Install to RPi5 with M.2 drive and no USB-NVME adaptor

    Before I attempted to setup Librelec on my new Pi 5 I did a lot of searching and found a lot of misinformation, so I wanted to post how easy it was.

    I purchased a Geekworm X1001 PCIe M.2 Key-M NVMe SSD PIP PCIe Peripheral Board from amazon. installation was a snap. I already had a compatible 512gb m.2. and a case designed to fit.

    I installed Raspberry Pi os 64 to the SD card, and booted into it. M.2 drive showed up without any additional work.

    I used the imager to image the m.2 with Libreeelec.

    I ran the command "sudo rpi-eeprom-config --edit" from the command line and changed the line BOOT_ORDER=0xf41 by adding the number 6 to the end, making it
    "BOOT_ORDER=0xf416"

    Then I rebooted right into Libreelec.

    That's it. No other config changes. And it's been working beautifully. Yes it needs the sd card to tell it to boot to the M.2, but so what? The only real issue is the Pi's inability to handle Youtube videos that are 4k/60fps or higher due to Youtube's use of the VP9 codec instead of h265. Pi simply cant handle the decoding fast enough, but that's mostly Youtube's fault. Everything else plays beautifully (even over the network).

    Thank you Libreelec Developers, you guys are awesome!

    I just installed it now too using Geekworm X1001.

    For Windows, the easiest way is to use Balena etcher to install LE img.gz directly to the NVMe through USB adapter. Do not use the LE SD Creator. Mount the NVMe to the PCIe board. Boot. That's it. No need to make changes to the config file. There is no need for a micro SD either. The initial boot will expand the NVMe to the maximum capacity.

    The original point of this post was to demonstrate the installation of Libreelec onto a PI 5 with an M.2 without needing ANY additional hardware. I'm glad that people who happen to have an NVME-USB adapter handy can do it their way. However many people (such as myself) do not have one of those, and don't feel the need to purchase a new piece of hardware for something they'll rarely use. This method uses only what the average user should have on hand. Everything I needed to get it running came in the packages. (Pi board with 32GB sd card, M.2 hat) I only had to provide the M.2 drive and use my laptop's built in sd card reader to format and setup PI os on the card using their imager software. Sorry, I should have been clearer in my post title. Could a moderator maybe change it to "Installing Librelec to a Pi 5 with an M.2 Drive, without NVME-USB Adapter. So easy."

    I didnt buy any extra hardware, no M2 hat, not even an SDcard, i had one of these with a Samsung 250GB M2 in it lying around collecting dust, installed LE12 on it using one of my Win 10 pc's and booted Pi5 from it, works like a charm.