SV2 Sorter V2 Documentation

Installation — SorterOS

Install SorterOS

Installation

Flash SorterOS onto an SD card and configure it for first boot. The recommended way to run Sorter on an Orange Pi 5.

Orange Pi 5 required

SorterOS is designed specifically for the Orange Pi 5. See the Orange Pi 5 hardware page for board selection, memory, storage, and WiFi requirements before continuing here.

What is SorterOS

SorterOS is a purpose-built OS image for Sorter, based on the official Ubuntu image from Orange Pi. It ships with the Sorter backend, frontend, and firmware pre-installed and configured to start on boot — no manual install steps required after flashing.

Prerequisites

  • An Orange Pi 5 with at least 8 GB of memory
  • A 32 GB or larger SD card
  • A computer with an SD card reader
  • Balena Etcher installed on your computer

Step 1 — Download the image

Go to github.com/basicallysource/sorter-v2/releases, find the latest SorterOS release, and download the .zip file from its assets.

Step 2 — Flash to SD card

  1. Open Balena Etcher
  2. Click Flash from file and select the downloaded .zip file
  3. Click Select target and choose your SD card
  4. Click Flash

Wait for Etcher to finish writing and verifying. Do not remove the card until it reports success. The image ships generic — there is nothing to configure before flashing.

Step 3 — Boot and connect to WiFi

Insert the SD card into the Orange Pi 5 and power it on.

  • Ethernet — if the Pi is wired to your router, it comes online automatically without any WiFi configuration.
  • WiFi — when the Pi boots without a network connection, it opens a temporary hotspot named SorterOS-Setup-…. Join it from your phone or laptop; a captive portal opens automatically where you pick your WiFi network and enter its password. The Pi then shuts down the hotspot and joins your network.

The Pi needs an internet connection to complete first-boot initialization and to run Sorter on an ongoing basis. Once first-boot setup completes and the Pi has finished downloading its dependencies — less than 5 minutes if everything is working — the Sorter UI is available at:

http://sorter.local:5173/

This uses mDNS — the device you’re browsing from must be on the same network as the Pi.

SSH access

SorterOS services run as root. The default SSH username is root and the default password is orangepi. If you are using Tailscale SSH, no password is required.

Troubleshooting

See Sorter troubleshooting for common first-boot problems.