The purpose of this post is to briefly show how to install the Raspberry Pi OS into a new microSD card using a laptop or desktop. Then boot the Raspberry Pi
with this microSD card.
The Raspberry Pi
will automatically connect to your wifi and the ssh tcp/22
service should be running, which will allow you to connect via ssh
.
No need for a monitor to be connected to the Raspberry Pi
.
Using the laptop or desktop, in the command line, the dd
command will copy the Raspberry Pi OS into the microSD card.
After the dd
command, 2 files need to be added to the /boot
folder in the microSD card.
- One empty file named `ssh`
- One file named `wpa_supplicant.conf` with your wireless configuration
example for the wpa_supplicant.conf
file
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=GB
network={
scan_ssid=1
ssid="MY_WIFI_NAME"
psk="MY_WIFI_PASSWORD"
}
!!!NOTE
If you have multiple wlan interfaces
, you can use one file per interface, example wpa_supplicant-wlan1.conf
Step-by-step detail
Step 1 - Download
- Download the Raspberry Pi OS version of your choice.
Step 2 - Unzip
- Unzip the Raspberry Pi OS version you downloaded.
Step 3 - Copy
-
Copy the Raspberry Pi OS into the microSD card.
- Make sure there are no mount folders.
IMPORTANT - the
dd
command willdelete everything in the microSD card
- make sure you know what you are doing! Otherwise stop here or follow the official guidance here.
I am using the dd
command.
sudo dd bs=1m if=path_of_your_image.img of=/dev/rdiskN; sync
- Example of my
dd
command running
dd bs=1m if=2020-08-20-raspios-buster-armhf-lite.img of=/dev/rdisk2; sync
1760+0 records in
1760+0 records out
1845493760 bytes transferred in xxxxxxx secs (xxxxxxx bytes/sec)
Step 4 - add files into the boot folder
After the copy, the first partition in the microSD card, is usualy automatically mounted /boot
.
Now, all I need to do, is to copy the files that I already have on my laptop into this /boot
folder.
I just have to drag-and-drop
(or copy
and paste
) then into the /boot
folder.
-
One empty file named
ssh
ssh
-
One file named
wpa_supplicant.conf
with your wireless configuration
country=GB
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
scan_ssid=1
ssid="MY_WIFI_NAME"
psk="MY_WIFI_PASSWORD"
}
if you cannot copy the files, why not use the command line?
cd /Volumes/boot
touch ssh
vim wpa_supplicant.conf << and add the content in here
Power on Raspberry PI Conclusion
And that’s it :)
Now, eject the microSD card from your laptop, put it in the Raspberry Pi and on boot the Raspberry Pi, it should connect to your wifi.
To connect via ssh
you need to find the ip address
that was allocated to the Raspberry Pi.
Usually, you can easy find the ip address
in your home router
connected devices.
Alternativelly, if you have nmap installed your your laptop (or on another Raspberry Pi), you can scan
your network for devices with tcp/ssh port 22
open.
example for the nmap
command
## searching for new device on local network
nmap -sT -p22 --open 192.168.1.0/24 # ( CHANGE FOR YOUR OWN SUBNET)
(...)
Nmap scan report for `raspberrypi.home.local` (192.168.1.238)
Host is up (0.042s latency).
(...)
## Connect to raspberrypi.home.local
ssh [email protected]
default username `pi`
default password `rasbperry`
## Change pi default password
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo passwd pi
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully
## Update and configure for your needs
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo raspi-config
For example, change hostname, update config for your needs, check my other post on category raspberry-pi
- In case you need addition help, here is the link for the official documentation and here and here.
Happy learning,