Hi all,
I am new to the Raspberry Pi community, and my introduction has been by way of a Pi Zero W. I picked it up for small projects, as it is minimal: in form factor and cost. For my purposes, I am interested in using the Zero W in headless mode with only a WiFi connection, connecting to it via SSH when needed.
Context:
I bought my unit from Micro Center (SKU 422659, KN3G): https://www.microcenter.com/product/486 ... ment-board
Alongside it I also got a house brand microSDXC card. It is a 64GB Class 10 card: https://www.microcenter.com/product/658 ... th-adapter
I have been using a 3A phone charger to power the device.
I am working on a M4 Mac mini, running MacOS 15.4.1.
I do not have a micro HDMI cable or an adapter for connecting a keyboard to the Pi. I am not looking to purchase an Ethernet hat/adapter. If it comes to that, I'm more likely to return the Zero and pick up a 3B or similar.
What I did initially:
I downloaded the latest version of the Raspberry Pi imager, and walked through the installation steps. I selected the Trixie-based Pi OS lite (32-bit). In the customization steps, I chose a hostname, localization options, configured user credentials, input the SSID and password for my 2.4GHz network, and enabled SSH via username/password. The image was written and validated successfully, and I verified that the card is formatted in FAT32.
When doing the write, the SD card was mounted via my CalDigit TS3 Plus dock.
After the image was written, I inserted the memory card into the Pi, and powered it up.
What I observed:
I saw a couple of flashes of the green LED, then it turned off. I let it be, since I had read the initial boot takes a while. After 30 minutes or so, I checked my router but did not see a new connected device.
I removed power and plugged it back in. Again, I saw two quick blinks of the status LED, after which it turned off. There is no repeating pattern of lights to convey an issue, as suggested by troubleshooting threads.
I read the SD card after this initial boot attempt, and I could still see the temporary files that should have been removed after the first boot (e.g., firstrun.sh or dietpi.txt).
What I've tried:
I have attempted to boot the following OSs:
- Raspberry Pi OS lite
- Raspberry Pi OS (full)
- Raspberry Pi OS lite legacy (bookworm)
- DietPi OS
For each of the above OSs, I attempted a customized install and a vanilla install with default settings (no wifi configs, etc.).
I installed Raspberry Pi Imager v2.0.0, as I read other users suggesting that version worked for them.
I tried 3 separate power adapters - a couple of generic chargers, and an official Apple charger.
I tried 2 separate microUSB cables. I think these are power-only cables, since I could not configure the USB Gadget mode (nor could I find good instructions for macOS).
I tried using an SD card reader directly plugged into my Mac (instead my thunderbolt dock's reader).
None of the above produced different outcomes.
When attempting boot Bookworm RPI OS, I made firstrun.sh a minimal bash script that only called a single echo statement before deleting the first run script. The idea was to diagnose if the boot was failing prior to or during the execution of firstrun.sh. From what I gathered, this did not produce any effect, so I suspect that the system does not even get to the point at which it runs firstrun.sh. I did not do a similar test for the other OS versions, but I would bet it's a very similar issue across the board.
The only variable I haven't had the chance to change is the SD card.
TL;DR
My RPi Zero W is having issues booting up at all, regardless of which OS I'm trying to use or whether the OS is customized or not. I've tried changing any variables I can think of, aside from the microSD card I'm using. I'm looking for help in troubleshooting, as I haven't been able to get past step 1 in setting up my new RPi. It's been a couple of days and I'm at a bit of a loss.
Thanks in advance!
I am new to the Raspberry Pi community, and my introduction has been by way of a Pi Zero W. I picked it up for small projects, as it is minimal: in form factor and cost. For my purposes, I am interested in using the Zero W in headless mode with only a WiFi connection, connecting to it via SSH when needed.
Context:
I bought my unit from Micro Center (SKU 422659, KN3G): https://www.microcenter.com/product/486 ... ment-board
Alongside it I also got a house brand microSDXC card. It is a 64GB Class 10 card: https://www.microcenter.com/product/658 ... th-adapter
I have been using a 3A phone charger to power the device.
I am working on a M4 Mac mini, running MacOS 15.4.1.
I do not have a micro HDMI cable or an adapter for connecting a keyboard to the Pi. I am not looking to purchase an Ethernet hat/adapter. If it comes to that, I'm more likely to return the Zero and pick up a 3B or similar.
What I did initially:
I downloaded the latest version of the Raspberry Pi imager, and walked through the installation steps. I selected the Trixie-based Pi OS lite (32-bit). In the customization steps, I chose a hostname, localization options, configured user credentials, input the SSID and password for my 2.4GHz network, and enabled SSH via username/password. The image was written and validated successfully, and I verified that the card is formatted in FAT32.
When doing the write, the SD card was mounted via my CalDigit TS3 Plus dock.
After the image was written, I inserted the memory card into the Pi, and powered it up.
What I observed:
I saw a couple of flashes of the green LED, then it turned off. I let it be, since I had read the initial boot takes a while. After 30 minutes or so, I checked my router but did not see a new connected device.
I removed power and plugged it back in. Again, I saw two quick blinks of the status LED, after which it turned off. There is no repeating pattern of lights to convey an issue, as suggested by troubleshooting threads.
I read the SD card after this initial boot attempt, and I could still see the temporary files that should have been removed after the first boot (e.g., firstrun.sh or dietpi.txt).
What I've tried:
I have attempted to boot the following OSs:
- Raspberry Pi OS lite
- Raspberry Pi OS (full)
- Raspberry Pi OS lite legacy (bookworm)
- DietPi OS
For each of the above OSs, I attempted a customized install and a vanilla install with default settings (no wifi configs, etc.).
I installed Raspberry Pi Imager v2.0.0, as I read other users suggesting that version worked for them.
I tried 3 separate power adapters - a couple of generic chargers, and an official Apple charger.
I tried 2 separate microUSB cables. I think these are power-only cables, since I could not configure the USB Gadget mode (nor could I find good instructions for macOS).
I tried using an SD card reader directly plugged into my Mac (instead my thunderbolt dock's reader).
None of the above produced different outcomes.
When attempting boot Bookworm RPI OS, I made firstrun.sh a minimal bash script that only called a single echo statement before deleting the first run script. The idea was to diagnose if the boot was failing prior to or during the execution of firstrun.sh. From what I gathered, this did not produce any effect, so I suspect that the system does not even get to the point at which it runs firstrun.sh. I did not do a similar test for the other OS versions, but I would bet it's a very similar issue across the board.
The only variable I haven't had the chance to change is the SD card.
TL;DR
My RPi Zero W is having issues booting up at all, regardless of which OS I'm trying to use or whether the OS is customized or not. I've tried changing any variables I can think of, aside from the microSD card I'm using. I'm looking for help in troubleshooting, as I haven't been able to get past step 1 in setting up my new RPi. It's been a couple of days and I'm at a bit of a loss.
Thanks in advance!
Statistics: Posted by coolcat123 — Sun Jan 04, 2026 4:30 am — Replies 5 — Views 143