Inital Setup - JohnOrthoefer/reference_code GitHub Wiki

Setup

Download the boot image

There are two locations to get a boot image for the Raspberry Pi. The students only need to choose one.

  1. A Pre-Configured Image on Google Docs. This image is large 4GBs for the compressed image, and 16GBs uncompressed. This route should be the quickest. But requires at least 20GB of free space on your computer during the decompress phase.
  2. Use the stock Raspberry Pi OS image

Copy the image to an SD card

There are a number of ways to do this.

Hardware

You'll need a USB SD-Card adapter or a computer with a built in SD-Card slot. The cards we shipped came with a microSD to SD, since most computers have SD card slots.

Software

  • Recommend Balena Etcher
  • Raspberry Pi Foundation imager
  • Linux only - you can use dd

Note- make sure you eject the SD card when the writing is done. Since this will make sure everything is written.

Pre-Boot Configuration

This section is only if you want to boot your Raspberry Pi headless (without a directly connected monitor, keyboard or mouse.)

Setting up WiFi

  • Eject and Reinsert the card. You should now see disk mounted called boot.
  • In an editor, that makes plain text files. Avoid programs like Microsoft Word which do not work well with plain text files.
  • In the boot directory/folder put a file called wpa_supplicant.conf The items inside the ${} you need to replace with your answers.
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=us

network={ scan_ssid=1 ssid="${YOUR_SSID}" psk="${YOUR_WIFIPASS}" }

Hardware Setup

  • Monitor (or TV) with an HDMI port. The kit includes a Micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.
  • USB Keyboard and Mouse. You'll need to provide these.
  • USB-C Power Supply. The kit provides a 3 watt USB-C power supply. The power for the Raspberry Pi is the USB-C connector closest to the corner.

First Boot

If you have a head (monitor, keyboard, mouse) connected the default is to just drop you into a graphical user interface (GUI) already logged in.

If you are doing a headless configuration, you'll need to find your Pi on the network, as it will get some random IP address from your network Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server. For most home setups the DHCP server is your home router.

Finding your IP Address

  • open a command shell (cmd on windows, or Terminal on Mac) and ping raspberry.local

Post-Boot configuration