N8n Pre-built Raspberry Pi Image Available (n8n-pi)

I have finally completed a pre-built Raspberry Pi image built from the n8n installation script that I have created. All you need to do is:

  1. Download the zip file. (This file may take some time as it is 650 MB so be patient.)
  2. Extract the image from the file
  3. Write the image to a microSD card
  4. Boot your Raspberry Pi from the microSD card
  5. Browse to http://n8n-pi:5678

That’s it! You should be off to the races!

As always, looking for feedback and available to assist.

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Thank you very much @Tephlon for putting this together!

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This is so cool, @Tephlon! I’ll add this in our June newsletter :raised_hands:

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Just tested and it works seamlessly! Thanks for working on this :slight_smile:

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Hi @Tephlon, thanks a lot for putting this together. Expecting my Raspberry Pi 4 4GB today in the mail.

I am new to setting up a Pi and I like to use it for several use cases, n8n.io being one of them.

I’ve read the installation instructions and I suppose I shall opt for the DIY install. n8n-pi Documentation

I also like to use the full Raspi OS “2020-05-27-raspios-buster-full-armhf.zip” - are there any drawbacks other than bloat?

Thanks,
Chris

EDIT: founds this thread for installation questions: N8n Installation Script for Raspberry Pi (n8n-pi) - #8 by Tephlon

Hey @chris. To start, welcome to the community! I think you will find us all to be a friendly and helpful bunch!

If you are new setting up a RPi, I might suggest that you use the pre-built version first. That way, you find some success quickly. After that, you can then rebuild it from scratch following the DIY instructions. (I just realized that this is your first RPi so you may be planning to treat it like a pet, care for it and maintain it, where as I tend to treat my RPis like cattle, if it stops doing what I want, I kill it and start over. It is no big deal for me to reimage a RPi 5-8 times a day.)

You can definitely use the RPi for multiple functions. I just suggest that you start with the n8n build first and then add the other services once you are done.

The major reason that I used the lite version of the Raspberry Pi OS is so that I can keep the RPi to as minimal an installation as possible. There are a number of advantages to this:

  1. Easier to troubleshoot because there are fewer services that could be causing problems
  2. More stable as services do not interact and interfere with each other
  3. Easier to distribute because the image file is only a few MB rather than a few GB

All of the services and applications that are on the full version are also available for the lite version. The only difference is that they are not installed by default and will need to be done manually.

The other item to be aware of is that there is no GUI on the base install. You will need to install it yourself. Here is a good little tutorial to do that: https://raspberrytips.com/upgrade-raspbian-lite-to-desktop/

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Hi @Tephlon. I know this is an old conversation but I couldn’t find one more recent about this topic.
About a year ago you helped me setting this up. I still have my pi running in my bedroom. It posts a bunch of rss feeds to my discord channel :smiley:
Today I have 2 questions.

  1. Is there any way to backup all the workflows at the same time? (are those files accessible somewhere in the sd or is it more complicated than that?)
  2. Is there any way I could create more recent images for my rpi4B 4gb?. I’m in college studying programming so my skills aren’t the best but i can do a few things and I’m always tinkering with software. I wondering if you had any tool so that, for example, at any time I could download the latest release of N8N and merge it to create a flashable image. I’m in need of the outlook node and it’s not available in the version I have (0.67.3). I understand that you’re probably busy but any tips let me know . Thanks
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Hey @realstylishguy, welcome back. It’s been a while since we’ve seen you :slight_smile: :wave:

You can use the CLI to backup your workflows and credentials as mentioned here: CLI commands for n8n | Docs (this was, however, added in 0.103.0, so you’d need to update your n8n instance first).

If you use Docker, you can use this command: docker pull n8nio/n8n:latest-rpi.

Thanks for the input tanay.
EDIT:
I managed to install docker. I had to troubleshoot a lot but for the record found the solution here in case anyone else has trouble getting docker installed in raspberry pi 4b. Docker-CE need updating for raspbian buster · Issue #709 · docker/for-linux · GitHub

Sorry if I’m slowly getting to understand how this works. I finally installed docker then downloaded the latest image and ran it… but I feel like the original image (that autoruns) has higher priority or something and I don’t know how to stop it.
This is the latest image I installed.

and this is what my localhost:5678 web ui has running
image
EDIT 2:
After trying a lot of things I just downloaded the workflows one by one and did a fresh installation following tephlon DIY tutorial.
http://n8n-pi.tephlon.xyz/?ref=hackernoon.com#/Install?id=diy-install
Thanks for the help guys

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Great to hear that you got it working!

The next time you can also export all the workflows & credentials via the CLI and then import it again with the same. You can find information about that there:

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I have a question about the image. Is it still working? i got errors when upgrading the Raspbian system after installing the image to my SD card.

No, they do not get built anymore as the default image is now multi-arch and will so also run on Raspberries.

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Thanks for the answer.