Headless NOOBS network install?

[fyngyrz]

I have a model B kit with power supply coming on Tuesday. I have a Mac; the model B comes with both ethernet and a wifi dongle, and an 8 GB card with "NOOBS" on it.

What I would like to (hope I can) do is:

1) plug in power with card inserted?
2) find it on the network (easy, no explanation needed if DHCP simply works)
3) SSH or TELNET or VNC into it -- or otherwise talk to it via the network... wifi or wired is fine
4) tell it what OS I want
5) wait for that OS install and interact via console/network to configure same (raspbian, near as I can tell)
6) use python to dev and run the "raspberry pi pi face", also arriving Tuesday

I have no card reader, and even less interest in getting one.

Is this kind of startup possible? Everywhere I look, they keep talking about needing a card reader to pre-edit the card first... that can't be right, can it? What's the point of supplying the software if it isn't ready to run? I'm very confused about this.

I don't mean to be rude or anything, it's that whole "I know nothing" startup that's killing me here, I'm sure.

Thank you for any assistance, including "you can't do it that way, fool"

[DougieLawson]

raspbian-ua-netinst is the tool you need.

[drgeoff]

AFAIK until an OS is installed the RPi will not be on the network. (NOOBS is not an OS.)

Likewise, booted NOOBS is not running telnet, ssh, VNC etc.

[socialdefect]

raspbian-ua-netinst is the tool you need.

If the install doesn't fail it's great indeed but it also has no ssh server enabled by default and you'll need a cardreader to set-up the SD card and to debug if the install fails. Also it's not really suited for beginners..

Best way is to just take your fresh package somewhere where you can plug it in a tv/monitor and connect a usb keyboard. As soon as the OS is installed you can activate it's ssh server (if not active by default) and continue as you had planned.

Is this kind of startup possible? Everywhere I look, they keep talking about needing a card reader to pre-edit the card first... that can't be right, can it? What's the point of supplying the software if it isn't ready to run? I'm very confused about this.

I don't know why N00BS is the default choice, never worked for me and I'm a hardcore Linux geek. If you'd bought an SD card wit Raspbian or Pidora pre-installed you could have just plugged it in and used ssh.
N00BS is not an operating system, it just helps you set one up so it does not have the features you might expect from an operating system.
Installing an OS on the RasPi is a little different than most Linux systems. You need to bitcopy a disk image to your SD card in the same way you make a Linux USB key from a USB image.
Most OS do include a working ssh server by default but you'll need a device with an SD slot/connector or N00BS + screen/keyboard to be able to install one.
Installers like N00BS don't include an ssh server by default for it should log the user in an active shell session so this poses a great security risk since anyone (all super geeks) on your local network would be able to connect to the shell with the active installer.

One way to circomvent this is by promoting your SD card to bootloader and install a disk image on a USB key. To configure the bootloader to load the usb key just change the root partition in the boot partition's config on the SD from /dev/mmcblk0 to /dev/sda2 or /dev/sda1 and it should boot from usb. This way you won't have to buy an SD adapter right away.

[drgeoff]

Here in the UK, many high streets have a shop that will sell you a suitable card reader for less than 4% of the price of a naked B+ RPi.

[fruitoftheloom]

Try UK Poundland for USB Card Reader

[ghans]

NOOBSconfig might also be interesting:
https://github.com/meltwater2000/noobsconfig

ghans

[B.Goode]

You will still need an SD card reader working on some other system, but the 'official' NOOBS documentation describes a headless installation here -

Even if you are using your Pi without a display, you can still use NOOBS to easily install an OS of your choice. To set up NOOBS to automatically and silently (i.e. without requiring any user input) install a specific OS, follow these steps:

But this involves pre-selecting the OS you want to install, it isn't interactive. I think what you are attempting is beyond what NOOBS was designed to achieve.

[fyngyrz]

Thanks to everyone. I will use a keyboard and a monitor and get it done that way. It seems to me though that there is a market opportunity for somebody to provide an SD card that simply works. Cheers!

[Jim JKla]

Before the advent of the Noobs card, getting a Raspbian download and writing this to an SD card with an inexpensive card writer was the normal option.

The Noobs card has emerged as the prefered Noob startup but all of the older methods still work and are still supported.

If anything the cost has been pushed downwards by ever cheaper SD Cards.

There's probably room for the development of a blind start up built into the Noobs SD one that detected some GPIO state or posibly just a timing thing where if you left your RPi with a Noobs gard live for say 15 minutes it installed Raspbian and activated SHH obviously there would be some implications of a change like this that would require discussion and thinking through.

The statement that noobs is not an operating system must be slightly misleading because it runs a script that allows you a choice of OS to fully install. OK it must be considerd minamalist, (Probably a bit pedant).

I don't know if it's possible but could the Noobs program detect a situation where there was an Ethernet connected but no keyboard or mouse then default to SHH headless?

Note this is just a thought exercise.

[fruitoftheloom]

I would go for the Standalone Raspbain Wheezy install, it is not difficult, just spending under a tenner on a 8GB SD Card and SD Card Reader.

Both SD Card Formatter & Win32DiskImager are not difficult to use in Windows:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/documentatio ... /README.md

With SSH the Command Line is accessable and VNC can then be installed:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/documentatio ... /README.md

At the end of day the RPF ethos is learning

[Jim JKla]

Both SD Card Formatter & Win32DiskImager are not difficult to use in Windows:

Small snag the OP is a Mac user.

[fruitoftheloom]

Both SD Card Formatter & Win32DiskImager are not difficult to use in Windows:

Small snag the OP is a Mac user.

Not difficult in Mac Intel OSX either:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/documentatio ... ges/mac.md

[procount]

It is perfectly possible to install an OS through NOOBS in a headless fashion, although access to an SD card reader is still necessary to make some minor modifications to one of the configuration files. (Get a cheap SD card reader - you will need one sooner or later! )

Simply edit recovery.cmdline and add the word vncinstall to the end of the line.

When you boot NOOBS on a network with DHCP, it will obtain an IP address from your DHCP server and then start a VNC session instead of using the display and keyboard. Identify the IP address of your Pi from your router and VNC into it. You can now install your OS selections via NOOBS remotely.

Note that you must connect to VNC and press the shift key quickly to access the NOOBS menu (especially after you have already installed an OS). To avoid this you can add the word forcetrigger to recovery.cmdline which will force the menu to be displayed on every boot, so maybe you only want to set this temporarily.

If you don't have a DHCP server on your network to supply an IP address, you could always specify a static IP in recovery.cmdline by adding an ip=, although I have forgotten the syntax for this parameter.

Any customisations to your OS can also be installed in this manner with your OS. You can get the latest version of my noobsconfig package at https://github.com/procount/noobsconf

And just to be pedantic, when you boot a NOOBS SD card, it loads a minimalistic linux kernel that runs NOOBS instead of the usual plethora of programs leading to a linux shell. So is NOOBS an OS? No, but it is the main component of a minimalistic linux system that allows you to install other OSs.