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Macbook Air M1 doesn't have sd card reader. To 'save space' and for better comfort I believe. After a deep research I have found that Raspberry Pi manages to b

Macbook Air M1 doesn't have sd card reader. To 'save space' and for better comfort I believe. After a deep research I have found that Raspberry Pi manages to boot from such device. If Apple engineers only knew about such amazing feature of micro sd card reader. If they could just figure out how booting from micro-sd cards works they could do amazing things like booting Mac without a need for 'Another Mac' when recovery partition doesn't work!. Somebody, please tell Apple about this possibility. It's amazing technology !

beervirus 6y ago
You can boot from USB.
- lovelyviking 6y ago
  No you can't, when Apple silicon Mac with M1 cannot load Recovery options. It shows exclamation mark and url to go for support, where you learn that it would boot only with the help of 'another Mac' https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211868 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211868
  - beervirus 6y ago
    The comment I was replying to was about booting from an SD card. There’s no reason to think that would work differently from the USB booting option that already exists.
    - lovelyviking 6y ago
      >here’s no reason to think that would work differently from the USB booting Inability to boot my previous Mac from sd-card could be that reason? Or am I missing something? Because it was not possible to boot from sd-card last time I've tried.
      - beervirus 6y ago
        What I’m saying is that there’s already the ability to boot from removable media (USB). If your problem with the existing solution is that it has some limitations, then it doesn’t make sense to demand SD boot, because it would probably have exactly the same limitations.
- p_l 6y ago
  The only "boot from USB" mode that actually works from USB is DFU, where another mac is essentially uploading OS over USB to M1
  - beervirus 6y ago
    Nope. https://www.macworld.com/article/3608433/how-to-start-up-your-m1-mac-from-an-external-drive.html https://www.macworld.com/article/3608433/how-to-start-up-you...
    - p_l 6y ago
      That procedure will create a boot partition on the built in drive and use it to jump to the partition on the TB3 drive - because the built-in bootloader doesn't have support for loading or even enumerating drives other than the built-in one.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
m463 6y ago
Apple has traditionally had really good boot options. I've been able to put the OS on a usb stick and boot/run from that. Just hold down option at boot time, and select the drive you like from the list. You could also boot from network boot volumes if they were properly set up. I think you could probably boot from an SD card if you put it in a usb reader. But the best - by far - is target disk mode. You boot mac #1 hold down the T key and it turns into a disk. Then you can cable it to mac #2 and it will show up as a drive. Additionally you can hold down option on mac #2 and choose the disk from mac #1 as the boot drive, and then boot from it. This is really good when say #1 has no display or has a display problem. I don't know how well this works with the new M1 macs, and also with T2 and/or encrypted partitions.
- meetups323 6y ago
  I have a MBP with a broken display that I've been reluctant to fix/replace due to some data I don't want to go missing on it ("repair" with these seems to always involve a new logic board..), I'll have to try this thanks! Though I'm not sure I even remember the password anymore...
- j16sdiz 6y ago
  I think the network boot is broken in recent hardware
- JKCalhoun 6y ago
  > I've been able to put the OS on a usb stick and boot/run from that. Wouldn't booting from an external drive like that be a gaping security hole for the Mac?
  - titzer 6y ago
    Most PC bioses have options to control all of the boot options, e.g. disable booting from any external media, network, etc. The Mac has always been "special", but I think you can configure those things too.
- lovelyviking 6y ago
  > Just hold down option at boot time, and select the drive you like from the list. This would not work on M1 Macs. First: because they've changed keys .It's no longer 'option' key. It's 'power key' holding long enough. Second: because when M1 Mac fails to load Recovery Options it would also fail to load this 'boot options choice screen'. It's not like with previous Macs. So you stuck there until you connect to another Mac and use Apple Configurator and pray it works. Iv'e spent 3 hours making it work and I Cann't reproduce the steps. Those listed in official site did not work for me. And Apple Configurator seems to have own bugs I've encountered.

beervirus 6y ago

You can boot from USB.

lovelyviking 6y ago
No you can't, when Apple silicon Mac with M1 cannot load Recovery options. It shows exclamation mark and url to go for support, where you learn that it would boot only with the help of 'another Mac' https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211868 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211868
- beervirus 6y ago
  The comment I was replying to was about booting from an SD card. There’s no reason to think that would work differently from the USB booting option that already exists.
  - lovelyviking 6y ago
    >here’s no reason to think that would work differently from the USB booting Inability to boot my previous Mac from sd-card could be that reason? Or am I missing something? Because it was not possible to boot from sd-card last time I've tried.
    - beervirus 6y ago
      What I’m saying is that there’s already the ability to boot from removable media (USB). If your problem with the existing solution is that it has some limitations, then it doesn’t make sense to demand SD boot, because it would probably have exactly the same limitations.
p_l 6y ago
The only "boot from USB" mode that actually works from USB is DFU, where another mac is essentially uploading OS over USB to M1
- beervirus 6y ago
  Nope. https://www.macworld.com/article/3608433/how-to-start-up-your-m1-mac-from-an-external-drive.html https://www.macworld.com/article/3608433/how-to-start-up-you...
  - p_l 6y ago
    That procedure will create a boot partition on the built in drive and use it to jump to the partition on the TB3 drive - because the built-in bootloader doesn't have support for loading or even enumerating drives other than the built-in one.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]

m463 6y ago

Apple has traditionally had really good boot options. I've been able to put the OS on a usb stick and boot/run from that. Just hold down option at boot time, and select the drive you like from the list. You could also boot from network boot volumes if they were properly set up. I think you could probably boot from an SD card if you put it in a usb reader. But the best - by far - is target disk mode. You boot mac #1 hold down the T key and it turns into a disk. Then you can cable it to mac #2 and it will show up as a drive. Additionally you can hold down option on mac #2 and choose the disk from mac #1 as the boot drive, and then boot from it. This is really good when say #1 has no display or has a display problem. I don't know how well this works with the new M1 macs, and also with T2 and/or encrypted partitions.

meetups323 6y ago
I have a MBP with a broken display that I've been reluctant to fix/replace due to some data I don't want to go missing on it ("repair" with these seems to always involve a new logic board..), I'll have to try this thanks! Though I'm not sure I even remember the password anymore...
j16sdiz 6y ago
I think the network boot is broken in recent hardware
JKCalhoun 6y ago
> I've been able to put the OS on a usb stick and boot/run from that. Wouldn't booting from an external drive like that be a gaping security hole for the Mac?
- titzer 6y ago
  Most PC bioses have options to control all of the boot options, e.g. disable booting from any external media, network, etc. The Mac has always been "special", but I think you can configure those things too.
lovelyviking 6y ago
> Just hold down option at boot time, and select the drive you like from the list. This would not work on M1 Macs. First: because they've changed keys .It's no longer 'option' key. It's 'power key' holding long enough. Second: because when M1 Mac fails to load Recovery Options it would also fail to load this 'boot options choice screen'. It's not like with previous Macs. So you stuck there until you connect to another Mac and use Apple Configurator and pray it works. Iv'e spent 3 hours making it work and I Cann't reproduce the steps. Those listed in official site did not work for me. And Apple Configurator seems to have own bugs I've encountered.