Updated for Raspbian Stretch
This tutorial will show you how to install Raspbian on Raspberry Pi Zero W on a Mac using the command line.
A Raspberry Pi Zero W has a built-in wifi and Bluetooth. There is no built-in storage, so you will have to use your own microSD card. Look for Class 10 cards with at least 8GB capacity, preferably a 16GB microSD card. You will install Raspbian on the microSD card.
Download the Raspbian Jessie image zip file from this link.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/
If you want the GUI version, download the zip file that says RASPBIAN STRETCH WITH PIXEL. If you want the non-GUI text-based version, download the zip file that says RASPBIAN STRETCH LITE.
After downloading the zip file, unzip it. Your image file will be either 2018-10-09-raspbian-stretch.img or 2018-10-09-raspbian-stretch-lite.img.
Create a directory ~/iso if it doesn't already exist. Move the Raspbian image file there.
Now, insert the microSD card into its adapter and into your computer. The card name show up on the desktop. My new PNY 8GB microSD card shows up as "NO NAME".
Write the image to the microSD card. If you want to do it using the command line, fire up Terminal if you're on a Mac or Linux.
Enter this to find the device list:
df -h
You will get something similar to this:
$ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on /dev/disk1 465Gi 247Gi 218Gi 54% 1609478 4293357801 0% / devfs 184Ki 184Ki 0Bi 100% 636 0 100% /dev map -hosts 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /net map auto_home 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /home localhost:/AB9NdpAfrugkKsX2qHKtPs 465Gi 465Gi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /Volumes/MobileBackups /dev/disk2s1 14Gi 2.3Mi 14Gi 1% 0 0 100% /Volumes/NO NAME
As you can see, the last line /dev/disk2s1 represents the microSD card. The card is mounted as disk2. Let us unmount it first.
sudo diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2s1
It will unmount the card. Now, write the image to the SD card. We will write the lite image. Make sure that you enter the of value to the right disk number, which in this case is disk2.
sudo dd bs=1m if=~/iso/2018-10-09-raspbian-stretch-lite.img of=/dev/rdisk2
You will see output similar to this:
1780+0 records in 1780+0 records out 1866465280 bytes transferred in 54.559682 secs (34209607 bytes/sec)
That means Raspbian is written successfully to your card.
If you do not want to enable SSH or wireless network, you may eject the card after issuing this command.
sudo diskutil eject /dev/rdisk2
The output will be this:
Disk /dev/rdisk2 ejected
Congratulations! You have installed Raspbian successfully!
Enable SSH on the Raspberry Pi
If your card is still in the computer, go to the next step. If you have removed the card, put it back into the computer. When the computer recognizes the card, it will show up as boot.
Double-click on boot and create an empty file named ssh* in boot. If you want to use the command line to create an empty file, follow this step:
If you're using a Mac, type this:
echo '' > /Volumes/boot/ssh
You will see an empty file called ssh under the boot partition of the card. SSH will be enabled on the next boot.
Connecting the Raspberry Pi 1, 2, 3 or Pi Zero W to the wireless network
Create a file called wpa_supplicant.conf under boot and enter the contents as follows:
country=us
update_config=1
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
network={
ssid="YOUR-NETWORK-NAME"
psk="YOUR-NETWORK-KEY"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
You have to customize the above file using your credentials. Make sure the values for ssid, psk, key_mgmt are valid.
When everything is over, eject the card.
sudo diskutil eject /dev/rdisk2
Now, put the card in the Raspberry Pi and turn on the Raspberry Pi. It will hopefully connect to the wireless network. You can connect to it using this command.
ssh pi@raspberrypi.local
The default password is raspberry. After you login, be sure to change the password with a passwd command.
sudo raspi-config
If you have any questions, please contact me at arulbOsutkNiqlzziyties@gNqmaizl.bkcom. You can also post questions in our Facebook group. Thank you.
