# Boot without SD Card?

**URL:** <https://forums.sifive.com/t/boot-without-sd-card/4823>\
**Category:** HiFive Unmatched\
**Created:** [June 18, 2021, 1:09pm UTC](https://forums.sifive.com/t/boot-without-sd-card/4823 "2021-06-18T13:09:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![abirtz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@abirtz](https://forums.sifive.com/u/abirtz)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2021, 1:09pm UTC](https://forums.sifive.com/t/boot-without-sd-card/4823/1 "2021-06-18T13:09:26Z")

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Any way to boot without SD Card ?

I following the instruction of jawn-smith " [Installing Ubuntu 21.04 on the HiFive Unmatched]" on nvme and everything work fine but the SD card is needded to boot.

Can I use the Boot Mode Select DIP Switch to boot without sd card ?

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**Author:** ![davidlt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@davidlt](https://forums.sifive.com/u/davidlt)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://forums.sifive.com/t/boot-without-sd-card/4823/2 "2021-06-18T14:31:23Z")

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This is currently not implemented in U-Boot SPL. SPI-NOR Flash is empty out of the factory and doesn’t contain any firmware.

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**Author:** ![abirtz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@abirtz](https://forums.sifive.com/u/abirtz)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://forums.sifive.com/t/boot-without-sd-card/4823/3 "2021-06-18T19:21:55Z")

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> not implemented in U-Boot SPL  
> doesn’t contain any firmware

can we hope implementation or firmware soon ?

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**Author:** ![xypron](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.sifive.com/xypron/32/1400_2.png) [@xypron](https://forums.sifive.com/u/xypron)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 11:09am UTC](https://forums.sifive.com/t/boot-without-sd-card/4823/4 "2021-08-26T11:09:02Z")

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[Booting from Flash](https://forums.sifive.com/t/booting-from-flash/5104) describes reading SPI in SPL. But can the Boot ROM load U-Boot SPL from SPI?

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**Author:** ![jimw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f14d63/32.png) [@jimw](https://forums.sifive.com/u/jimw)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 3:15pm UTC](https://forums.sifive.com/t/boot-without-sd-card/4823/5 "2021-08-26T15:15:34Z")

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The is all explained in the Booting from Flash thread. Not clear why you are asking here. The flash is just another disk with partitions like the sdcard, and the boot select switches on the motherboard determines which disk we read from at boot.