Raspberry Pi Forums

I am preparing to spend a few, maybe more, without internet (starting in about 5 days time), making some changes that are going to require this for the transition.

Is the documentation for the RPi available in a downloadable offline form? I already have the BCM2835 documentation, as well as the ARMARM for the ARMv6,ARMv7,and ARMv8.

I am looking to get the mailbox documentation, config documentation, the WiringPi documentation, and as much of the other documentation related to the Raspberry Pi as possible.

I thank you.

You could clone this repo via git :

https://github.com/raspberrypi/documentation

You would also need software to render Markdown to HTML/PDF


ghans

If it's available online, you can convert it to PDF in Raspbian with CUPS by installing the cups-pdf package which gives you a virtual printer that generates a PDF file (usually saved in your ~/PDF directory.

That would be a better solution , seeing it work on things not written in Markdown too.

ghans

Thank you both for the sugestions. I am now installing cups-pdf on my Raspbian to print out those pages to PDF.

It would be nice if the RPi foundation would provide that documentation in a format for viewing without internet.

DavidS wrote:Thank you both for the sugestions. I am now installing cups-pdf on my Raspbian to print out those pages to PDF.

It would be nice if the RPi foundation would provide that documentation in a format for viewing without internet.

It's hard enough getting/keeping what we have now up to date and correct!

The suggestion above - git clone the docs repo, is probably the best bet, and use a Markdown equipped editor (like Atom?). And every time you are online you can do a `git pull --rebase` and easily get the latest version.

The docs repo changes every day, multiple times, so a PDF will become out of date very quickly.

jamesh wrote:

DavidS wrote:Thank you both for the sugestions. I am now installing cups-pdf on my Raspbian to print out those pages to PDF.

It would be nice if the RPi foundation would provide that documentation in a format for viewing without internet.

It's hard enough getting/keeping what we have now up to date and correct!

The suggestion above - git clone the docs repo, is probably the best bet, and use a Markdown equipped editor (like Atom?). And every time you are online you can do a `git pull --rebase` and easily get the latest version.

The docs repo changes every day, multiple times, so a PDF will become out of date very quickly.

Unless the docs in the repo were done in PDF or PS to start with, then it would be the most up to date, as it would be a PS or PDF file that is updated.

The same process that converts the markdown to html for raspberrypi.org/documentation could also generate the PDFs, in theory.

ShiftPlusOne wrote:The same process that converts the markdown to html for raspberrypi.org/documentation could also generate the PDFs, in theory.

True, I wonder if it's worth putting the effort in to do that.

jamesh wrote:

ShiftPlusOne wrote:The same process that converts the markdown to html for raspberrypi.org/documentation could also generate the PDFs, in theory.

True, I wonder if it's worth putting the effort in to do that.

Where is the demand ?

PeterO

PeterO wrote:

jamesh wrote:

ShiftPlusOne wrote:The same process that converts the markdown to html for raspberrypi.org/documentation could also generate the PDFs, in theory.

True, I wonder if it's worth putting the effort in to do that.

Where is the demand ?

PeterO

I have seen other threads that were posted in the past about wanting PDF's for online documentation for the same kinds of things. It has been a while.

If you think about it, in educational settings it is not always practical to use the internet documentation, often a PDF is more reasonable.

ShiftPlusOne wrote:The same process that converts the markdown to html for raspberrypi.org/documentation could also generate the PDFs, in theory.

How would I do the same in a batch job?

DavidS wrote:

ShiftPlusOne wrote:The same process that converts the markdown to html for raspberrypi.org/documentation could also generate the PDFs, in theory.

How would I do the same in a batch job?

There are many tools
https://kevin.deldycke.com/2012/01/how- ... -markdown/
And you can just do a recursive search and make a PDF for each file.

kusti8 wrote:

DavidS wrote:

ShiftPlusOne wrote:The same process that converts the markdown to html for raspberrypi.org/documentation could also generate the PDFs, in theory.

How would I do the same in a batch job?

There are many tools
https://kevin.deldycke.com/2012/01/how- ... -markdown/
And you can just do a recursive search and make a PDF for each file.

Thankyou for that.

The demand, it would be excellent for me and no doubt clubs (like in school) who print it out for the instructions.

Often a full page document is easier to read over and on a mobile phone, easier to store for later.

I wouldn't say it would enjoy the most used feature though.
Put the feelers out at the clubs and schools.

Adafruit has that pdf feature and it is very nice to use.

Of course what it doesn't do is give you the code file or give cut and paste. But that's just like MagPi too.

pandoc can do markdown → PDF, but it does it via LaTeX. The TeX Live package you'll need to convert that is absolutely huge, so it might not be the best route.

I've recently discovered WeasyPrint for doing HTML → PDF. It does a really good job: way better than any browser, with proper page flow. It's designed to be scriptable.

I didn't have much luck with pandoc, since svg isn't supported. I found some filters which can be used to convert the svg files as required, but they didn't work.

On the note of documentation, the config.txt documentation is missing, 404 at https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... fig-txt.md

To where does the cups-pdf save the created pdf?

DavidS wrote:On the note of documentation, the config.txt documentation is missing, 404 at https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... fig-txt.md

Should've been fixed if your raspberrypi-sys-mods package is up to date.

kusti8 wrote:

DavidS wrote:

ShiftPlusOne wrote:The same process that converts the markdown to html for raspberrypi.org/documentation could also generate the PDFs, in theory.

How would I do the same in a batch job?

There are many tools
https://kevin.deldycke.com/2012/01/how- ... -markdown/
And you can just do a recursive search and make a PDF for each file.

Ouch, 630MB of space for just those tools. And I am in the process of setting up a complete raspbian install that is to be less than 300MB total including X and all the graphical applications.

ShiftPlusOne wrote:

DavidS wrote:On the note of documentation, the config.txt documentation is missing, 404 at https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... fig-txt.md

Should've been fixed if your raspberrypi-sys-mods package is up to date.

What does a Raspbian package have to do with a web site? I just use the bookmark I have had around ever sense that was added to the RPi site (it used to be only on elinux). I used the elinux version for now.

Ah, I am not responsible for the internet. I thought you were referring to the link to the documentation in the default config.txt itself.

ShiftPlusOne wrote:Ah, I am not responsible for the internet. I thought you were referring to the link to the documentation in the default config.txt itself.

Ah ok. LOL.

I do not use the default at all.

DavidS wrote:

ShiftPlusOne wrote:

DavidS wrote:On the note of documentation, the config.txt documentation is missing, 404 at https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... fig-txt.md

Should've been fixed if your raspberrypi-sys-mods package is up to date.

What does a Raspbian package have to do with a web site? I just use the bookmark I have had around ever sense that was added to the RPi site (it used to be only on elinux). I used the elinux version for now.

It's moved to here..

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... /README.md

For the reason that the page was huge and needing splitting up.