Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0 released with a revamped user interface, Raspberry Pi Connect support

Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0 has just been released with a revamped user interface with a wizard to enable easier navigation, as well as a new option for Raspberry Pi Connect remote access, among other changes.

The Raspberry Pi Imager was first released in March 2020 to improve the user experience when flashing OS images for the Raspberry Pi to a microSD card. No need to download an OS image from the website and flash it manually to a microSD card with the dd command line tool, Win32DiskImager, or BalenaEtcher. Just select your Raspberry Pi model, the image you want from a curated list, and the storage device, and you’re good to go. A popular feature was the OS customization settings, but the list grew quite large, and that’s one of the main reasons for the release of the Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0 utility.

Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0 highlights:

New UI
New installer for Windows
New back-end writing algorithms
New download algorithms
Accessibility annotations throughout
Raspberry Pi Connect integration
Keyboard navigation
Enhanced guardrails
New CLI-only package
etc…

Let’s give it a try. We can download the latest Raspberry Pi Imager software for Windows, macOS, or Linux from GitHub or the Software download page on the Raspberry Pi website. I’m using Ubuntu 24.04, so I downloaded Raspberry_Pi_Imager-v2.0.0-desktop-x86_64.AppImage, since no .deb package is provided. I started with sudo from the command line:

sudo ./Raspberry_Pi_Imager-v2.0.0-desktop-x86_64.AppImage

If it is not launched with sudo, the program will complain about lacking sufficient permissions. The first step is to select the board as shown in the screenshot above, then the OS from a list of compatible images…

… and finally we can select the Storage device. It’s similar to the original Raspberry Pi Imager, except V2.0.0 relies on a Wizard. That part is actually a bit slower than having a single screen.

But the new interface shines in the Customization section, as you can clearly see each category, and it’s more flexible for future development as the number of options increases. The first one is to set the hostname,

then localization options for the time zone and keyboard layout, and so on…

Raspberry Pi Connect support is a new option in RPI Imager, which can be enabled before you flash the image, rather than after Raspberry Pi OS is already installed.

If you don’t need any OS customizations, you can click the SKIP CUSTOMISATION button at any time during the process. The final step before writing the OS image to the storage device summarizes the device, OS, storage, and customization options.

At this point, you can click on WRITE to start the flashing process. I skipped that part since I have some useful data on the drive… For reference, here’s what Raspberry Pi Imager 1.x OS customization settings look like.

Raspberry Pi Imager 1.9.6 OS customization settings

Back to Imager 2.0, the APP OPTIONS button in the bottom left corner lists a few options, including a way to change the content repository for people hosting their own images.

If you prefer working in the terminal, the Raspberry Pi Imager CLI utility is what you are looking for, and it’s new in V2.0. That’s another download in the same repository, and it allows customization through bash scripts and cloud-init.

jaufranc@CNX-LAPTOP-5:~/Downloads$ ./Raspberry_Pi_Imager-v2.0.0-cli-x86_64.AppImage --help
Usage: /tmp/.mount_RaspbelJefDA/usr/bin/rpi-imager-cli [options] src dst

Options:
  -h, --help                                         Displays help on
                                                     commandline options.
  --help-all                                         Displays help, including
                                                     generic Qt options.
  -v, --version                                      Displays version
                                                     information.
  --disable-verify                                   Disable verification
  --enable-writing-system-drives                     Only use this if you know
                                                     what you are doing
  --sha256 <sha256>                                  Expected hash
  --cache-file <cache-file>                          Custom cache file
                                                     (requires setting sha256 as
                                                     well)
  --first-run-script <first-run-script>              Add firstrun.sh to image
  --cloudinit-userdata <cloudinit-userdata>          Add cloud-init user-data
                                                     file to image
  --cloudinit-networkconfig <cloudinit-networkconfig Add cloud-init
  >                                                  network-config file to
                                                     image
  --disable-eject                                    Disable automatic ejection
                                                     of storage media after
                                                     verification
  --debug                                            Output debug messages to
                                                     console
  --quiet                                            Only write to console on
                                                     error
  --secure-boot-key <key-file>                       Path to RSA private key
                                                     (PEM format) for secure
                                                     boot signing

Arguments:
  src                                                Image file/URL
  dst                                                Destination device

jaufranc@CNX-LAPTOP-5:~/Downloads$ ./Raspberry_Pi_Imager-v2.0.0-cli-x86_64.AppImage --help

Usage: /tmp/.mount_RaspbelJefDA/usr/bin/rpi-imager-cli [options] src dst

Options:

-h, --help Displays help on

commandline options.

--help-all Displays help, including

generic Qt options.

-v, --version Displays version

information.

--disable-verify Disable verification

--enable-writing-system-drives Only use this if you know

what you are doing

--sha256 <sha256> Expected hash

--cache-file <cache-file> Custom cache file

(requires setting sha256 as

well)

--first-run-script <first-run-script> Add firstrun.sh to image

--cloudinit-userdata <cloudinit-userdata> Add cloud-init user-data

file to image

--cloudinit-networkconfig <cloudinit-networkconfig Add cloud-init

> network-config file to

image

--disable-eject Disable automatic ejection

of storage media after

verification

--debug Output debug messages to

console

--quiet Only write to console on

error

--secure-boot-key <key-file> Path to RSA private key

(PEM format) for secure

boot signing

Arguments:

src Image file/URL

dst Destination device

You’ll also notice an “Embedded” version of the Imager 2.0 for Aarch64 only, which I assume is the one running in the bootloader when we insert a black microSD card into the Raspberry Pi.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.