After rootwait, append this text leaving only one space between rootwait and the new text (otherwise it might not be parsed correctly):.

In the root folder of the SD card, open cmdline.txt ( /Volumes/boot/cmdline.txt) in a text editor.

In the root folder of the SD card, open config.txt ( /Volumes/boot/config.txt) in a text editor.

This will write an empty file to the root of your Raspbian image. Now to enable ssh by default you have to do the following: touch /Volumes/boot/ssh There was a security update to the Raspbian images. You should now see the contents of the root of your Raspbian boot image. The volume named boot should be the SD card with the Raspbian image on it. You should see something like this: total 13Ĩ lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 1 Jul 28 09:41 Macintosh HD -> / Access the micro SD card from the command lineĪt a command line do the following: ls -ls /Volumes/

Open the SD card icon to explore the contents.

On a Mac the SD card should appear on your desktop.

Put the SD card in an adapter and plug it into your computer.If you have the SD card in your Pi Zero, power it down and remove it.To access the Pi Zero over USB you have to edit the image first. You can find links to the original instructions in the References section below.

Here are my notes from walking through the process. I've also done this with an older desktop version and Jessie Lite.

I'm using the lite image (no desktop) version 4.19 from June 20, 2019. These instructions are for a Raspbian Buster image that I downloaded from here: Or you can just plug it into your computer directly and access it over USB using ssh. When you first get a Pi Zero the big question is - how do you access it? You can get a powered USB hub, USB keyboard, USB mouse and HDMI adapter. The Windows instructions can be found here: Headless Pi Zero SSH Access over USB (Windows). This article covers setting up a Pi Zero for SSH USB access using a Mac. The Raspbian image version has also been updated. UPDATE: This article now covers the new security change that disables ssh access by default.

Raspberry pi zero headless setup usb