digipi with mac M3

Michael Gardner

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Feb 4, 2026, 11:37:18 AMFeb 4

to DigiPi

My first SD card was an 8G, which I loaded the software using the DD commands. But it was an old card and the digipi seemed to be running "inconsistently". SO I grabbed newer 32G and 64G cards. I tried loading them with DD and also with BalenaEtcher - no go. The cards always ended up empty as far as macos was concerned and wouldn't boot. I tried two different USB to SD adapters. I finally pulled out my PC, used the same adapter and BalenaEtcher and sucessfully programmed the 64G card, which booted fine and is running fine.

Mac M3 is running the latest OS (26.2) Not sure what the issue is.

mgg

Adam KC2AEP

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Feb 4, 2026, 5:06:27 PMFeb 4

to DigiPi

I had success using the Raspberry Pi imager app on an M1 macbook pro (I think via the built in SD slot)

Mike - W4HOO

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Feb 16, 2026, 6:26:56 AM (10 days ago) Feb 16

to DigiPi

I had success using the Balena Etcher on my M2 Pro Mac Mini running Tahoe 26.2 and a Sandisk Extreme microSD card (128 Gb, it what I had in my inventory). I used an Anker USB-C 2-in-one card reader (model A8370) that holds either a microSD or and SD card. Popped it in the Pi Zero 2W and booted on the first shot. Been stable and working well for about 2 weeks!

Good luck, Mike, W4HOO

On Wednesday, February 4, 2026 at 11:37:18 AM UTC-5 mgg.g...@gmail.com wrote:

Craig

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Feb 16, 2026, 3:16:31 PM (10 days ago) Feb 16

to Mike - W4HOO, DigiPi

Great point - thanks. I haven't tried dd on my M3 yet.

More importantly, MacOS will assume it's damaged or empty if it does NOT have
a Mac/Windows filesystem on it, which it doesn't. I don't think they innovated
ext4fs yet which is what Linux uses.

cool,
-craig
KM6LYW

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Steve Stroh

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Feb 16, 2026, 3:23:59 PM (10 days ago) Feb 16

to dig...@googlegroups.com

+1

The RPi Imager app, in my (limited) experience seems to be the most straightforward system for installing bootable image files to SD cards / USB drives.

Despite the name / creator, it has no dependencies on Raspberry Pi (but some optional nice features if you are creating an image to run on an RPi).

Steve N8GNJ

On Feb 4, 2026 at 14:06:27, Adam KC2AEP <adam....@gmail.com> wrote: