<![CDATA[Create a bootable USB flash disk on MacOs]]>Couldn't find a good how-to make a bootable usb disk on macOS, so I made this for anyone else looking.

1. Download the memstick version
2. run "$ diskutil list"
3. insert your flash media
4. run "$ diskutil list" again, notice the new device that has appered
5. run "$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN", were "N" is the device number
7. extract your downloeded copy, so that you get the ".img" file
8. convert your downloaded copy of pfSense to iso "$ hdiutil convert pfSense-CE-memstick-2.4.2-RELEASE-amd64.img -format UDRW -o pfSense-CE-memstick-2.4.2-RELEASE-amd64.iso"
9. Remove the ".dmg" file extension of the outputtet file.
10. write the "iso" file to flash drive "$ sudo dd if=pfSense-CE-memstick-2.4.2-RELEASE-amd64.iso of=/dev/rdisk2 bs=1m". Notice the "r" in "rdisk". This will speed things up.
11. eject the flash drive, "$ diskutil eject /dev/disk2"
12. Done!

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/topic/126211/create-a-bootable-usb-flash-disk-on-macosRSS for NodeTue, 12 May 2026 03:56:56 GMTWed, 24 Jan 2018 21:16:24 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Create a bootable USB flash disk on MacOs on Mon, 07 Jan 2019 05:58:17 GMT]]>It seems that everyone's methods are different.
Has no one ever done that ? https://www.iseepassword.com/create-bootable-usb-dvd-on-mac.html

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/815082https://forum.netgate.com/post/815082Mon, 07 Jan 2019 05:58:17 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Create a bootable USB flash disk on MacOs on Sun, 30 Dec 2018 01:55:12 GMT]]>This worked for me. Many Thanks!

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/814148https://forum.netgate.com/post/814148Sun, 30 Dec 2018 01:55:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Create a bootable USB flash disk on MacOs on Wed, 16 May 2018 10:13:16 GMT]]>I was told quite some folks here now use Etcher, which is available for Win and maxOS, to write images to sticks.

As I am lazy I use applePi-Baker which has a nice GUI and is derived from the RaspberryPi universe.
As easy as point-n-shoot.

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/766238https://forum.netgate.com/post/766238Wed, 16 May 2018 10:13:16 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Create a bootable USB flash disk on MacOs on Wed, 16 May 2018 00:02:08 GMT]]>Thank you for this. The official FAQ instructions didn't work for me. The resulting USB stick wasn't able to be booted from.

https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Writing_Disk_Images

Basically, they just recommend doing the following if on a mac:

gzcat pfSense-CE-memstick-2.4.3-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/disk2s1 bs=1m

Your steps did end up working, so thanks again!

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/766171https://forum.netgate.com/post/766171Wed, 16 May 2018 00:02:08 GMT