Setting Up A Raspberry Pi B... again!

I bought my Raspberry Pi years ago. At that time you had to jump through all sorts of hoops to get Raspbian working (a version of linux designed for the Raspberry Pi). I played with it a bit, setting up an SSH session as well as running XBMC (X-Box Media Centre). Life happens and I set it aside until now. It is really my renewed interest in Arduino that is getting me back into these things. Since the old SD card had long ago been cannibalised for something else, I bought a new one and started again. It turns out this was a good decision, as the RPi landscape has changed significantly. There is now a new (and better) site at raspberrypi.org, and most importantly NOOBS. NOOBS, I've learned, stands for New Out Of Box Software and is the software that I never new I always wanted. I'm not a hardcore programmer, having taken a couple classes tops. It is for people like me that NOOBs was made.

What you need:

• Raspberry Pi
• USB Mouse
• USB Keyboard
• Micro-USB power supply (Get one that has enough power to supply everything)
• HDMI cable or RCA cable
• Monitor or TV
• SD card
• Computer

Tutorial

I don't want to take the long-winded approach and spell out the entire tutorial when there is a great video now provided by raspberrypi.org here (I've included it below). I will mention that when it is installing you will see a dropdown at the bottom to select your locale. Do this here, so you don't need to do it in the raspi-config page that starts immediately following installation.

Note: The video doesn't go into what to set-up in the raspi-config options that pop-up when NOOBS is installed, so let me take you through this:

1. Expand filesystem - NOTHING will happen if you select this, just a friendly message saying NOOBS already took the liberty.

2. Change User Password - the default password is raspberry, so change it if you want more security.

3. Enable Boot to Desktop/Scratch - There are three options here, the default being booting to the command prompt (console text). The second is to boot to the graphical user interface (GUI), and the third to boot to the Scratch programming environment. I chose boot to GUI, solely because you can always change this option later, and I found myself always typing startx to start the GUI from the command prompt anyway!

4. Internationalisation Options - This is just to set your time options on the RPi. Ignore locale, as you should have selected it in when during the NOOBS installation. You can also select your timezone, and keyboard layout here if you want.

5. Enable Camera - the RPi has a ~$35 camera that you can buy. If you want to enable it, do it here.

6. Add to Rastrack - Rastrack is a map of all registered RPis. If you want to add yours, do it here. You can also skip this step and do it later at rastrack.co.uk. There are A LOT out there!

7. Overclock - This is a personal choice. The major issues with overclocking are overheating and instability. Basically they can reduce the lifespan of your RPi. If you want to know more, here is a great article that tests the RPi at all overclocking options and finds no problems even with the Turbo mode. I would suggest some overclocking, but if you really don't mind a slightly slower speed, there is nothing wrong with not changing it at all!

8. Advanced Options - Just as the title suggests, these options are advanced. Feel free to skip right past them. You may want to go through these to know what options are available, and if you are planning on remotely accessing your RPi at a later time, I would suggest enabling SSH.

9. About raspi-config - Info about this configuration program, but really who reads these things!

If you've made changes, select yes to reboot your system, and then, voila, congratulations!

UPDATE: I was having a lot of problems connecting to the internet, as it would work and then stop. I found somewhere that if your power supply doesn't provide enough current, this can lead to an underpowered ethernet port. I changed my power supply and voila... it connects perfectly.

A little more...
There are tons and tons of RPi projects out there that people have tutorials for, but here are some ideas of what to do now that you have your RPi running.

• Use it as a media centre with RaspBMC.
• Use it as a remote server, accessing it over SSH.
• Create an oldschool gaming box with RetroPie.
• Use it to program in python!
• Use it to control things from robots to 3D printers! Many people don't know the RPi has a bunch of general purpose input/output (GPIO) pins you can use!
• Use it to program Arduino microcontrollers.
• Use it to program in Mathematica (it comes with a FREE copy!).