RaspberryPiSetupMac

Easy setup instructions for Mac OSX. This was created due to the surprisingly sparse or convoluted documentation currently available for the setup of Raspberry Pi machines on Mac.

Getting Started

1. Purchase a Micro-SD card over 8GB.
2. Download the Raspberry Pi Imager to your Mac.
3. Download the VNC Viewer to your Mac.

Setting Up the Raspberry Pi

1. Plug the SD card into your computer.

2. Download, install, and run the Raspberry Pi Imager into the directory of your choice.

3. Open the application and click CHOOSE OS. Select the first option for Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit).

4. Click CHOOSE STORAGE and find the SD card that you have set aside for the Raspberry Pi to run on.

5. Click WRITE. This will most likely take several minutes.

6. Within the root directory of the SD card, create an empty text file called ssh. This will allow connections to the Raspberry Pi via SSH.

7. Within the root directory of the SD card, create a file called wpa_supplicant.conf. Within this file, add the following code:

country=US
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

network={
scan_ssid=1
ssid="your_wifi_ssid"
psk="your_wifi_password"
} 

Be sure to change your_wifi_ssid to your connection's SSID (usually the name of the network) as well as your_wifi_password to the corresponding WIFI password. Instead of this file, it is possible to connect with an ethernet connection. The internet has some resources on this process.

8. With all file changes saved, you may now eject the SD card. Proceed to insert it into the Raspberry Pi. Also, ensure that your Raspberry Pi is plugged into a power source and within range of the WIFI network you configured earlier.

9. Open a Terminal shell on your OSX. Type the following command:

ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

10. There should be a prompt for a password. This is going to be "raspberry" by default. If you are connecting from a different SSH client, the username of the system is "pi" by default.

11. In order to view the GUI for Raspberry Pi, we can use VNC Viewer. Open VNC Viewer and enter "raspberrypi.local" in the top input bar. Click Connect To in order to establish the connection.

12. Go through the necessary setup instructions on the Raspberry Pi SSH GUI and begin using your new tool!

Other Useful Pieces of Information

1. In order to send an entire directory/folder through SSH, perform the following command.

scp -r path/to/local/dir pi@raspberrypi.local:/path/to/remote/dir

Resources

Tom's Hardware

SSH

Raspberry Pi Imager

VNC Viewer