Set Up a Raspberry Pi from macOS Using the Command Line

I occasionally need to set up a new Raspberry Pi and always find myself looking up the same dd command parameters. With recent changes to Raspberry Pi OS-such as the removal of the default pi user and the way SSH is enabled-I decided to write down the complete process.

Note: For most users, the official Raspberry Pi Imager is the recommended tool.

Requirements

#

• Ensure that xz is installed:

  brew install xz

• Download the desired version of Raspberry Pi OS. In this example, we use the 64-bit Lite version: 2022-04-04-raspios-bullseye-arm64-lite.img.xz

Step 1: Decompress the Image

#

Navigate to the download directory and decompress the image:

cd Downloads
xz -d 2022-04-04-raspios-bullseye-arm64-lite.img.xz

Step 2: Identify the SD Card

#

1. Run diskutil list before inserting the SD card to note existing devices.

2. Insert the SD card and run the command again:

   diskutil list

Identify the new device. It will typically be marked as external and have a size matching your SD card. For example:

/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *64.0 GB    disk4
   1:             Windows_FAT_32 boot                    268.4 MB   disk4s1
   2:                      Linux                         63.7 GB    disk4s2

Step 3: Flash the Image

#

Unmount the SD card:

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk4

Write the image using dd. Use /dev/rdisk instead of /dev/disk for better performance, and include status=progress to monitor progress:

sudo dd bs=1m if=2022-04-04-raspios-bullseye-arm64-lite.img of=/dev/rdisk4 status=progress

Once complete, eject the card:

diskutil eject /dev/disk4

At this point, Raspberry Pi OS is installed. If you’re using a monitor and keyboard for setup, insert the SD card into the Pi and power it on. To configure the Pi headlessly (via SSH), continue with the steps below.

Step 4: Enable SSH and Create a User

#

Mount the SD card again if needed (or simply re-insert the SD card). The boot partition should appear at /Volumes/boot.

Enable SSH

#

Create an empty ssh file in the boot partition to enable SSH on first boot:

touch /Volumes/boot/ssh

Create a User

#

Since Raspberry Pi OS no longer provides a default username and password, you must define your own.

1. Ensure OpenSSL is installed:

   brew install openssl

2. Set your desired username and password:

   USERNAME=myusername
   PASSWORD=mypassword
   HASHED_PASSWORD=$(echo "${PASSWORD}" | $(brew --prefix openssl@1.1)/bin/openssl passwd -6 -stdin)
   echo "${USERNAME}:${HASHED_PASSWORD}" > /Volumes/boot/userconf

This will create a userconf file containing one line like:

myusername:$6$random_salt_and_hash

3. Eject the disk:

   diskutil eject /dev/disk4

4. Insert the SD card into the Raspberry Pi and power it on.

After a minute or two, the Pi should be available on your network. You can connect via SSH:

ssh myusername@raspberrypi.local

Step 5: Configure the Raspberry Pi

#

Run raspi-config

#

Use the built-in configuration tool to set the hostname, enable Wi-Fi, update the system, and expand the filesystem:

sudo raspi-config

You should see a text-based interface with various setup options.

Optional: Update the System and Install Packages

#

To update the system and install common tools:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y vim git

Optional: Configure Locales

#

You can configure locales either through raspi-config or manually.

To do it manually:

1. Edit /etc/locale.gen and uncomment the desired locales.

2. Generate the locales:

   sudo locale-gen

Alternatively:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales