A quick, user-level .Net SDK install for Raspberry Pi

Hi folks,
Here is the recipe I use to install the .Net SDK on Rasperry Pi with Microsoft’s official dotnet-install.sh script. Everything goes in your home folder (~/.dotnet), so you don’t need root rights or a package manager. This is handy on Raspberry Pi, or distros without an official package.

1. Install .Net

# Remove any previous user-level install (optional, for a clean start)
rm -rf ~/.dotnet

# Download the official install script
rm -f dotnet-install.sh
wget https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh
chmod +x dotnet-install.sh

# Use a temp folder in $HOME (/tmp is sometimes too small or mounted noexec)
mkdir -p ~/tmp
TMPDIR=$HOME/tmp ./dotnet-install.sh --version latest

By default, --version latest installs the most recent SDK from the LTS channel. To pick a specific channel instead, use something like:

TMPDIR=$HOME/tmp ./dotnet-install.sh --channel 9.0

2. Add .Net to the path

echo 'export DOTNET_ROOT=$HOME/.dotnet' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.dotnet:$HOME/.dotnet/tools' >> ~/.bashrc

• DOTNET_ROOT tells apps and tools where the runtime lives.
• ~/.dotnet/tools makes global tools (dotnet tool install -g ...) available.

3. Reload the profile

source ~/.bashrc

4. Check the installation

dotnet --info
dotnet --list-sdks

If you see your SDK version listed, you’re good to go. 🎉

Notes

• If you use zsh, put the export lines in ~/.zshrc instead of ~/.bashrc.
• Run the same steps again to upgrade: the first rm -rf ~/.dotnet gives you a clean install.
• More options: dotnet-install scripts reference.