CM2-CM3” for the CPi-A/B panel PCs. It will detect the ComfilePi and mount the eMMC as if it were an SD card (e.g. as a removable drive).
Once the eMMC is mounted as a removable drive, follow the normal procedure for flashing or backing up an OS image.

See the Raspberry Pi eMMC Flashing Instructions for more information.

Booting from a USB Drive to Flash the eMMC on the CPi-C/S

The CPi-C and CPi-S panel PCs built around the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 and Compute Module 4S respectively have a different bootloader providing the ability to boot from USB out of the box. Leveraging that feature, it is now possible to boot from a utility operating system, and from there flash the eMMC locally. With that method, it is no longer necessary to connect the panel PC to a separate PC via a USB-A-to-USB-A cable, and flashing the eMMC is also much faster.

It is also possible to automate the Raspberry Pi Imager using it's command line interface. Run the command rpi-imager –cli in a terminal window for onscreen help.

Procedure:

From a workstation PC, use the Raspberry Pi Imager to create a utility OS on a USB drive (or use an SD card mounted in a USB SD card reader). Be sure to update the /boot/config.txt file with the model-specific one in the /boot directory. The OS images downloadable from the links above can be used as the utility OS.
If using one of the OS images linked above, boot from the USB once to ensure the root file system is expanded to make room for the OS images in the next step. Shut down after successfully booting once from the USB drive and then continue on to the next step.
Copy the OS image that will be flashed to the eMMC to the utility OS's ~/Downloads directory. Since Windows does not have the ability to read from and write to Linux file systems, you may want to use a Linux PC for this step. Since the ComfilePi is simply a Linux PC, you could plug your USB drive into a separate ComfilePi panel PC and use it to copy your OS image to the USB drive. Or, if the OS image is stored on a server, you can always use a wget or curl to download the OS image from the server to the USB drive's ~/Downloads directory.
On the CPi-C/F/S panel PC, if the eMMC already has an OS installed, make the eMMC unbootable so it will fail to boot from the eMMC and attempt to boot from USB instead.. Run the commands sudo mkdir /boot/temp followed by sudo mv /boot/start*.elf /boot/temp. It is also possible to change the bootloader's configuration to attempt to boot from USB first, but we'll assume the default bootloader configuration.
Reboot the panel PC and verify that it can no longer boot from the eMMC.
Plug in the USB drive created in step 1 into one of the panel PC's USB host ports, and the panel PC should immediately boot from it.
Once booted from the USB drive, use the Raspberry Pi Imager to flash the eMMC.
Reboot to boot from the eMMC.

In the USB drive's utility OS, if you want to change the Raspberry Pi Imager program to not require password input, as shown in the video, then open the file /usr/share/applications/rpi-imager.desktop and change the Exec=rpi-imager line to Exec=sudo -E rpi-imager.

It is also possible to flash the OS you want to install onto the USB drive (or USB SD card reader), boot off the USB drive, and then use the SD Card Copier program (Raspberry Pi Menu –> Accessories) to copy the USB drive to the eMMC. However, the USB drive (or SD card mounted in the USB SD card reader) must be smaller in capacity than the eMMC.

Important: It is possible to configure a Compute Module 3 for USB booting by modifying the OTP memory, however, that has an unfortunate side effect of disabling it's ability to boot into the USB device mode for programming the eMMC. So please do not attempt to modify the Compute Module 3's OTP memory to enable USB booting, or you may not be able to program the eMMC again and will need to replace the Compute Module.

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Replacing the pi User

The default user is pi and the default password is raspberry. To replace the pi user, use the Raspberry Pi Imager v1.9.6, press the gear icon and set a new username and password in the Advance Options screen before writing the OS to the SD card or eMMC.

Creating an OS Image for Backup and/or Cloning

Most likely users will want to customize their OS by changing settings and adding/remove software to customize the ComfilePi panel PC to their needs. Win32DiskImager can be used to Read an SD card or eMMC disk to an image file (.img) for cloning other ComfilePi panel PCs.

Source Code

Source code for appropriately licensed software can be obtained by executing apt source {package_name} on the ComfilePi.

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ComfilePi - Industrial Raspberry Pi Panel PC

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