Questions tagged [setup]

This tag covers everything related to setting up the Raspberry Pi including flashing SD cards and changing the default user.

NOTE Do not use this tag for question regarding the installation of software. Instead, please use the tag.

Whenever you buy a new PC, there is a certain amount of setup that needs to be done - what needs to be done with the RPi? A few key questions are listed below in the 3 broad categories: efficiency, safety and security.

Efficiency

The official Debian image only sees 2GB by default and will not see extra space. Instead you need to do it manually.

In order to extend the life of your SD Card consider disabling the swap space.

Safety

A case protects the Raspberry Pi from spills or electrical damage.

Properly shutting down your Raspberry Pi can prevent the loss of data and ensure the functionality of your operating system.

Security

The official operating systems have a default user and password; this should be changed to prevent a hacker from compromising your machine.

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How do I install new software?

I am aware that Linux distributions usually have 'package managers' to allow me to download and install software from the command line, and that I should also be able to download and compile source code from the Web. But I am not sure about how best…
Andrew Fogg
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How do I create a new user?

Are there any security implications for creating (or not creating) a new user? If need be, how do I create a new user or change the default user?
Andrew Fogg
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Which locale should I select during the Raspbian setup?

I've downloaded the newest Raspbian release and it is a little bit different than the original one. In particular, it gives a whole bunch of options to configure it the first time you boot it up. I'm just trying to do something simple like change…
EGHDK
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How do I configure the Raspberry Pi to boot with an NFS root?

How can I make my Raspberry Pi use an NFS server for the root filesystem, instead of the SD card? I'd like to be able to set up my Raspberry Pi to have its root file system on a remote machine via NFS for performance/backup/development purposes. How…
Flexo - Save the data dump
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Set up a Raspberry Pi Zero W without monitor or ethernet module

I bought the new Raspberry Pi W but I don't have right now an mini-HDMI adaptor (to connect it to a monitor) neither an Ethernet module to connect by SSH. Can I connect somehow by SSH through USB? How can I connect by SSH by WiFi without it being…
Mikel
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How do I change the editor used by visudo?

I would really like it to be vi or vim. I mistakenly typed some vi commands in the default editor for visudo, which I believe is nano, and broke /etc/sudoers so badly I think I am going to have to burn a new image and start over. I've been able to…
Vicky T
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Can I install Ubuntu?

To my understanding, the Raspberry Pi supports Debian. Has anyone had any success running Ubuntu on it?
Oliver Salzburg
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Can I install webOS?

Has anyone tried to get webOS to work? I am looking to see how much work it would be to modify it to work or if webOS would have problems without heavy modification.
Kaminara
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On the RPi Advanced setup page, what does mkcard.txt do?

I have come across the RPi Advanced Setup but there are incomplete steps. For example, where can I find mkcard.txt from the Advanced SD card setup section? Do I just reuse the one from the BeagleBone demo site ? Then there is an important steps…
Joe
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Change default username

I want to change the default username (pi) to something, I tried usermod -l newusername pi but that gives me usermod: user pi is currently used by process 2104 Is there another way to modify the root account or disable this and create a new root…
Jamil Seaidoun
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How do I expand a raw disk image?

The official images supplied are raw disk images, which could have been created using dd . How do I make an image bigger? I'm not interested in repartitioning said image as that has already been answered in How can I resize my / (root) partition? .
Alex Chamberlain
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How do I get my bluetooth keyboard to pair automatically before I log in?

I asked how to install bluetooth, so I can use an existing mouse and keyboard. I was able to get that to work, but the keyboard ceases to function when the GUI is logged out. That means that I still need a 2.4Ghz keyboard to login, or to use the…
zenbike
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How to resize an image file before writing to SD card?

I've been trying to create a new Raspbian image with a different kernel (with CAN support) and with Python 3.3 installed. Rather than doing all of this on the Raspberry Pi, I thought it would be interesting to do it on the computer instead…
DrAl
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Raspberry Pi as a Linux firewall?

Can I use the Raspberry Pi as a Linux firewall? Can anyone tell me the best way of doing this? Including network connection details and hardware I may need.
System Down
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How do I access the distribution's name on the command line?

I have a number of distros I'm playing with. I label the SD cards, but: They are in upside down I'm usually in another room from the RPi I set up a service in init.d which lets me know via Pushover when my Pi is shutting down or starting up (using…
Cade Roux
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