Raspberry Pi 2 Starter Kit Hookup Guide

Contributors: MTaylor

Methods of Working with the Pi

Once the Pi is configured, there are a few methods of using it depending on if you want to use it like a desktop or manage it remotely.

This section covers using the Pi in the following ways

• Using HDMI-out -- Operate your Pi like a desktop computer.
• Using the serial terminal -- Operate through a serial link to another computer.
• Using SSH -- Operate through a network linked to another computer.

Using HDMI-out

This is the easiest method and is great if you have a HDMI monitor lying around. After the system boots, log in with "pi" as the user name and "raspberry" as the password. Then, enter startx to enter a graphical environment where you are presented with a desktop-type menu driven operating system.

If you need to get back to text land, you can either

• log off through the Task Bar Menu -- drops back to the shell, closing down the X window system
• open xterm from the Task Bar -- opens a shell in a graphical window
• Use CTRL-ALT-1 through CTRL-ALT-8 -- gives you a number of shells, with 7 being the graphic environment (if loaded).

Remember, shutdown with the menu item or enter sudo shutdown -h now from a shell, and wait for the system to halt, before removing power.

Using the serial terminal without a monitor

Connect the FTDI to the mini-usb cable and plug into a usb port on your computer.

Set the serial settings to 115200 baud, 8 bit, no parity, 1 stop and no flow control.

Power on the pi -- wait 45 seconds for boot (30 second boot time plus margin).

From here, you can't use startx because there is no graphic driver through the serial terminal. However, you can configure your wireless/lan, use apt-get to get programs, do all your coding and operate the Pi's hardware.

If you don't see a login, start troubleshooting.

Using SSH

A good way to operate a Pi is to attach it to the local network somewhere, then manage it from another computer connected to that network.

To do this, download PuTTY or a similar SSH terminal for your system and connect to the Internet port used by the pi. The TTY interface gives you a serial interface but with colors that make it a little nicer to use.

To obtain your IP, get to a terminal, and use the command ifconfig.

With Ethernet and wireless attached, ifconfig returns something like the following. If it looks similar but the IP addresses aren't present, that link hasn't been established.

pi@raspberrypi:~$ ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr b8:a8:3b:56:1a:f7
        inet addr:14.7.3.188  Bcast:14.7.3.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
        UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
        RX packets:3026 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
        TX packets:462 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
        collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
        RX bytes:229516 (224.1 KiB)  TX bytes:60888 (59.4 KiB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
        inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
        UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
        RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
        TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
        collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
        RX bytes:1104 (1.0 KiB)  TX bytes:1104 (1.0 KiB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 74:df:21:5b:a3:9c
        inet addr:32.8.0.142  Bcast:32.8.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
        UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
        RX packets:120 errors:0 dropped:40 overruns:0 frame:0
        TX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:4 overruns:0 carrier:0
        collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
        RX bytes:20955 (20.4 KiB)  TX bytes:9956 (9.7 KiB)

Now that I know that my Ethernet is on IP 14.7.3.188 and my wireless on 32.8.0.142, I can enter it into the PuTTY configuration window to begin the session. From here, it just works like the serial link!