Raspberry PI - Get started

Default tasks when setting up a new Raspberry PI.

Get Raspbian

Download from raspberrypi.org

Transfer it onto the SD card

Plug in the SD card and run fdisk -l to find out which device it is. If it is mounted, unmount it umount /dev/sdc1 I assume for now it is /dev/sdc. You have to use yours, make sure to get this right!!

Then write the image to the SD card:

dd if=2019-09-26-raspbian-buster-full.img of=/dev/sdc bs=512k

Setup Wifi and SSH before the first boot

Most often you don’t want to connect a keyboard and monitor. You just want plug it in the power socket somewhere and get going. Therefore you need to setup Wifi and enable the SSH server before you boot it up.

Simply remove the SD card and put it back in again. Then the /boot partition of the card should get mounted.

Run wpa_passphrase YOUR_SSID and note the output. Then create the file wpa_supplicant.conf in the boot parition and adjust it accordingly:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country="Two letter country code, e.g. GB"

network={
    ssid="Your SSID"
    psk="Your PASSWORD"
}

Enable the SSH server by creating an empty file ssh in the boot partition.

Umount the SD card partitions again, put the card into the Raspberry Pi and start it up.

Change the password

Run nmap -sn 192.168.1.0/24 to find out the IP address of the Pi. Then log in with the default password which is ‘raspberry’: ssh pi@192.168.1.xxx

And change it: passwd

Update system

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Install X2Go (optional)

If you also want to use the desktop, install the X2Go server.

Create the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/x2go.list:

# X2Go Repository (release builds)
deb http://packages.x2go.org/raspbian buster main
# X2Go Repository (sources of release builds)
deb-src http://packages.x2go.org/raspbian buster main

Add the key:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keys.gnupg.net E1F958385BFE2B6E

Install:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install x2goserver x2goserver-xsession

Start x2goserver and enable it at boot time:

sudo systemctl start x2goserver
sudo systemctl enable x2goserver

Install the client on your PC accordingly, the package is called x2goclient. Then you can remotely log into the desktop running on the Raspberry Pi. The default Raspbian desktop image comes with the ‘LXDE’ desktop. You can skip the ‘Setup’ tasks which pop up on the first desktop login, you’ve already done them.