From left to right, we have the following:

Installing the Heatsinks

Remove the thin white stickers from the bottom of the heatsinks to expose the adhesive and place them onto the raspberry pi as follows:

The orientation of the fins is not important.

Install microSD card

Obtain the rPi microSD card and microSD card adapter. Install the microSD card into the microSD card adapter.

Be sure to insert the microSD card with the appropriate orientation if not keyed.

Place the microSD card adapter into your computer. If your computer does not have a card reader peripheral, place the microSD card adapter into a usb portable card reader, and connect the card reader to your computer.

Be sure to insert the SD card with the appropriate orientation if not keyed

If your computer has a microSD port, you may insert it directly. No adaptor necessary.

Install SD Memory Card Formatter Tool

We will now install SD Memory Card Formatter (SD Card Formatter) so we can place NOOBS onto the microSD card. At the time of this writing, SD Memory Card Formatter's current version is 5. Most Raspberry Pi kits come with NOOBS preinstalled on the microSD card. However, sometimes the version is outdated, so make doubly sure to follow all update commands, which we will address near the end of the tutorial. If you do have NOOBS preinstalled, you may skip to Module 03.

Navigate to SD Association's SD Memory Card Formatter download page.

Scroll down and select the appropriate operating system to download the software.

This will take you to another page with the END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT. Accept the terms and conditions to initiate the download.

Google Chrome Download Error Resolution

If the download is interrupted by the following flag, follow the next few steps. Otherwise skip ahead to installing SD Card Formatter.

In the top right-corner of the Google Chrome browser, click on the hamburger menu, and select Settings.

Scroll down to the bottom of the Settings page and toggle the Advanced chevron.

Scroll down further to the Downloads section.

Toggle on the Ask where to save each file before downloading.

Proceed to try to download the software again as done in the earlier steps. You will now be prompted to select a location to download the software. Choose anywhere to download it; we chose the Downloads folder. It should successfully download, this time without the flag, to the designated folder.

The flag that appeared before should not appear, and the installer download should be successful.

If you still have problems, please resort to a Google search.

Navigate to where you downloaded the installer for SD Card Formatter. Launch the installer.

Proceed to install the software by following the installer instructions:

Formatting the microSD Card

With SD Card Formatter installed, we will first use it to format the microSD card. Start by launching SD Card Formatter.

With the microSD card selected in the Formatting Options section:

You will be prompted with a confirmation. Click Continue.

The formatting process will start. It should only take a moment, and then the program will notify you of the results of the process.

With the microSD card formatted, we are ready to install NOOBS onto it. We can close SD Card Formatter.

Installing NOOBS onto the microSD Card

We will install the latest version of NOOBS (New Out Of the Box Software) onto the microSD card. At the time of this writing, Raspberry Pi NOOBS's current version is 2.7.0.

Navigate to Raspberry Pi's NOOBS download page.

Scroll down to the download options. Choose the left-most option: Under NOOBS select Download ZIP to begin the software download.

When the download is complete, navigate to the location you downloaded the NOOBS .zip folder and unzip it. Then navigate into the unzipped NOOBS folder.

Select all the NOOBS content in the folder (ctrl + A or cmd + A).

Drag-and-drop or copy-paste the NOOBS contents of the folder into the microSD card. The copy process may take several minutes. After you verify that NOOBS has been installed onto the microSD card, you may eject the microSD card.

Install microSD Card

With our microSD card ready to go, we can remove it from the card reader. Then, we may install it into the Raspberry Pi. The microSD card retainer is on the bottom of the Raspberry Pi.

Be sure to insert the microSD card with the appropriate orientation.

Be sure to the microSD card is well seated in the microSD card retainer.

Hardware Setup with Peripherals

Now, we need to power the Raspberry Pi and install Raspbian. But we need to interface with the Pi. Unfortunately, by default, the Pi is not headless - that is, we are not able to interface with it without extra peripherals. We will switch to a headless setup - a.k.a, get rid of the peripherals - later.

Connect these peripherals to the Pi. You do not need a mouse, however, it may be more convenient than keyboard shortcuts.

Raspbian Installation

With the periperhals connected, power the rPi and the monitor.

Shortly after powering on, you should be taken to the following NOOBS installer screen.

We employ several keyboard shortcuts here. If you are using a mouse, feel free to use the mouse to do the same function - it should be pretty intuitive.

Configuration	Instruction
Language ( lowercase L )	To select, or change the language press the L key on your keyboard. A dropdown menu should appear. Press the arrow keys on the keyboard to select the appropriate language, and press the Enter key to confirm your language choice. Here we choose: English (US) There is a difference between English (UK) and English (US)!
Keyboard ( 9 )	To select, or change the keyboard layout press the 9 key on your keyboard. A dropdown menu should appear. Press the arrow keys on the keyboard to select the appropriate language, and press the Enter key to confirm your keyboard layout choice. Here we choose: us
Operating System	To select, or change the operating system to install, press the arrow keys on the keyboard to select the operating system, and press the Enter key to confirm, and check your operating system choice. Here we choose: Raspbian We are aware only one choice is shown here, but past (and potentially future) versions of NOOBS (may) have different multiple OS choices.
Install ( i )	With the appropriate language, keyboard layout, and operating system selected, press the i key on your keyboard to initiate the Raspbian installation. Select Yes to the confirmation.

The Raspbian installation takes approximately 30 minutes to complete.

After the installation completes, press OK which will restart the Raspberry Pi. When it reboots, you will be taken to the Desktop GUI.

Congratuations! We installed the Raspbian operating System onto the Raspberry Pi. We will spend the rest of this tutorial doing configurations necessary for most rPi projects. There are a few configurations that will not be used in every rPiproject, however we cover them for those that may need it so that this guide is comprehensive. If you are certain that your project does need a particular step, feel free to skip it.

Launching the Terminal

Through the Raspbian installation, the default Boot Option is to the Desktop GUI that we are taken to when we boot up the Pi.

For some Raspberry Pi projects, this may be necessary or desired. However, in general, the CLI (Command Line Interface) or Console is preferable. Although we could use this Desktop GUI to set the Boot Option to Console, we are - ironically - going to launch Terminal, and then set the Boot Option that way.

To launch the Terminal, press the Windows key on the external keyboard connected to your Pi to open the Applications Menu.

Use the down arrow key to navigate down to Accessories. Press the right arrow key to open the Accessories sub-menu.

Use the down arrow key to navigate to Terminal and, with Terminal selected, press the enter key to launch Terminal.

Use the down arrow key to navigate to select the Terminal and, press the enter key to launch Terminal.

Configuring Boot Options: raspi-config

We will now configure the Raspberry Pi to boot into the command line interface (CLI) as opposed to the Desktop.

Execute the following command in the terminal:

$ sudo raspi-config

This will open the Raspberry Pi configuration settings main page.

To change the Boot Options:

Use the arrow keys to select 3 Boot Options, and press the enter key.

Use the arrow keys to select B1 Desktop / CLI, and press the enter key.

Use the arrow keys to select B1 Console, and press the enter key.

After the selection, you will be returned to the settings main page.

The Boot Options to boot the Pi to the CLI is complete. We could reboot the Pi now, but we will enable Serial first.

Enabling Serial: raspi-config

If you do not already have the raspi-config open, execute the following command in the terminal:

$ sudo raspi-config

This will open the Raspberry Pi configuration settings main page.

To Enable the Serial Intefacing Option:

Use the arrow keys to select 5 Interfacing Options; press the enter key.

Use the arrow keys to select P6 Serial; press the enter key.

Use the arrow keys to select Yes; press the enter key.

Confirm the selection by pressing the enter key to confirm Ok.

After the selection, you will be returned to the settings main page.

To save our configurations and exit the Raspberry Pi configuration settings:

Use the arrow keys to select Finish; press the enter key.

Press the the arrow keys to select Yes; press the enter key.

The Raspberry Pi will automatically reboot. When the boot completes, you will not be taken to the Desktop GUI, you will be taken to the CLI (Command Line Interface) - as expected! The Pi will prompt us to login.

We could continue working with our rpi with the monitor and keyboard, but this a cumbersome process. Instead, we will make use of the Serial Interfacing Option we enabled. But first, we need to shutdown the raspberry pi. Log in using default credentials:

Type in the username: pi; press the enter key to affirm.

Type in the password: raspberry; press the enter key to affirm and login

If the login is successful, you will be taken to the Raspberry Pi CLI.

To shutdown the RPI, execute the following command:

$ sudo shutdown -h now

After a minute, you may safely remove the power adapter from the Raspberry Pi.

With the Boot Options set to booting up into the CLI and with the Serial Interface enabled, we are ready to move onto the Serial Console Cable Shell Login method.

Shut Down the Raspberry Pi

If the rPi is not off, shut it down before continuing. The command to shutdown via the CLI is:

$ sudo shutdown -h now

After a minute, you may safely remove the power adapter from the Raspberry Pi.

Hardware Setup: Serial Console Cable

While the Raspberry Pi is off, connect the Serial Console Cable to the Raspbery Pi.

Do not connect the Serial Console Cable 5V pin (if applicable) to the raspberry pi - depending on where you bought the cable from, it may or may not have the 5V pin. Connecting the power adapter and the power from your USB (computer), may damage the Raspberry Pi. Also, powering the Raspberry Pi from the 5V 500mA power output from the USB port on your computer is not sufficient to power the Raspberry Pi.

Installing Serial Console Cable Driver

The next step involves logging in to the Pi from a laptop, so that you can use the laptop screen instead of a separate monitor. However, depending on your operating system, you may need extra drivers to perform this kind of connection.

We use Adafruit cables, so go to Adafruit's Download Page and follow the instructions for both the Prolific and SiLabs Chipsets for your operating system. You can select the correct tutorial from the menu on the left, as shown here:

Interfacing with the Raspberry Pi using the Serial Shell Login

We are ready to interface with the Raspberry Pi using the Serial Shell Login method using the Serial Console Cable.

If not done already: power the Raspberry Pi using the power adapter and plug in the USB Serial Console Cable to the computer. Wait a minute for the Pi to fully boot up.

Serial Shell Login using Mac OSX

Using a Mac is extremely convenient! We will use the Terminal app, that comes default on every Mac laptop. Launch Terminal.

In the Terminal type the following command.

$ ls /dev/tty.

Instead of pressing enter to send the command, press tab a couple times to autocomplete the incomplete command, which will display the available serial devices connected to your computer.

If only 1 serial device exists, it will autocomplete it for you.

We are interested in the tty.usbserial device.

Sometimes, it is cu.usbserial instead of tty.usbserial. If tty doesn't work, try cu instead.

If several other characters appear after the tty.usbserial option, that is OK.

If it doesn't appear, check that you plugged in the pins correctly, and try switching to a different usb port. Be careful with the pins! You could potentially burn your entire serial cable.

Now we will use screen to initiate the Serial Shell Login with the Raspberry Pi. Type the following command to initiate the serial connection:

$ screen /dev/tty.usbserial

Press enter to execute the command, which will open the Serial Shell (over your existing Terminal).

You may see weird symbols/artifacts. Press enter a few times or wait for Raspberry Pi to complete booting.

If you have no output, check your wiring.

To exit the Serial Shell, type: ctrl + a, ctrl + k, and at the prompt, press: y and then press enter

This will return you to the Mac Terminal.

Serial Shell Login using Linux

For linux users we base our guide on https://elinux.org/RPi_Serial_Connection. Refer here for the original instructions and guide. For convenience, we have summarized the instructions here.

In the command console,

type $ dmesg | grep tty

Look for the line saying pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0. This is the port name your RPi is connected to.

The 0 can be any number as this just indicates the port number. For the following commands replace the 0 with whatever number is displayed on your machine.

The next command is

$ ls -l /dev/ttyUSB0

This will display the permissions of the port. The permissions are split into three groups of rwx (read, write, execute), then the next words are the groups that have these permissions, so on my machine rw-rw---- root dialout means members of the root and dialout groups are able to read and write to the device. Yours may be different so take note of what group you need to be a member of to use the device.

To add yourself to the dialout group, run the command

$ sudo usermod -a -G dialout username

Run the id command again to make sure you have been added successfully. You may need to restart the console to have this take effect.

Finally run the command

$ screen ttyUSB0 115200

You may need to install screen using sudo apt-get install

You'll be prompted to enter your rPi credentials, and then you'll be in. If you don't see a prompt, press enter a couple of times. If you have just started your Pi, you may need to wait a minute for it finish booting.

Serial Shell Login using Windows

Go to www.putty.org and click You can download Putty here.

Click on the Windows installer (32 or 64bit depending on your system)

After downloading, start installing it - on the installer click next...

...change the destination folder if desired, then click next...

...then click install...

...and when it’s done click finish.

You will need to find out what port the rPi is connected to, so open your device manager, then scroll down to find ports and look for USB-to-Serial Comm Port and make a note of the COM#. You will need this when using Putty.

If you don't see the Ports dropdown, click on View in the top menu and select ...

Now for the magic. Open Putty, and under Connection type click the Serial bubble, as below. Change the serial line to the COM# your rPi is connected to - this is the number you found in the device manager a couple of steps ago - and change the speed to 115200.

Finally, click Open, and you will be taken to this screen. Input your Pi credentials, and you're good to go!

If you see the login screen, you are successfully interfacing with the Raspberry Pi through the Serial Shell. Log in as we did in module 4. You no longer need the keyboard, mouse, and monitor peripherals!

Create a New Raspberry Pi User

Log into your pi using the Serial Shell and the Serial Console Cable. Execute the following command into your CLI:

$ sudo adduser username

You will be prompted to give your new user a password. Pick a nontrivial password. (I will obviously not share my password with you, so it is your responsibility to remember your username + password going forward). You will be prompted to enter the new password twice.

After the password prompts, several more prompts follow. You may fill them out if you wish, I choose the defaults (since the questions are kind of creepy...). The final prompt asks for a confirmation that the information is correct. Press y, then press enter.

Next we will edit the user permissions of our new username. To do this, execute the following command:

$ sudo visudo

A window using the text editor nano appears. Scroll down to the part where it says # User privilege specifications using the arrow keys (the cursor will scroll down the text editor screen as it moves to the end of the viewable page).

Under # User privilege specifications the specification for the user root is shown: root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL. We want to add specifications for the new username we created earlier, so under the root specifications write the following:

username ALL=NOPASSWD:ALL

To save the file and exit perform the following: ctrl + X to initiate the exit. At the bottom of the window, we will be prompted to Save modified buffer? (i.e. Save our changes). Press y to confirm that we want to save the text file with the changes.

The next prompt asks us for the File Name to Write and will give us the current filename. We do not want to change this, press enter to confirm the filename to be written to, and exit the nano text editor.

Reboot the Raspberry Pi with the following command:

$ sudo shutdown -r now

Delete the Default Raspberry Pi Username: pi

When prompted to log back in, login with your new username and password.

Now that we are logged into our new user (which is much more secure than the default pi account), we will delete the pi account with the following command:

$ sudo pkill -KILL -u pi | sudo userdel -r pi

This will delete the pi user. To confirm, type the following command into the CLI:

$ exit

This command will log you out of the Raspberry Pi.

Now try to relog into the Raspberry Pi using the default username pi as we had done before we made the new username.

We have successfully created a new user for the Raspberry Pi and deleted the default login credentials. Our Pi is now secure enough to connect to the internet, bringing us another step closer to our goal of a headless system (of course, internet is useful for a lot of other stuff too).

Setup Wireless Connectivity

To connect to the Internet, execute the following command:

$ sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

This will open the configuration file wpa_supplicant.conf, which should look similar to the following:

There are several different type of networks. Connecting to each network requires different specifications depending on the network type:

Secured Network

Most home networks are secured networks, and you can simply add these lines to the bottom of the file. Replace "testing" and "testingPassword" with the credentials for your own network.

network={
ssid="testing"
psk="testingPassword"
}

														

Additionally, if the network is hidden, you'll have to add scan_ssid=1, as below.

network={
ssid="testing"
scan_ssid=1
psk="testingPassword"
}

														

Unsecured Network

An unsecured network is one which doesn't have a password. In the example below, replace "Swirly24" with the name of your network, and add this section to the bottom of the file.

network={
ssid=”Swirly24”
key_mgmt=NONE
}
														

Additionally, if the network is hidden, you'll have to add scan_ssid=1, as below.

network={
ssid=”Swirly24"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=NONE
}
														

Enterprise Network: UCSD

The UCSD Network is an Enterprise network and requires the following parameters to connect:

network={
ssid=“UCSD-PROTECTED”
key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
eap=PEAP
identity=“UCSD_AD_USERNAME”
password=“UCSD_AD_PASSWORD”
phase1=“peapver=0"
phase2=“auth=MSCHAPV2”
}
														

The full contents of the configuration file wpa_supplicant.conf configured for the UCSD Network should look as follows:

Replace UCSD_AD_USERNAME and USSD_AD_PASSWORD with your UCSD Network Credentials - the same login and password you use to connect to the Internet on your laptop.

This is all the configuration needed to connect to the UCSD Network. Close the file as we did earlier: ctrl+x, followed by y, followed by enter.

After you have configured the wpa_supplicant.conf wireless configuration file, regardless of what type of network you have configured to connect to, let us see if the information we input was correct.

First, we must reboot the Pi:

$ sudo shutdown -r now

After the Pi reboots and we log back in, execute the following command to fetch the (network) interface configuration:

$ ifconfig

The command should return results similar to the following:

There are 3 interfaces shown by the Raspberry Pi:

If it was successful, you should have been assigned an IP address denoted by inet. Here, we were assigned the IP address: 100.80.244.40.

To test if we are connected to the Internet, we will ping Google. To ping, we use the following command:

$ ping www.google.com

The results of the ping commands should be similar to the following:

If you got a valid ping, then you have successfully set up wireless connectivity on your Raspberry Pi! The world has opened up to you!

Updating the Raspberry Pi is nothing exciting or very special. There are 3 different updates to be done:

In general, the updates will proceed in the same order as the table.

Update and Upgrade Packages

First we will update the packages list, then upgrade the updated packages list.

Update Packages

To update the packages list, execute the following command:

$ sudo apt-get update

Upgrade Packages

To upgrade the updated packages list (from the previous command), execute the following command:

$ sudo apt-get upgrade -y

Firmware Update

To update the current Raspberry Pi firmware, execute the following command:

$ sudo rpi-update

Distribution Upgrade

To upgrade to the current Raspbian distribution, execute the following command:

$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y

After all these various updates and upgrades finish, reboot the Raspberry Pi.

Raspberry Pi Configurations (raspi-config)

Log onto the Raspberry Pi. Execute the following command to launch the Raspberry Pi Configurations menu:

$ sudo raspi-config

You should be greeted with the following menu:

All the Raspberry Pi configuration options we will address in this module are Interfacing Options. Use the arrow keys to select 5 Interfacing Options, and press the enter key.

You will be taken to the Interfacing Options menu:

There are several interfaces that we can toggle on and off. We have already enabled Serial, which allowed us to use the serial console cable to interface with the raspberry pi via Serial Shell Login. Enable (or disable) the interfaces you wish to change.

To enable the SSH server, use the arrow keys to select P2 SSH, and press the enter key.

You will be taken to a menu to select whether you wish to enable or disable the SSH server. Use the arrow keys to select Yes, and press the enter key to affirm.

The next screen will notify you of your selection. Press the enter key to confirm the change.

You will be returned to the main Raspberry Pi Configuration page.

After you have completed enabling or disabling the interfaces desired, exit the Raspberry Pi configuration menu by returning to the raspi-config main menu. Use the arrow keys to select Finish, and press the enter key.

Depending on what you enabled, you may be asked to reboot, as in the following screen. If you are, then use the arrow keys to select Yes, and press the enter key. If they don't ask you to, then you may progress without rebooting.

After the Raspberry Pi reboots, the interfaces that were enabled or disabled should take effect.

Interfacing with the Raspberry Pi using Secure Shell Hosting (SSH)

We will connect to the rPi SSH server that is now running on the device.

In order to connect to the rPi SSH server, we need to know the IP address of the rpi for our computer to know “whom” to initiate the connection with.

Login to the Raspberry Pi (via our previous methods). Execute the following command to fetch the (network) interface configuration:

$ ifconfig

The command should return results similar to the following:

Observe in the wlan0 interface details, the inet IP address is the address we need to initiate the connection from our computer. Here, the IP address of our Raspberry Pi on the network we are connected to is: 100.80.244.40.

Presuming that you are still connected to the rPi via the Serial Shell, let us log out via the following command:

$ exit

You will be prompted to log back into the Pi. Do not log back in.

SSH using Mac OSX or Linux

For Mac and Linux machines, to exit the Serial Shell, type: ctrl + a, ctrl + k, and at the prompt, press: y and then press enter.

This will return you to the Terminal.

We are no longer connected to the Serial Shell in the next few steps.

We will now initiate a connection from our computer to the SSH server on the Raspberry Pi. That is, we will request to access the Raspberry Pi.

Common terminology used for initiating a connection with a remote device (here, our Pi) using SSH is to say: SSH into the Raspberry Pi.

We can use the Terminal to SSH into the Pi using the following command:

$ ssh username@ip_address

Where username is the username of your Pi.

Where ip_address is the IP address of your Pi.

You may be given the following prompt:

This is a security flag that your computer is throwing to make sure you trust this host (i.e. the Raspberry Pi). Since you are connected to the Internet, anyone can technically SSH into your Raspberry Pi - making your system vulnerable to hackers. (Hence, why we needed to change the username of your Pi several modules ago).

You will only be given this prompt the first time you SSH into the Pi from your computer.

Confirm that we trust this host by typing: yes, then press the enter key.

You will be prompted to enter the Raspberry Pi's password like a typical login using any other method.

You will not be able to see any feedback when typing your password.

SSH using Windows

Open Putty and make sure you select SSH in the Connection type radio buttons. Enter in the IP address of the rPi in the Host Name field, then click enter. This is the IP address you found from ifconfig, and will stay the same until you restart the Pi or connect it to a different network.

Then enter your username and password when prompted in the terminal.

That's all! Easy peasy.

You are in! You should be greeeted as you have with any of the previous methods. You also get color! Access through the serial console cable did not display color, proving that SSH is a superior interfacing method.

You are able to access your Pi without any peripherals. This is what is called a headless system. That is, your Pi is headless.

You should no longer need the the serial console cable. You may remove it if you wish - you may do it right now! However, again we recommend keeping it close-at-hand as a backup method for accessing your Pi. Especially, you will need the serial cable whenever you restart your Pi. Any device connecting to a network is randomly assigned an available IP address, and there is absolutely no guarantee that you will get the same one every time you connect. Thus, any time you disconnect from the network (move locations, restart the Pi, etc.), you will have to log in with the serial cable, run ifconfig, and then SSH in using the IP address.

Install VIM

To install VIM, execute the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install vim -y

After several lines of output to the Terminal, the VIM text editor will be installed

There are many online tutorials for using VIM, and we encourage you to look into them. An intro to VIM is out of the scope of this tutorial, however, our projects that heavily use it will explain commands as needed.