MiSTer FPGA Forum

Posted: **Mon May 25, 2020 11:23 pm**

Hi

Just put together my MiSTer and was wondering if if there is a real idiots guide to
preparing an SD Card for Mac users ?

I have watched some Youtube stuff and all that Terminal script stuff is confusing me
so I have an idea to help others who maybe having the same problem.

Is there anywhere where a .img of an SD Card that has had the SD-InstallTool_Win_MiSTer run on it
ready for use be stored for download.

Posted: **Tue May 26, 2020 12:32 am**

Nobody's made that since MiSTer's setup is different than a Raspberry Pi's. With a Pi, you write a disk image to a card, and then on the first boot, it grows the filesystem to fill the card. The problem with that on the MiSTer is that it uses exFAT for most of its filesystem, and there aren't Linux tools available to grow those, so the options are do things like they're done today, create images for every possible size of SD card, or have people wonder why their cards are showing less space available on them than they should (because the filesystems don't take up the entire card). On the other hand, a Pi is going to use some combination of native Linux filesystems like ext4 and well-understood cross-platform filesystems like FAT32, which is what makes that resizing strategy work.

So, what the card setup script and Windows utility do is set up the SD card partitions based on how large the card is, and then write data to them.

Posted: **Tue May 26, 2020 7:27 am**

So what your saying is that if I were to get hold of say a 128GB pre installed card and make a backup .img of it I cannot restore
that .img onto another new card and it will work ?

I think on the Atar-Forum there was/is an idiots guide to pre installing an SD Card on a Mac, but cannot get to that for now

I thought that a .img was just a backup of the card ?

Posted: **Tue May 26, 2020 9:41 am**

As per https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_Mi ... etup-Guide there's a macOS install script here
https://github.com/michaelshmitty/SD-In ... cos_MiSTer

Regards.

Locutus73

Posted: **Tue May 26, 2020 12:52 pm**

Locutus73 wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 9:41 am As per https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_Mi ... etup-Guide there's a macOS install script here
https://github.com/michaelshmitty/SD-In ... cos_MiSTer

Regards.

Locutus73

Thanks yes I am aware of this but what is the Prerequisite items that I have to install on my Mac first, more I read more
confused I get

Lines like this on the gihub page do not help me I just read it and its like eh? ( Open a terminal, clone this repository and change into the directory.)

Open a terminal OK I can do that.
Clone this repository ?
Change into the directory, what directory ?

Posted: **Tue May 26, 2020 1:52 pm**

Washac wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 12:52 pm Open a terminal OK I can do that.
Clone this repository ?
Change into the directory, what directory ?

: Immagine.png (13.93 KiB) Viewed 10855 times

Regards.

Locutus73

Posted: **Tue May 26, 2020 2:54 pm**

Been trying to do this all afternoon and gotten nowhere

I tried to install homebrew and even that did not work.

Thanks for trying to help though.

Posted: **Tue May 26, 2020 3:46 pm**

Washac wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 2:54 pm Been trying to do this all afternoon and gotten nowhere

I tried to install homebrew and even that did not work.

Thanks for trying to help though.

Did you install homebrew with

Code: Select all

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

and then git with

Code: Select all

brew install git

wget with

Code: Select all

brew install wget

and unrar with

Code: Select all

brew install unrar

?

Regards.

Locutus73

Posted: **Tue May 26, 2020 4:48 pm**

Locutus73 wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 3:46 pm
Washac wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 2:54 pm Been trying to do this all afternoon and gotten nowhere

I tried to install homebrew and even that did not work.

Thanks for trying to help though.
Did you install homebrew with
Code: Select all
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
and then git with
Code: Select all
brew install git
wget with
Code: Select all
brew install wget
and unrar with
Code: Select all
brew install unrar
?

Regards.

Locutus73

May sound stupid but somebody putting it like that was a lot better than trying to make sense of the GitGub page.

All done and installed, what is next if you do not mind me asking?

Many many thanks so far

Posted: **Tue May 26, 2020 5:14 pm**

Washac wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 4:48 pm May sound stupid but somebody putting it like that was a lot better than trying to make sense of the GitGub page.

All done and installed, what is next if you do not mind me asking?

Many many thanks so far

Now you have all prerequisites, so you can proceed with the instructions in the usage section
https://github.com/michaelshmitty/SD-In ... STer#usage
open the terminal, launch

Code: Select all

git clone https://github.com/michaelshmitty/SD-Installer-macos_MiSTer.git

and follow all the instructions.

Regards.

Locutus73

Posted: **Tue May 26, 2020 9:48 pm**

Looks like they finally updated the Mac script at long last. When I did it, it was over a year old and all the file structure had changed significantly with many of the cores. Luckily, that was easy to fix.

Yeah, it's a pain in the butt especially if you're not familiar with Terminal commands. Just take it one line at a time, and you'll get it up and running soon enough.

Posted: **Wed May 27, 2020 1:05 am**

Washac wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 7:27 am So what your saying is that if I were to get hold of say a 128GB pre installed card and make a backup .img of it I cannot restore
that .img onto another new card and it will work ?

I think on the Atar-Forum there was/is an idiots guide to pre installing an SD Card on a Mac, but cannot get to that for now

I thought that a .img was just a backup of the card ?

If you had another card exactly the same size, it would work, but you'd be limited to the size of the original card since exFAT expansion isn't a thing. An IMG file is a block-level backup, and, if you're doing the whole card, that includes the filesystem and partition info.

Posted: **Wed May 27, 2020 9:14 am**

Kreeblah wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 1:05 am
Washac wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 7:27 am So what your saying is that if I were to get hold of say a 128GB pre installed card and make a backup .img of it I cannot restore
that .img onto another new card and it will work ?

I think on the Atar-Forum there was/is an idiots guide to pre installing an SD Card on a Mac, but cannot get to that for now

I thought that a .img was just a backup of the card ?
If you had another card exactly the same size, it would work, but you'd be limited to the size of the original card since exFAT expansion isn't a thing. An IMG file is a block-level backup, and, if you're doing the whole card, that includes the filesystem and partition info.

Yes I understand that, I would restore the .img onto a card of the same size

Saying that I must admit I thought you could put on a bigger card also.

Posted: **Wed May 27, 2020 9:34 am**

SmaMan wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 9:48 pm Yeah, it's a pain in the butt especially if you're not familiar with Terminal commands. Just take it one line at a time, and you'll get it up and running soon enough.

Thanks for those words of encouragements appreciated

Posted: **Wed May 27, 2020 9:42 am**

Locutus73 wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 5:14 pm
Washac wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 4:48 pm May sound stupid but somebody putting it like that was a lot better than trying to make sense of the GitGub page.

All done and installed, what is next if you do not mind me asking?

Many many thanks so far
Now you have all prerequisites, so you can proceed with the instructions in the usage section
https://github.com/michaelshmitty/SD-In ... STer#usage
open the terminal, launch
Code: Select all
git clone https://github.com/michaelshmitty/SD-Installer-macos_MiSTer.git
and follow all the instructions.

Regards.

Locutus73

Thank you, as soon as I get a quiet minute or more I with proceed with caution

Posted: **Wed May 27, 2020 9:49 am**

Washac wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 9:42 am Thank you, as soon as I get a quiet minute or more I with proceed with caution

Please let me know if you manage to make a new SD using macOS... now I'm curious.

Thank you.
Regards.

Locutus73

Posted: **Wed May 27, 2020 3:45 pm**

Locutus73 wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 9:49 am
Washac wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 9:42 am Thank you, as soon as I get a quiet minute or more I with proceed with caution
Please let me know if you manage to make a new SD using macOS... now I'm curious.

Thank you.
Regards.

Locutus73

I will

Posted: **Thu May 28, 2020 10:36 am**

Locutus73 wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 9:49 am Please let me know if you manage to make a new SD using macOS... now I'm curious.

Thank you.
Regards.

Locutus73

OK I have an installed and working SD Card except for one hiccup which happened near the end
of the terminal install process when it wanted my password to proceed and the terminal would
not recognize my password so I restarted the process and the second time around it all went OK.

Thank you very very much for leading me through this really appreciated

Posted: **Thu May 28, 2020 5:25 pm**

I've just successfully (I hope) installed a new SD Card on my iMac today. Total noob...

I could only find one(!) guide video on YouTube for Mac users, which was very helpful.

https://youtu.be/yBYJw3KNiBc

It's a real shame there aren't more dedicated channels/videos for Mac users.

I'm still waiting for my boards to arrive, but does anyone know if it's possible to run the initial update script over WiFi? (with adapter).

The guide says to connect over ethernet, and run the update script. That will automatically install the latest versions of the MiSTer binary, Menu and Cores.

My router and TV are miles apart, so over ethernet is not really an easy option.

Any advice is much appreciated!

Posted: **Thu May 28, 2020 10:46 pm**

replic_ant wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 5:25 pm
I'm still waiting for my boards to arrive, but does anyone know if it's possible to run the initial update script over WiFi? (with adapter).

The guide says to connect over ethernet, and run the update script. That will automatically install the latest versions of the MiSTer binary, Menu and Cores.

My router and TV are miles apart, so over ethernet is not really an easy option.

Any advice is much appreciated!

You will have more chance of a reply by opening your own thread because this question has nothing to do with this thread.

Posted: **Fri May 29, 2020 1:59 pm**

Washac wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 10:46 pm You will have more chance of a reply by opening your own thread because this question has nothing to do with this thread.

My question relates to the final step/paragraph of the MiSTer SD card installer script for Mac OS on the GitHub, so was just trying to keep any relevant setup information together.

No matter, I’ll start my own thread.

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