Installing WPSD Palisade

WPSD Palisade comes as a disk image: you write it to a microSD card, put the card in your Raspberry Pi, and power it on. Everything else is done from your browser.

What you need

  • A Raspberry Pi 3, 4, 5 or Zero 2 W with an MMDVM modem (see Gathering the Hardware)

  • A microSD card of 8 GB or more

  • A computer with a card reader

Note

The image is for 64-bit Raspberry Pi models only. Older 32-bit models (Pi 1, Pi 2, Pi Zero, Pi Zero W) can’t run it.

Getting the image

Download the latest image from the WPSD website, wpsd.radio. The file is named for its release, such as WPSD_RPi-Trixie-2026.11.0.img.xz (see What do the version numbers mean?).

The .xz ending means it is compressed. You don’t need to uncompress it: the tools below write it to the card as it is.

Writing the image to the card

Writing the image erases everything on the card.

Raspberry Pi Imager

Raspberry Pi Imager runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.

  1. Put the card in your computer and open Raspberry Pi Imager.

  2. Under Raspberry Pi Device, choose your model.

  3. Under Operating System, scroll to the bottom and choose Use custom, then pick the .img.xz file you downloaded.

  4. Under Storage, choose your card.

  5. Choose Next. When Imager asks whether to apply OS customization settings, choose No. WPSD Palisade sets up its own device name, login and Wi-Fi when it first starts; Imager’s settings would get in the way.

  6. Confirm, and wait for Imager to write and check the card.

balenaEtcher

balenaEtcher works the same way: choose Flash from file and pick the .xz file, choose your card under Select target, then Flash!.

On the command line (Linux and macOS)

xz -d WPSD_RPi-Trixie-2026.11.0.img.xz
sudo dd if=WPSD_RPi-Trixie-2026.11.0.img of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress
sync

Replace /dev/sdX with your card. Check it carefully with lsblk (Linux) or diskutil list (macOS) first: dd writes to whatever device you name.

Before you put the card in

If you want your Raspberry Pi to join your Wi-Fi network on its first start, you can add your network’s details to the card now. First Boot explains how, and what happens if you don’t: the WPSD device then offers a Wi-Fi network of its own for you to set it up from. You can also set up the whole hotspot in advance with a first-boot file.

Next

Put the card in your Raspberry Pi, connect the modem, and power it on. Continue with First Boot.