On: Raspberry Pi Enters Microcontroller Game with $4 P...

[Tempest1981]

I built a small project using a Raspberry Pi Zero. Wanted to use it in my car. One frustration is that it takes 30+ seconds to boot and show signs of life on power-on.

Wondering how much faster I can make this, or a Pico? Before I lose all the benefits of Linux.

[chadaustin → Tempest1981]

The AVR/Arduino boards boot instantly which is one of their big advantages here. I imagine the Pico will be the same.

[wamburu → Tempest1981]

Have you tried TinyCore http://tinycorelinux.net ? Might be faster.

[regularfry → Tempest1981]

You want to take a look at buildroot-based approaches. They're not quite instant-on, but they're tolerable. https://github.com/showmewebcam/showmewebcam is a good example.

[rasz → Tempest1981]

You could go bare metal ARM on Zero and boot in under a second.