Skip to content

Note multiple partitions may need to be unmounted #726

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Merged
merged 3 commits into from
Sep 15, 2017
Merged

Note multiple partitions may need to be unmounted #726

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
3 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
e9e27e8
Note multiple partitions may need to be unmounted
janicki Sep 8, 2017
6c9a658
copy edits
JaninaPi Sep 14, 2017
21f3e29
copy edits
JaninaPi Sep 14, 2017
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
29 changes: 24 additions & 5 deletions installation/installing-images/mac.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -67,21 +67,40 @@ This will take a few minutes, depending on the size of the image file. To check

## Alternative method

**Note**: some users have reported issues with using this method to create SD cards.
**Note**: Some users have reported issues with using this method to create SD cards, possibly because earlier versions of these instructions didn't note that it may be necessary to unmount multiple partitions on the SD card.

These commands and actions must be performed from an account that has administrator privileges.

- From the terminal run `df -h`.
- From the terminal run `df -h`. For example:
```
$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on
/dev/disk1 233Gi 73Gi 159Gi 32% 1552273 4293415006 0% /
devfs 189Ki 189Ki 0Bi 100% 654 0 100% /dev
map -hosts 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /net
map auto_home 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /home
```
- Connect the SD card reader with the SD card inside.
- Run `df -h` again and look for the new device that was not previously listed. Record the device name of the filesystem's partition, for example `/dev/disk3s1`.
- Unmount the partition so that you will be allowed to overwrite the disk:
- Run `df -h` again and look for the new device which was not previously listed. Record the device name(s) of the filesystem's partition(s), for example `/dev/disk3s5` and `/dev/disk3s1`. Notice the last two lines:
```
$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on
/dev/disk1 233Gi 73Gi 159Gi 32% 1552273 4293415006 0% /
devfs 189Ki 189Ki 0Bi 100% 654 0 100% /dev
map -hosts 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /net
map auto_home 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /home
/dev/disk3s5 60Mi 20Mi 40Mi 33% 512 0 100% /Volumes/boot
/dev/disk3s1 812Mi 740Mi 71Mi 92% 0 0 100% /Volumes/RECOVERY
```
- Unmount the partition(s) so that you will be allowed to overwrite the disk:

```
sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk3s5
sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk3s1
```

Alternatively, open Disk Utility and unmount the partition of the SD card. Do not eject it. If you eject it, you will have to reconnect it.
- Using the device name of the partition, work out the **raw device name** for the entire disk by omitting the final `s1` and replacing `disk` with `rdisk`. This is very important, as you will lose all data on the hard drive if you provide the wrong device name. Make sure the device name is the name of the whole SD card as described above, not just a partition of it, for example, `rdisk3`, not `rdisk3s1`. Similarly, you might have another SD drive name/number like `rdisk2` or `rdisk4`. You can check again by using the `df -h` command, both before and after you insert your SD card reader into your Mac. For example: `/dev/disk3s1` becomes `/dev/rdisk3`.
- Using the device name of the partition, work out the **raw device name** for the entire disk by omitting the final `s#` and replacing `disk` with `rdisk`. This is very important, as you will lose all data on the hard drive if you provide the wrong device name. Make sure the device name is the name of the whole SD card as described above, not just a partition of it, for example, `rdisk3`, not `rdisk3s1`. Similarly, you might have another SD drive name/number like `rdisk2` or `rdisk4`. You can check again by using the `df -h` command, both before and after you insert your SD card reader into your Mac. For example: `/dev/disk3s1` becomes `/dev/rdisk3`.
- In the terminal, write the image to the card with this command, using the raw device name from above. Read the above step carefully to make sure that you use the correct `rdisk` number here:

```
Expand Down