Re: How to start using your Raspberry Pi

[abishur]

Starter guide, started by Abishur, post edited and expanded by Mahjongg.

If you are only interested in a short quick start guide you can find it here, in several languages, as a .pdf :
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2892

Lets get started!
First you have your R-Pi (if the picture is a bit too small for you, open it in a new window)



Arrange your board to look like the photo and let's get connecting!

On the bottom "edge" in the middle of the board is the HDMI Type A (Full sized) port.  Just connect any HDMI cable from the board to your TV for video and audio

If you don't have an HDMI port you can use the yellow phono jack (RCA Jack for those who call it that) located in the middle of the "top" edge and the 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack to the right of it.

Plug a USB keyboard and mouse into the USB slots located on the right edge.  You can also plug a wifi adapter into the USB slot for wireless internet access

Just under the USB ports on the right edge is the ethernet connector for anyone who wants to plug the R-Pi into a wired network.

On the underside of the board on the left edge is a spot to put your full sized SD card (or micro SD card in a full-sized adapter) You can buy a pre-imaged card, or make one yourself. Instructions are in the raspberry PI Wiki, (http://elinux.org/RaspberryPiBoard) here: http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup. Make sure to visit the downloads page to get the Operating System to use with the Raspberry Pi and instructions on how to put it on the card (FYI, you can not just copy and paste).  At the moment Raspbian is the preferred option, but don't be afraid to download all the available options, and test them out for yourself!

Finally, at the very bottom of the left edge is the micro usb power connector.  Plug in a regulated power supply that is rated at 5V ±5% and at least 700mA (or 0.7A).  Any number bigger than 700 mA (like 1000mA) will also work. Avoid using the smaller chargers used for small GSM phones, as these are often unregulated, even if they claim "5V 1A", they may do "5V" and may do "1A", but not at the same time!

Not sure if you have a micro usb? Here's an easy picture to tell the difference

The miniUSB (on the left) is the wrong one. It’s larger and looks like a trapezoid with its sides pinched in.  The microUSB (on the right) is the correct one.  It is smaller and also looks like a trapezoid except it’s sides are rounded outward.

So with the setup ready ist time to power on the PI, if the PI gets power the red LED marked PWR will light, and all goes well the green LED marked OK (and ACK in later version) will blink to show whenever the PI reads from the SD-card.

Note that the PI doesn't have a BIOS (or rather, even the BIOS is stored on the SD-card), so without succesful booting the PI will show nothing on screen!

If all goes well the PI will show a "rainbow screen", (actually four pixels expanded and blended to full screen size by the GPU) shortly followed by a long scrolling text that tells you exactly what the PI is doing to get ready to work.

Once the R-Pi finishes loading, you'll need to put in your user name and password (this information is also located on the downloads page).  The default name is "pi", and the default password is "raspberry", but note that when entering the password nothing will be displayed on screen!
Its possible that this step is skipped at the very first time you boot.

After that (only the first times you boot) you will be presented with the configuration menu.

you can, (read must) use this to expand the space on your SD-card to the full size of the card, enable overscan for your monitor, set the keyboard configuration, (If you do not use an UK keyboard, but for example an US keyboard, then here is the place where you can switch to an US keyboard layout!) and other basic configuration options such as password and user options.
The menu won't be shown on later boots, but can be recalled at any time by running raspi-config: using:

Code: Select all

sudo raspi-config

To get into the familiar graphical user interface (GUI), after you have logged in, type

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startx

After you are done with the GUI to stop and turn off the PI, exit the GUI, and once again in the text screen enter the text:

Code: Select all

sudo halt

or

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sudo shutdown -h now

This will shutdown the PI safely, (just turning it off might damage the SD-cards file system). after that you can turn it off.

If you are using an older Rasbian distribution, (pre-loaded card) and have an internet connection, (just plug in an Ethernet cable to your ethernet modem should do the trick) you might want to upgrade and update Raspbian to the latest version. To do so just do:

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sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

and wait a few minutes for the upgrade to finish, then restart your PI.

A nice starter guide which goes into more details (especially on creating an SD-card) can be found here:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/04/raspberry-pi-getting-started-guide-how-to/

An educational guide with focus on learning to program can be found here:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2965

Finally there is the free monthly magazine, the magpi, which can be found here:
http://www.themagpi.com/

And not to forget, there is an official raspberry PI User Guide, written by RPF members, details can be found here:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2004

"but it *has* to be 5V"

I'm fairly certain that there is a +/- .25V tolerance. For example, it is possible to run the Pi on a 5.1V power supply (the kind that often comes with LG phones here in the US anyway)

[moderated, this part of the starter guide above has been post edited, as all USB supplies should be 5V (±5%), so this comment thread has become obsolete]

If it had to be exactly 5v, the whole thing would be impossible, since it is not possible for anything to supply exactly 5v (or any other exact number).

[abishur]

It's a guide for absolute beginners  I'm trying to keep things simple here   Besides, a 5.1V PSU is also going to have some margin of error and you get a board that goes enough into the negative and a PSU that goes enough into the positive and you have a Pi that won't work.  But, by telling people to stick with exactly 5V because A) I relieve liability for legal recourse should someone burn their Pi because they got a 5.25V PSU and it output a little more than the advertised voltage and B) 5v is what it's designed for, it would be silly of me to tell people to be okay with using something else

[abishur]

Joe Schmoe said:

If it had to be exactly 5v, the whole thing would be impossible, since it is not possible for anything to supply exactly 5v (or any other exact number).

The PSU needs to be rated for 5V output.  We all know that it's going to vary based on the quality of the electricity and the quality of the PSU itself but people need to make sure that they are buying PSU rated for an output of exactly 5V.  Otherwise if something goes wrong and they come crying about it odds are they're going to hear "Why were you using a 5.1V power supply for a product designed for 5V?" from whoever they bought it from.

Thanks sooo much dude!!! It really helped alot!

[mahjongg]

Well, 5V1 wouldn't do no harm. Normally "5V logic" works with tolerances of 5% (or older devices with 10%), so 5.25V would be (just) within tolerance.

Although... the 5V is only used to feed a 3.3 Volt regulator, as the R-PI (SoC) itself runs on 3.3volt, so it probably will run on much lower voltages than 5V (like 4.6 Volt). But the "5V" also goes to the R-PI's USB connectors, and what is connected there might be less forgiving.

Its not completely nonsense to warn about using a real 5V USB power supply though, as cheap chinese chargers (rated 5V, and using a micro USB connector) often output a fairly larger voltage when lightly loaded, sometimes up to 6 Volt! So make sure you are using a real 5V power supply, not a cheap charger! Your R-PI might survive it, but your connected USB devices might not.

It is also possible that a too high initial voltage will trigger the overvoltage protection on your PI, which will then "blow" your (F3) polyfuse. After that your PI may get less voltage than it needs, due to a not fully recovered polyfuse. It can take days for the polyfuse to resemble something like its original state. So use of a suitable power supply is very important.

On an unrelated issue, it also important that after the first successful boot you do a clean shutdown, using the command "sudo halt", or "sudo shutdown -h now". Just turning the PI off may at that stage cause corruption of the FAT partition, because after first boot the PI does many writes to the FAT partition, and these might not finish if you just turn off the power.

[mahjongg]

P.S. I think the "programming the SD-Card" task might be underestimated, its not as simple as drag and drop contents to the card! What I have seen requires the use of the command line tool "DD", (or something similar) its not easy at all, and if you do it wrong the PI won't boot up! Living you in the dark (literally). The PI doesn't have a BIOS ROM, so no video will be generated until the PI can boot from the SD-card.

There should be a simple GUI program created that does the task in a foolproof way, because "fools" (that is adults, I trust little kids to do this fine) will also try to do this.

Luckily some people are selling pre-programmed SD-cards.

Abishur said:


It's a guide for absolute beginners  I'm trying to keep things simple here   Besides, a 5.1V PSU is also going to have some margin of error and you get a board that goes enough into the negative and a PSU that goes enough into the positive and you have a Pi that won't work.  But, by telling people to stick with exactly 5V because A) I relieve liability for legal recourse should someone burn their Pi because they got a 5.25V PSU and it output a little more than the advertised voltage and B) 5v is what it's designed for, it would be silly of me to tell people to be okay with using something else

Might I suggest that the PSU requirements be modified slightly to say 'Regulated 5v adapter'. Not all adapters advertised as 5v put out a no load voltage (if they are not regulated), relying instead that the connected device will draw the nominal rated current to bring the voltage down to the nominal rating.
[done! by moderator]

Thanks for that, Abishur. I believe I have all the bits 'n pieces now (including the 5v micro). Now I have to wait for the only actual missing component(s), the Pi itself. Can't wait!

mahjongg said:

P.S. I think the "programming the SD-Card" task might be underestimated, what I have seen requires the use of the command line tool "DD", its not easy at all, and if you do it wrong the PI won't boot up! Living you in the dark (literally).

Take a look at this other beginners thread - I've posted a link to a DD tutorial of mine and the OP (itsonlyme) has provided a link to a great utility for managing SD card images:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/for.....e-software

[mahjongg]

Tass said:

mahjongg said:

P.S. I think the "programming the SD-Card" task might be underestimated, what I have seen requires the use of the command line tool "DD", its not easy at all, and if you do it wrong the PI won't boot up! Living you in the dark (literally).

Take a look at this other beginners thread - I've posted a link to a DD tutorial of mine and the OP (itsonlyme) has provided a link to a great utility for managing SD card images:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/for.....e-software

Reading that, and following the link to the tutorial, i'm even more convinced that its not a task for unexperienced users. I think a tool to create (and before that wipe the card) an image on an sd-card with a simple tool, requiring no more effort than selecting the image, and the card (with protection against selecting a hard-disk) is badly needed.

[abishur]

I know that the win32disk whatever program linked on the downloads page is insanely easy to use.  I mean it's chose the img file you just downloaded, pick your SD drive and click write.  Of course, the limitation with that one is that it really only works once.  Once you write the img file windows can't read every partition on the card anymore, so before you can use it again you have to erase every partition via linux.  I had a devil of a time doing that last night as I don't have an external SD card reader and my linux VM wouldn't see the SD card reader on my laptop.  My final solution came via sticking the SD card in an unused blackberry phone and mounting *that* to my linux box.  Fun times.

Still I kinda glossed over it in this (very basic) guide because of how complicated it is.  There are much more complete guides that can be followed on the downloads page, and I saw no need to re-invent the wheel.  Plus I'm expecting a better guide to come out (maybe one from someone who actually has the pi?), but I wanted a basic guide up to help the people who have already started getting the pi (lucky jerks! )

[mahjongg]

perhaps booting a Live CD with Gparted on it will help people to remove the partitions.

Isn't there a simple windows app to remove all partitions on a SD-Card ?

Does Win32DiskImager really only work once?

I"ve just tried it with a SD card that"s already been written and it appears to write correctly a second (and third) time.

But I don"t have hardware to test on and maybe it"s fooling me.

This is W7 64 and a 4G SD card plugged into the PC"s SD card slot.

I"ve also got a full SD formatter called "SD Formatter V3.0.0.0" It seems to be able to restore SD cards that have had some propriety format applied.  I don"t recall where it came from other than at the end of a Google search.

Try Easeus free home edition that is what I used to delete the partitions on mine, no need to switch to Linux if you do not want too.

http://www.partition-tool.com/.....wnload.htm

I even used this to recover a HDD from an Xbox 360 that had died on me.

Agree with Vindicator, this is a very useful and versatile program for any Windows user to have around. (Easeus if you happen to see this, how about a raspberry pi version?!)

[mahjongg]

We already have a similar partitioning program for the raspi, it's called Gparted.

I've succesfully created my 2GB image (latest Debian Win7)  but have an 8GB SD card – how can I resize the partition to make available all my space, or would it be better to create another blank partition ?  I only have Windows and the one RaspberryPI – no other Linux machine to do this on,  which is how the Wiki details it.

Chris

Thorran said:

I've succesfully created my 2GB image (latest Debian Win7)  but have an 8GB SD card – how can I resize the partition to make available all my space, or would it be better to create another blank partition ?  I only have Windows and the one RaspberryPI – no other Linux machine to do this on,  which is how the Wiki details it.

Chris

The simple option (and I'm sure its detailed on the wiki as well) would be to boot a gparted live disk (on a usb key, or cd) and then use that to resize the partition of the sd card. So boot your windows computer with that disk instead it will go to a live linux, make sure the sd card is in the reader, pull it up in the options and away you go.

I think the last poster has lost the plot, since when will motoGp help us fire up our pi's for the first time.

As i'm not currently a Linux user, window C++, C# & microchip pic's I need a single port of call that will have an img and programs that when run on a PC will fire up the PI to a known stable point. From here I can go on to learn my around Linux and the PI.

Every new user can't wait to see it running and a fool proof way of doing this would give a bost to every new user.

PS could the maths test be made a bit harder i'm starting to get it right first time now!!

I'm brand new to Linux based OS and i was just wondering how to do the basics such as setting up a new profile eg not having 'Pi' as user id and getting a feel for the programs that come pre-installed if anybody could help or point my in the direction of instructions would be greatly appreciated.(sorry if i said something that makes no sense but as i said i'm brand new to this)

SH4RK3Y said:

I'm brand new to Linux based OS and i was just wondering how to do the basics such as setting up a new profile eg not having 'Pi' as user id and getting a feel for the programs that come pre-installed if anybody could help or point my in the direction of instructions would be greatly appreciated.(sorry if i said something that makes no sense but as i said i'm brand new to this)

Pre-installed programs are few at the moment as far as I know, just a web browser, Python, and MIT Scratch.

When you get your Pi, to make a new user (as far as I know)

sudo useradd NAME

sudo mkdir /home/NAME

chown NAME:users /home/NAME

I simply reformatted the SD card in a digital camera and started again when I wanted to change from Arch to Dabien.

JeremyF said:

SH4RK3Y said:

I'm brand new to Linux based OS and i was just wondering how to do the basics such as setting up a new profile eg not having 'Pi' as user id and getting a feel for the programs that come pre-installed if anybody could help or point my in the direction of instructions would be greatly appreciated.(sorry if i said something that makes no sense but as i said i'm brand new to this)

Pre-installed programs are few at the moment as far as I know, just a web browser, Python, and MIT Scratch.

When you get your Pi, to make a new user (as far as I know)

sudo useradd NAME

sudo mkdir /home/NAME

chown NAME:users /home/NAME

Don't forget to add your NAME to the sudoers list too (if you want to sudo with it) - there is a post elsewhere on the forums for this, can't see it at the moment