/raspberry_pi_setup_guide

Raspberry Pi Setup Guide

Written for Genspace's Open Plant Community Project

The goal of this guide is to create a minimal equipment, lowest-cost setup possible for a Raspberry Pi (including associated peripherals) in the shortest setup time, intended for new users to get up and running quickly. This is going to be a "headless setup" meaning no peripherals, such as, a screen, keyboard, or mouse are going to be used directly on the Raspberry Pi 0 W. The Raspberry Pi 0 line needs adapters to fit their micro sized ports, which can be a limiting factor for a quick setup. Instead, we'll be controlling everything wirelessly from another computer. Additionally, I've elected to use the full-fledged Raspberry Pi OS instead of the minimal one mainly because it includes Python 3, but also because the desktop interface may be easier for beginners should they choose to use that in the future.

Rpi0W hardware-labelled+cropped

PREREQUISITES

What you'll need (physically):

  • Raspberry Pi 0 W
  • microSD card (>= 8GB)
  • microSD card adapter
  • 5V (2.5A) power supply
  • Windows/Mac computer with SD card reader

What you'll need (digitally):

  • Raspberry Pi OS (previously called Raspbian OS), pick one:
    • ZIP
    • TORRENT
      • NOTE: if you can torrent, that's much faster, the ZIP file seems to be speed limited no matter how fast your internet connection is
  • Balena Etcher

NOTE:

  • If you have any of the Raspberry Pi 0 - 3 models, you'll need Wifi on the 2.4 GHz channel, these models ONLY use this band, and range can be an issue especially on the Raspberry Pi 0 models
  • Raspberry Pi 4 can now use either the 2.4 GHz or the 5 Ghz band

Let's get started:

STEP 1 - Start by downloading all the above links (this could take awhile) and assemble your physical pieces
  • Slot your microSD card into the microSD card adapter
    • This goes into the the SD card slot on your computer (if you don't have one you'll need to get an adapter or dongle)

Rpi0W-setup

STEP 2 - Flash the OS onto the microSD card

  • Open up Balena Etcher

    Rpi0W-Etcher-flash1

    • Flash from file

    Rpi0W-Etcher-flash2

    • Select your Raspbian OS ZIP file

    Rpi0W-Etcher-flash3

    • Select target

    Rpi0W-Etcher-flash4

    • Check your microSD card
      • Size should be anywhere from 8 - 32 GB
        • Raspberry Pi OS needs around 8 GB to install
        • Sizes > 32 GB will need to be specially reformatted, see here
      • Location should NOT be the main C:\ drive (this is hidden so you don't wipe your entire computer)

    Rpi0W-Etcher-flash5

    • Flash!
      • Windows users: you may need to grant permission to the command line to start the flashing process by selecting "Yes"

    Rpi0W-Etcher-flash6

  • Windows users: Ignore the Windows warning about a formatting drive error. That will not fix it (instead it will likely wipe your Raspberry Pi OS). However, if Balena Etcher gives you an error, you should be concerned.

TROUBLESHOOTING FLASHING ERRORS: If you do have some kind of flash failed error or incomplete

  • Go to the Start menu > search for "disk management" > look for your micro SD card partitions (NOT your main computer drive) > right click each one and delete the volumes of your SD card
    • You should be left with a single partition that is the full size of the micro SD card and no other partitions
  • Then, use the official SD card formmater program to wipe your SD card
  • Start the procedure over from the Balena Etcher flashing steps
  • Alternatively, you can attempt to use the official Raspberry Pi Imager which is based off the Pi Bakery tool. (TO DO: take pictures of this)
STEP 3 - Prepare the boot partition

If you scroll to the top of this page, you will see the boot_files folder. You can either download this entire GitHub repository and extract those two boot files, or copy and paste the contents into your own text files on your computer.

If you're copy pasting onto your own computer:

Windows users:

  • Open up My Computer > select the microSD card (for me it's the F:\ drive) > right click somewhere away from the file names > New > Text document
    • Right click the file > Rename > Change the name and the extension to 
      ssh
      with NO EXTENSION (be sure to delete the .txt at the end)
  • Repeat these steps to make a second file, but this time copy and paste the text inside the wpa_supplicant.conf file into your blank text file
    • Change the network SSID (your wifi name) and the network PSK (your wifi password) to match your own home network
    • Save and close the file
    • Right click the file > Rename > Change the name and extension to 
      wpa_supplicant.conf
      (be sure to delete the .txt at the end)

Rpi0W-boot

Mac users:

  • Open up TextEdit > Go to the Format option > change it to "Plain Text"

    • Save the file
      • Select Unicode-8
      • Uncheck the .txt option
    • Make sure the full name is 
      ssh
      without any other extension (you might need to right click and view info or detailed properties and uncheck "hide extension" to see this)

  • Open up TextEdit > Go to the Format option > change it to "Plain Text" > copy and paste the text inside the wpa_supplicant.conf file into your blank text file

    • Change the network SSID (your wifi name) and the network PSK (your wifi password) to match your own home network
    • Save the file
      • Select Unicode-8
      • Uncheck the .txt option
    • Make sure the full name is 
      wpa_supplicant.conf
      without any other extension (you might need to right click and view info or detailed properties and uncheck "hide extension" to see this)

If you're using a hidden network, an unsecured network, an extremely long password or want some special configurations, see here for more details on how to set that up

Once you have your 2 files (ssh and wpa_supplicant.conf) move them into your microSD card

  • These files will disappear once you boot up the Raspberry Pi

  • If you need to edit them again, you'll need to reverse the procedure and add the ".txt" extension at the end of the file name to view and edit them in a regular text editor

  • Eject

    • Windows users: Right click the USB/attached drive icon in the bottom right of the task bar
      • Select your microSD card
        • It should say "[your microSD card drive letter] can be safely removed now"
    • Mac users: Drag the icon for the microSD card drive to the eject icon
    • If it's a spring-loaded type, you can press the card deeper into the slot and it should pop back out. If you have the kind where the SD card sticks out then it won't have a spring and can be easily removed with your fingers

Rpi0W-Etcher-flash7

STEP 4 - Raspberry Pi

You're finally ready to setup the physical Raspberry Pi!

  • Take the microSD card out of the microSD card adapter, and slot it into the Raspberry Pi
  • Connect the power plug to the slot that is labelled "PWR IN"
  • You should see a green light in the corner (close to the "PWR IN" plug) if the power is on and the OS boots correctly

Rpi0W-ON

STEP 5 - SSH

Ping test

Windows users:

  • Go to the Start menu > type in "cmd" > run the Command Prompt program

Mac users:

  • Go to your applications and search for the Terminal program

From here both users can do a quick test to see if their Raspberry Pi is properly connected to the network

  • Type in: 
    ping raspberrypi.local

Rpi0W-ping-B W

  • Make note of the IP address this returns, which in my case starts with "192.###.##.###", yours should be formatted similarly as four sections with up to three-digit numbers separated by three periods.
  • Alternatively, if your IP address returns letters and numbers such as "2001:#xx#:##x#:####:####:#x#x:####:####" with eight sections with four characters in each, separated by periods between the sections, you have an IPv6 address. This is expected to become more commonplace and will work fine.
  • If you have no response and it's been at least several minutes since the Raspberry Pi was booted up, try moving it closer to the router and try to ping again

Mac users:

  • Cancel the ping by pressing control + C

Now we can actually try to SSH

Easy way:

Use this if you've only got one Raspberry Pi on the whole network

  • From the Terminal > type in: 
    ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

More tech savvy way:

Use this if you're managing multiple Raspberry Pi's on the same network, you'll need this to specify which one. Or if you're changing OS's often or connecting to many Pi's

  • From the Terminal > type in: 
    ssh pi@192.xxx.xx.xxx
    • Replace the digits after the @ symbol with your Raspberry Pi's IP address
    • If you have an IPv6 address you can select the IP address from the ping results, copy and paste it here (right clicking will aid with that)
    • See here for more info for Mac users

For a more advanced method, good especially if you're handling multiple Raspberry Pi's or want a one click solution or are getting errors, see my PuTTY section

Rpi0W-SSH warning

You may have to type in "yes" and hit enter to proceed

STEP 6 - Logging into the Pi

Once you've successfully connected over SSH, you are now operating over the command line in the Raspberry Pi, also called "command line interface" (CLI). At this point, your computer is remotely accessing your Raspberry Pi and can run any programs on it (provided you know what to type in). But first, it will ask for the default login credentials of the Raspberry Pi, which we are going to change IMMEDIATELY for security reasons.

  • Login as 
    pi
  • Password is 
    raspberry

This is the command for changing the password

  • Type in:

    passwd

  • Enter the default password

    raspberry

  • Now enter your desired password twice

    Rpi0W-passwd

Congrats! You are now ready to start using your Raspberry Pi!

STEP 7 - Handy extras

For a simple GUI based way to edit important system settings, such as:

  • passwords
  • wifi networks
  • SSH, VNC
  • overclocking
  • Remote GPIO, SPI, I2C, serial, camera connections

You can use the command:

sudo raspi-config

sudo raspi-config

One more thing: always shut down properly by typing in

sudo halt

The green light in the corner will blink a few times before turning off. Now you can unplug the power. Unplugging it before a proper shutdown (either from command line or from the desktop interface's shutdown button) can result in data corruption on the microSD card which can eventually destroy the micro SD card and whatever data you had on it. If your setup did not work for some reason and you have the adapters for HDMI and the microUSB to regular USB for a keyboard, plugging those in would be the easiest way to check this. If not, you can unplug it and start over but try to keep this to a minimum