Can the Raspberry Pi Zero boot from the Raspbian SD card image?

Question

I was lucky and got hands on an early Raspberry Pi Zero.

I've downloaded the latest Raspbian SD card image from the Raspberry Pi website.

Powering on the Pi Zero with this SD card, the Zero remains dark and silent. No LEDs, no screen output.

Over at the Raspberry Pi Forum, I read in the sticky Boot Problems thread https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=58151 (third post addresses Pi Zero):

You must use NOOBS 1.5 for the PiZero

Does this mean the Zero cannot boot from the Raspbian image?

Edit 2017: This point hase been clarified on the raspberrypi forum and this question is now obsolete. Now, the forum reads

If you want to use NOOBS you must use NOOBS 1.5 (or later) for the PiZero, and 2.4 or later for the PIZero W with WiFi.

I'd recommend to put the other two points of that post in the question too. That way (and IMHO) it does not read as if one must use NOOBS. It's clearer that way that it means if NOOBS is used it has to be version 1.5 (or higher presumably). — Ghanima, Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 16:37
There's no way the zero can't boot from all the same images as other pis (glad you found that out). It is just a different form factor, fewer peripherals, and a faster core. — goldilocks, Commented Dec 1, 2015 at 19:44

Ludwig Schulze · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-01 15:18:13Z

4

I tried with a different SD card and now all is well.

The PiZero does boot from the Raspbian image from this SD card.

Either the first SD card was buggy or I made a mistake writing the image to it.

Unfortunately I cannot add this information to the Raspberry Pi forum thread, as the thread is locked.

So I share it here.

answered Dec 1, 2015 at 15:18

Ludwig Schulze

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