How to flash your compute module

Hold the CM5-BOOT button, then plug in the USB-C cable (one end into the device and the other into your PC).
If connected correctly, you should see the red LED turn on. Now follow the steps here to enable rpiboot.
Once rpiboot runs successfully, your PC might prompt that a new device has been recognized — you can ignore that for now. Open Raspberry Pi Imager and flash our provided image onto the device.
When prompted to customize the image:
- Set a username and password (use whatever you prefer, but make sure to save them — the default we use is: distiller / one)
- Enter your Wi-Fi name and password if you want the device to auto-connect to your network. This will also let you see the IP address for SSH access after boot.
- Enable SSH
Now flash the image and wait for the process to complete.

How to Mount SD Card

Once SD card inserted, follow the steps below : If you run:

lsblk

you should see the SD card drive listed. Then, create a mount point:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/sdcard

Assuming your SD card’s partition is /dev/mmcblk1p1 and it’s formatted as FAT32 or ext4, mount it with:

sudo mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/sdcard

Finally, verify the contents:

ls /mnt/sdcard

to check if the files show up correctly. If you want the SD card to automatically mount at boot, follow the steps below carefully:

Run:

sudo blkid

Look for your SD card (e.g., /dev/mmcblk1p1) and copy its UUID.

Open the file:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add a new line at the end using the UUID. Example for FAT32:

UUID=YOUR_UUID_HERE /mnt/sdcard vfat defaults,nofail 0 0

Or for ext4:

UUID=YOUR_UUID_HERE /mnt/sdcard ext4 defaults,nofail 0 0

Replace YOUR_UUID_HERE with the actual UUID from step 1.

The nofail option ensures your system still boots even if the SD card is not inserted.

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/sdcard

You can test the fstab entry without rebooting:

sudo mount -a

Then check:

ls /mnt/sdcard