Install
The steps to install the pre-built images for Raspberry Pi are documented here in the Ubuntu Core docs.
Prepare SD Card
Flashing an SD card with an Ubuntu Core image is largely the same process as flashing Pi OS or any other image. Use the Raspberry Pi Imager application.
Select the appropriate model of your device.
Click on Other general-purpose OS in the main OS menu.
Click on Ubuntu in the next OS menu.
Scroll to the bottom of the list and click on Ubuntu Core24.
Click Next and continue through the rest of the Imager wizard as normal to write the image to the SD card.
When the flashing and verifying is complete, click Finish and then unmount or eject the SD card from your computer.
First Boot
After flashing the SD card, insert it into the Pi and then connect the Pi's power adapter. The first boot up will take several minutes and will reboot automatically during the process. When it's complete, it will prompt with Press enter to configure.
This initial part of the configuration needs to be done with a keyboard and HDMI display connected to the Raspberry Pi.
Network
Press the enter key a few times to get past the initial prompts and get into the network configuration.
On the network config screen use arrow up/down to move the selector around and highlight either wlan0 or eth0 based on how you want to connect your network. Press enter on the desired network interface.
To set up a WIFI network, select Edit Wifi in the wlan0 sub menu.
Then use arrow up/down to navigate around the WiFi dialog box. Either enter your SSID and password directly, or select Choose a visible network, find your network in the list and enter the password.
Highlight Save and press enter when complete.
It will take a few seconds for the network connection to activate, a rotating slash character indicates progress while it's working.
Once the connection is made successfully, the first item in the menu at the bottom of the screen will change to Done. Highlight it and press enter to move to the next step.
Profile
The last step of the first boot process is entering the email address associated with your Ubuntu One account. This should be the same email account that was set up on the prior page and has your public SSH key uploaded to it.
When you enter your email address on this page, it is going to try to download the public SSH key(s) from your account. You have to have the keys uploaded prior to this step during the first boot, so if you haven't uploaded them, go do it now on a different computer before entering your email here.
After entering your email address, use the arrow keys to highlight the Done item in the menu at the bottom of the screen and press enter
Once complete, it will show a message like this on the screen.
This device is registered to [ubuntu-sso-email-address] Remote access was authenticated with SSO user [username]. Public SSH keys were added to the device for remote access. [ubuntu-sso-email-address] can connect remotely to this device via SSH: ssh [username]@[ip-address]
The default screen shown, when the device boots up from here on after, will look similar and will show the IP address with SSH command to connect to the device.
Verify that the SSH connection works, with these commands, on another computer on the same network as the Pi. Fill in your own username and IP address to the relevant spots. Enter the same passphrase used when creating the key.
# Activate the key in your terminal session ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ubuntucore ssh [username]@[ip-address] # OR specify the keyfile with argument ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ubuntucore [username]@[ip-address]
If SSH connects successfully, then the installation is done and you're ready to move on to the Blinka demo. If it doesn't, then pause here and troubleshoot it. Look at the display to identify any errors. If it does not show a valid network connection, use a keyboard to troubleshoot/configure the network.
Page last edited June 08, 2026
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