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Setup notes

Writing an OS image to the sdcard (or usb drive)

sudo dd bs=4M if=/path/to/os/image of=/dev/mmcblk0 status=progress

Headless wifi setup

Mount the boot partition and create a file called wpa_supplicant.conf with the following contents:

country=US
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

network={
    ssid="SSID"
    scan_ssid=1
    psk="PASSWORD"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

Enable SSH prior to first boot

Mount the boot partiton and create an empty file called ssh:

touch /path/to/boot ssh

Initial setup

Use the raspi-config utility to set the follwing options as desired:

  • Network Options > Hostname > HOSTNAME
  • Localization Options > Change Locale > en_US.UTF-8
  • Localization Options > Change Time Zone > America/New_York
  • Localization Options > Change WLAN Country > US
  • Interfacing Options > SSH > Yes
  • Interfacing Options > SPI > Yes
  • Interfacing Options > I2C > Yes
  • Advanced Options > Overscan > No
  • Advanced Options > Memory Split > 32
  • Advanced Options > Screen Blanking > No

Changing the default username (pi)

This must be done while logged in as the root user. It cannot be done (with sudo or su) while the pi user is looged in.

To enable root login, edit /etc/passwd, removing the 'x' after the first colon on the line that begins with root:x:.... Also, if attempting this over SSH, the /etc/sshd.conf file will need to be modified, changing the line PermitRootLogin=prohibit-password to PermitRootLogin=yes. Don't forget to revert these changes once the pi user has been renamed.

usermod -l USERNAME pi
usermod -d /home/USERNAME -m USERNAME
groupmod -n USERNAME pi
rm /etc/sudoers.d/010_pi-nopasswd

Disable WiFi Power Managment

Create the file /etc/network/interfaces.d/wlan0 with the following contents:

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
wireless-power off
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