MuPiBox Documentation MuPiBox NG

Installation

Install MuPiBox NG on a Raspberry Pi with DietPi – automatically on the first boot or with one command, with profiles for displays and Wi-Fi.

MuPiBox NG is installed on DietPi (64-bit). There are two ways: fully automatic on the very first boot of the SD card, or with a command on a DietPi that is already running.

What you need

  • Raspberry Pi 3B+, 4 or 5 (recommended: Pi 4 with at least 1 GB RAM)
  • microSD card of 16 GB or more (or a USB stick/SSD, see Restart & power)
  • a display (official Raspberry Pi touch display, Waveshare DSI or HDMI) – optional
  • a power supply with enough power; with a MuPiHAT through its USB-C input
  • internet access during the installation
  1. Write the current DietPi image for Raspberry Pi (64-bit) from dietpi.com to the SD card.
  2. Download the matching template from https://releases.mupibox.de/installer/ and save it on the SD card's boot partition as dietpi.txt (replacing the existing file):
TemplateFor
dietpi-mupibox-lan.txtnetwork cable, any display
dietpi-mupibox-wifi.txtWi-Fi, any display
dietpi-mupibox-waveshare-5-dsi-lan.txt / -wifi.txtWaveshare 5″ DSI (800×480)
dietpi-mupibox-waveshare-4.3-dsi-lan.txt / -wifi.txtWaveshare 4.3″ DSI (800×480)
  1. For the Wi-Fi templates, also enter at least aWIFI_SSID[0] and aWIFI_KEY[0] in dietpi-wifi.txt and set the two-letter country code (e.g. GB) in dietpi.txt.
  2. Insert the SD card and switch the Pi on. DietPi sets itself up and then starts the MuPiBox installer. The display shows an installation screen with progress.
  3. After the final reboot the kids' interface appears.

Option 2: one command on a running DietPi

Log in to a fresh 64-bit DietPi via SSH and run:

server_date="$(curl -fsSI --max-time 5 http://releases.mupibox.de/ | sed -n 's/^[Dd]ate:[[:space:]]*//p' | tr -d '\r' | head -n1)"
[ -z "$server_date" ] || sudo date -u -s "$server_date" >/dev/null
sudo timedatectl set-ntp true >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
curl -fsSL https://releases.mupibox.de/installer/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- auto generic

The first three lines set the clock roughly so that the encrypted download also works on a Pi without a real-time clock. For a Waveshare display replace generic with waveshare-5-dsi or waveshare-4.3-dsi.

auto picks the most mature published channel (Stable → Alpha → Test → Development). Testers can give alpha, test or development instead.

What the installer does

  • installs system packages (audio, Qt interface, tools)
  • downloads the release from releases.mupibox.de and verifies its signature
  • sets up the mupibox user, the services and the start image
  • applies the display profile and reboots if needed

All later updates run from the admin interface, see Updates.

After the installation

Continue with the first steps.