You can use Balena Etcher on Mac if you follow this simple guide

[Skeeve]

First of all: Install gdisk vie homebrew.

Type in terminal:

brew install gdisk

Then run Balena Etcher, taking note of the disk number you are flashing. Example: Here it is /dev/disk7

After flashing, open the terminal again and run gdisk, giving you flashcard's disk number (/dev/disk7 in the example)

sudo gdisk /dev/disk7

Then enter the commands

• p to view the partition table. It should look similar to the one in the screenshot below
• x for expert mode
• e for relocating the backup data structure to the end of the disk
• w to write the changed data
• y to confirm you want to write

After that you can eject the disk and continue on the device.

[dezign999]

Thanks for this, I’ve been using win10 developer preview under UTM to run Rufus on my Mac. Works well, but I’d prefer a native solution. Will give this a try.

[raelmax]

Thank you! This worked well on Balena + Linux as well. :)

[djaysan]

Legend! you saved me hours trying to figure it out!
Thank you loads!

[czpta]

Hey @Skeeve I've followed along here with the latest build for RG40XXV: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oR5I-XTuUWBGBrFrqGED4gvpCWiB_WJR, but unfortunately the ROMS partition was never created, what device did you try this for?

[Skeeve]

Hey @Skeeve I've followed along here with the latest build for RG40XXV:

I have an RG35XX H. But my instructions do not take care for creating any partitions. The partitions have to be there in the first place. The instructions are only here to clean up the partition table and its backup data.

So if there was no ROM partition after you "burned" the sdcard, so when it wasn't shown after entering "p", it, for sure, will not be there after you wrote the partition table.

[czpta]

@Skeeve hmmm... I'm working with some unknowns here, but if p is the partition table and the cbepx-me is expected to create a ROM partition as well, shouldn't you also have a ROM partition within the table? I have the same table as the one in the screenshot but when I load up the SD Card to the computer I am only seeing Volumn and not an additional volume to store the roms and saves in.

[Skeeve]

@Skeeve hmmm... I'm working with some unknowns here, but if p is the partition table and the cbepx-me is expected to create a ROM partition as well, shouldn't you also have a ROM partition within the table? I have the same table as the one in the screenshot but when I load up the SD Card to the computer I am only seeing Volumn and not an additional volume to store the roms and saves in.

Ahhh! Okay… I see, what you mean. No partition is called "ROM". If I'm not mistaken, the ROM partition should be the parttition 7.

But to be sure and as I wanted to update to the latest Version anyway, I will do that now and will update you.

[czpta]

@Skeeve hmmm... I'm working with some unknowns here, but if p is the partition table and the cbepx-me is expected to create a ROM partition as well, shouldn't you also have a ROM partition within the table? I have the same table as the one in the screenshot but when I load up the SD Card to the computer I am only seeing Volumn and not an additional volume to store the roms and saves in.

Ahhh! Okay… I see, what you mean. No partition is called "ROM". If I'm not mistaken, the ROM partition should be the parttition 7.

But to be sure and as I wanted to update to the latest Version anyway, I will do that now and will update you.

Sounds good! Thanks for being responsive. I haven't seen a lot of content out there for setting up these retro gaming devices with a Mac.

[Skeeve]

Sounds good! Thanks for being responsive. I haven't seen a lot of content out there for setting up these retro gaming devices with a Mac.

Just an update before I even started. This is the partition table of my sdcard before the update:

/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *31.9 GB    disk4
   1:       Microsoft Basic Data                         67.1 MB    disk4s1
   2:       Microsoft Basic Data Volumn                  33.6 MB    disk4s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data                         16.8 MB    disk4s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data                         67.1 MB    disk4s4
   5:       Microsoft Basic Data                         8.6 GB     disk4s5
   6:       Microsoft Basic Data                         4.3 GB     disk4s6
   7:       Microsoft Basic Data                         1.3 GB     disk4s7
   8:       Microsoft Basic Data ROMS                    17.2 GB    disk4s8
                    (free space)                         319.3 MB   -

So it seems partition 8 is the ROMS partition and it really isn't there after flashing the card. The update process will create it.

[Skeeve]

Sounds good! Thanks for being responsive. I haven't seen a lot of content out there for setting up these retro gaming devices with a Mac.

So this is the partition table in gdisk after flashing:

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1           73728          204799   64.0 MiB    0700  special
   2          204800          270335   32.0 MiB    0700  boot-resource
   3          270336          303103   16.0 MiB    0700  env
   4          303104          434175   64.0 MiB    0700  boot
   5          434176        15114239   7.0 GiB     0700  rootfs
   6        15114240        23502847   4.0 GiB     0700  appfs
   7        23502848        26163199   1.3 GiB     0700  UDISK

Steps when in device:

1. Welcome
2. Language
3. Partitioning
4. Copying Files
5. Updating patch
6. Installing
7. System Settings
8. Start

And this is the partition table after installation:

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1           73728          204799   64.0 MiB    0700  special
   2          204800          270335   32.0 MiB    0700  boot-resource
   3          270336          303103   16.0 MiB    0700  env
   4          303104          434175   64.0 MiB    0700  boot
   5          434176        15114239   7.0 GiB     0700  rootfs
   6        15114240        23502847   4.0 GiB     0700  appfs
   7        23502848        26163199   1.3 GiB     0700  UDISK
   8        26163200        61710335   17.0 GiB    0700  primary

Hope this helps.

[czpta]

Sounds good! Thanks for being responsive. I haven't seen a lot of content out there for setting up these retro gaming devices with a Mac.

So this is the partition table in gdisk after flashing:

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1           73728          204799   64.0 MiB    0700  special
   2          204800          270335   32.0 MiB    0700  boot-resource
   3          270336          303103   16.0 MiB    0700  env
   4          303104          434175   64.0 MiB    0700  boot
   5          434176        15114239   7.0 GiB     0700  rootfs
   6        15114240        23502847   4.0 GiB     0700  appfs
   7        23502848        26163199   1.3 GiB     0700  UDISK

Steps when in device:

1. Welcome
2. Language
3. Partitioning
4. Copying Files
5. Updating patch
6. Installing
7. System Settings
8. Start

And this is the partition table after installation:

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1           73728          204799   64.0 MiB    0700  special
   2          204800          270335   32.0 MiB    0700  boot-resource
   3          270336          303103   16.0 MiB    0700  env
   4          303104          434175   64.0 MiB    0700  boot
   5          434176        15114239   7.0 GiB     0700  rootfs
   6        15114240        23502847   4.0 GiB     0700  appfs
   7        23502848        26163199   1.3 GiB     0700  UDISK
   8        26163200        61710335   17.0 GiB    0700  primary

Hope this helps.

Thanks! For now I ended up running Knulli on the RG40XXV while I spend more time to figure this out later. I ended up spending more time on these operating systems than actually enjoying the device until now.

[x-0D]

If you facing problem with gdisk error 1, probably, it helps.

Important step to add - ensure you disabled SIP on macs! To do this, reboot into recovery, go to terminal, do csrutil status to see your current state and csrutil disable to disable SIP. Reboot to OS, now you able to use gdisk to have access to /dev/disk* devices.

After you done, you can enable SIP (if you need it) in recovery OS by typing csrutil enable in terminal.

[Johny-LPM]

Honestly I think this should be added to the README or the guide steps. Seems to be an extremely simple and effective solution for UNIX-like systems that enables anything that isn't Rufus to have proper partition resizing