How to setup Raspbian Buster for your Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

Last updated: 8th February 2020

Since the Raspberry pi 4 Model B comes with several nice upgrades, it is a single board computer that you may want to get.

After you got your Raspberry Pi 4 rig and microSD card, the next step will be to setup an operating system.

At this point in time, you may want to install one of the Raspbian Buster images that got released for the Pi 4.

With that in mind, read on to learn how to setup Raspbian Buster for your Raspberry Pi 4 Model B.

Recommended hardware list

Downloading a copy of Raspbian Buster onto your computer

First, go to the Raspbian download page to download Raspbian Buster with desktop and recommended software onto a computer with an SD card writer:

Snapshot of Raspbian Buster with recommended software dated 20200205

Installing Raspbian Buster image onto your microSD card

While waiting for the download, you can insert your microSD card into the SD card writer.

After you had downloaded the .zip file, use balenaEtcher to flash the image to your microSD card.

balenaEtcher flash image animation

Booting up Raspbian Buster on your Raspberry Pi 4

When your balenaEtcher had completed the installation, remove the microSD card from your computer and put it into the SD card slot on your Pi 4. In addition to that, attach the USB-C power adapter, monitor, keyboard and mouse to your Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. If you have a network cable, you can also choose to connect it to your Pi 4.

Once you had connected the peripherals to your Pi, supply power to the power adapter.

When you do so, your Pi 4 will first resize the file system to take up the entire space on your microSD card. After it had done so, your Raspberry Pi 4 Model B will restart.

Completing the first time setup wizard

Once your Raspberry Pi 4 Model B starts up again, a first time setup wizard will guide you through the initial configurations.

Follow the wizard to complete the initial configurations for your Pi 4.

Raspbian Buster first time setup wizard animation

Enabling 4K video resolution on Raspbian Buster

Since a higher operating temperature is expected for 4K usage, make sure you have attached the heat sinks to your Pi 4.

This is the reason why 4K video resolution is disabled in Raspbian Buster by default.

If you wish to watch 4K videos with your Raspberry Pi 4, then you need to enable 4K video resolution.

In order to enable 4K video resolution, first start a terminal program:

Raspbian Buster 20190710 taskbar with terminal program icon hovered

Once the terminal program got started, type the following command to start the Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool:

sudo raspi-config

Animation for running raspi-config on terminal in Raspbian Buster 20190710

When Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool get started in your terminal, select Advanced Options:

Selecting Advanced Options of raspi-config on terminal in Raspbian Buster 20190710

Select Pi 4 Video Output:

Selecting Pi 4 Video Output of raspi-config on terminal in Raspbian Buster 20190710

Select Enable 4Kp60 HDMI:

Selecting Enable 4Kp60 HDMI of raspi-config on terminal in Raspbian Buster 20190710

Confirm your selection:

Confirming that Pi 4 video output option is 4Kp60 HDMI enabled in raspi-config on terminal in Raspbian Buster 20190710

Select Finish from the first screen:

Selecting Finish from the first screen in raspi-config on terminal in Raspbian Buster 20190710

And restart your Raspbian Buster:

Answering Yes to reboot prompt in raspi-config on terminal in Raspbian Buster 20190710

Once your Raspbian Buster had restarted, your Pi 4 should be sending 4K video output to your monitor screen.

Adding new software

Since you had downloaded the full version of Raspbian Buster, you will have most of the recommended software out of the box.

In case you want to find new software to install, you can go to -> Preferences -> Add / Remove Software to do so:

Finding Add Remove Software menu item on Raspbian Buster 20190710

Add Remove Software program running on Raspbian Buster 20190710

Installing GIMP to edit your images on your Raspberry Pi 4 Model B for free

So can you do image editing on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 4GB ram?

Yes, I tried it and the experience is decent. In fact, I had created the animated gifs for this post with a GIMP instance running on my Pi 4.

If you want to install GIMP on your Pi 4, simply search for gimp in the Add / Remove Software and check GNU Image Manipulation Program along with the components that you need:

Add Remove Software program with GIMP installed running on Raspbian Buster 20190710

Once you had done so, click Apply then OK to install GIMP.

When GIMP is installed, you can find it under Graphics -> GNU Image Manipulation Program:

Finding GIMP menu item on Raspbian Buster 20190710

After you click on the menu item, it take seconds to load up our trusty GIMP:

GIMP on Raspbian Buster 20190710

About Clivant

Clivant a.k.a Chai Heng enjoys composing software and building systems to serve people. He owns techcoil.com and hopes that whatever he had written and built so far had benefited people. All views expressed belongs to him and are not representative of the company that he works/worked for.