RECOMMENDED WAY TO GET STARTED WITH THE RASPBERRY Pi Many resources come from the RaspberryPi Organization site or from links on that site: https://www.raspberrypi.org/ Download the NOOBS Zip file from their DOWNLOADS Tab: https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/ Other downloads you will need soon are: Download SDFormatterV4, for initially formatting the microSD, from: https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/ Another recommended program is Win32DiskImager from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/ for saving image files (clones) of your microSD at various stages creating your Pi installion. Always good to have backups after you've successfully made changes, just in case you crash your Pi or lose that tiny SD. OTHER SITES FOR GENERAL Pi INFO, DOWNLOADS and RESOURCES: http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-77264/l/raspberry-pi-user-guide NOTE: You need to register at the element14.com site to use some of its resources, including the above guide. Do so! That guide is worth it, and the site has many other good resources. Meltwater's Raspberry Pi Hardware Kits and Guides: https://pihw.wordpress.com/guides/direct-network-connection/ Very good summary with examples of many unix/linux commands: http://www.math.utah.edu/lab/unix/unix-commands.html Short guide to some useful linux commands: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/100 ************** MAKE INITIAL NOOBS MicroSD ***************** (NOTE: Used SDFormatterV4 (TRENDY co --- See iii. about SIZE ADJUSTMENT "ON" option volume label: TONYSpi8GB, quick format, to first format that MicroSD ) 1. Insert an SD card that is 8 GB or greater in size into your computer. 2. Format the microSD card using the platform-specific instructions below for Windows DETAILS: i. Download the SD Association's Formatting Tool from https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/eula_windows/ ii. Install and run the Formatting Tool on your machine iii. Set "FORMAT SIZE ADJUSTMENT" option to "ON" in the "Options" menu iv. Check that the SD card you inserted matches the one selected by the Tool v. Click the "Format" button Copied all unzipped files to root of newly formatted 8 GB MicroSD ************************************************ Copy all unzipped files (not the directory you extracted them into) to the root bnewly formatted blank 8 GB MicroSD Attach a USB keyboard/mouse to the Pi, connect its HDMI port to your HDTV (or use an adapter for other non-HDMI display), and connect a 2 amp micro usb phone charger to the Pi's power socket, and watch the display. Your Pi will now boot into NOOBS and should display a list of operating systems that you can choose to install. Raspian is the recommended choice unless you have a particular reason for choosing another one. ******************* IF DISPLAY IS BLANK ***************** If your display remains blank, you should select the correct output mode for your display by pressing one of the following number keys on your keyboard: 1. HDMI mode - default display mode. 2. HDMI safe mode - mode if you are using the HDMI connector and cannot see anything on screen when the Pi has booted. 3. Composite PAL mode - select either this mode or composite NTSC mode if you are using the composite RCA video connector. 4. Composite NTSC mode If this doesn't work it's time to click the FORUMS tab on the Raspberry Pi Organization site! ********************************************************** This initial write of 2384 MB took about 15 minutes and initially Raspian was setup to use British English and gb keyboard. After a couple of minutes it said OS installed correctly. (NOTE: You can install another OS or start from scratch again by holding Shift key during BOOT if ever needed. Hopefully there's a better way to recover than that, like your latest microSD image!) After hitting return (OK to reboot) it boot up and started "raspi-config" automatically. NOTE: See https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/raspi-config.md for details on raspi-config. NOTE: You don't need to make any changes with raspi-config at this time, so you can just exit it, power down the Pi, and make a backup copy of you microSD at this time. ******** NOW YOU MIGHT WANT TO BACKUP ******************** If you do want to make changes now before making your backup image, here are the changes I made: Changed Internationalization: (added 3 en-US to the en-UK using space to mark) Changed pi PW to ~=MyRpi (will disable this login eventually) Changed Internationalization Keyboard to Generic 101 key PC, Eng US, AltGR=Default for layout, no compose key, no ctrl-alt-backspace meaning. NOTE: Expand Memory and Advanced SSH Enable were defaults and should be left that way. NOTE: If you decided to make some changes with raspi-config at this time, then you can just exit it, power down the Pi, and make a backup copy of your microSD at this time. ************************************************************ Now before powering up the Pi again, connect it to your router either with an Ethernet cable or with a USB WiFi device such as the Wi-Pi. Then power up and the Pi will reboot. Log in as user pi with the original password (raspberry) or your new password if you changed it with raspi-config. You now need to connect to your router. The easiest way is to use the Pi's graphic environment. Start the graphic XWindow with the command: startx Now right-click on the connection symbol on the taskbar and select your router and set its password to connect. You should now bring Raspbian up to the latest version. You can do this either by clicking on the terminal symbol on the taskbar and entering the commands: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade or first exit the graphic window and run these directly from the command line. Another option is to wait until later to bring Raspbian up to the latest version. You can run them using your installation keyboard and monitor or connect via PuTTY at the command line as long as the Pi is has an internet connection. ****************** PuTTy ********************************* PuTTy is a program that you run on your PC. It connects to the Pi using a protocol named SSH (Secure Shell). It lets you use the PC instead of the USB keyboard/mouse and the HDTV monitor. The PC and Pi should both be on the same Router at this point. You connect to the Pi using its Router-assigned DHCP address, usually 192.168.???.??? and login using the Pi's username (pi) and password (raspberry). Later you can setup the Pi to connect directly to your PC with an Ethernet cable. That's a topic for another day. **************** DETAILS on MAKING microSD BACKUP ********** Start up Win32DiskImager. In the "Image File" box, enter the path and name for storing your image file. Under the "Device" box, select your microSD card (make sure it's the right drive). Click the "Read" button to create the image file from your card. When it's done creating the image file, you can eject your SD card and put it back in your Raspberry Pi. If you ever need to re-create a microSD just reverse the process. The only thing different is to click "Write" instead of read (and be ABSOLUTELY sure it's the right drive in "Device"). ***********************************************************