Peicevic - Raspberry Pi for complete beginners

by Antun Peicevic
First edition
Technical editor: Marko Maslac
Copyright 2015 Geek University Press

This book is designed to provide information about selected topics for the Raspberry Pi. Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible, but no warranty is implied. The information is provided on an as is basis. Neither the authors, Geek University Press, nor its resellers, or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused either directly or indirectly by this book. The opinions expressed in this book belong to the author and are not necessarily those of Geek University Press.

Note that this is not an unofficial book. The Raspberry Pi Foundation, the charitable organization responsible for developing the Raspberry Pi, is in no way affiliated with this book or its content.

Geek University is a trademark of Signum Soft, LLC, and may not be used without written permission.

At Geek University Press, our goal is to create in-depth technical books of the highest quality and value. Readers feedback is a natural continuation of this process. If you have any comments about how we could improve our books and learning resources for you, you can contact us through email at books@geek-university.com. Please include the book title in your message. For more information about our books, visit our website at http://geek-university.com.

Antun Peicevic is a systems engineer with more than 10 years of experience in the internetworking field. His certifications include CCNA Routing and Switching, CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Security+, and much more. He is the founder and editor of geek-university.com, an online education portal that offers courses that cover various aspects of the IT system administration. Antun can be reached at antun@geek-university.com.

This book was written to help you start working with the Raspberry Pi, a powerful credit-card-sized computer developed with the intention of promoting the teaching of computer science and programming in schools.

Audience

This book is written for beginners looking to get into the exciting world of Raspberry Pi. Although the book presumes some knowledge about computer systems in general, it is customized for beginners.

Prerequisites

You should have a basic understanding of computers. You should know how to download a program from the internet and format an SD card. It would be helpful is you have some basic knowledge of Windows and Linux operating systems, but this is not required.

What youll learn

You will learn how and where to buy the device. You will learn how to dowload and install Raspbian, the most popular operating system for Raspberry Pi. After completing this book, you should know how to install applications on the Raspberry Pi using command line and GUI tools.

Note that this is not an unofficial book. Raspberry Pi Foundation, the charitable organization responsible for developing the Raspberry Pi, is in no way affiliated with this book or its course.

Chapter 1 - IntroductionWhat is the Raspberry Pi?Raspberry Pi hardwareSetting up Raspberry PiFormatting an SD cardOperating systemsChapter 2 - Raspbian OSInstalling RaspbianUsing RaspbianConnecting to the InternetThe Raspberry Pi StoreInstall an application from the Pi StoreRaspbian repositoryUpdating RaspbianSynaptic Package ManagerChapter 3 - raspi-configraspi-config toolExpand filesystemChange user passwordBoot behaviourInternationalisation optionsEnable cameraAdd your location to RastrackOverclock your Raspberry PiChange hostnameMemory splitChapter 4 - Fun & gamesPlay musicPlay videosPlay gamesTake pictures and videosCreate a script that takes a pictureRecord slow-motion videosRaspberry Pi motion detectorChapter 5 - TerminalWhat is a terminal?Basic terminal commandsManage directoriesManage filesman commandsort commandgrep commandfind commandtail commandps commandtop commandtar commandifconfig commanddf commandChapter 6 - Remote accessAccess the Raspberry Pi remotelyEnable SSH access to the Raspberry PiTransfer files with SFTPChapter 1 - IntroductionWhat is the Raspberry Pi?Raspberry Pi hardwareSetting up Raspberry PiFormatting an SD cardOperating systems

The Raspberry Pi is a fully functional credit card-sized computer. It was developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of promoting the teaching of computer science and programming in schools. The device is designed to be easy to use and as affordable as possible.

The Raspberry Pi comes as a printed circuit board, but you can buy all the extra stuff needed to make it fully functional. The Raspberry Pi size is 85.60mm x 56mm x 21mm (or 3.37 x 2.21 x 0.83) and weighs 45g. As of December 2015, five models are available:

Raspberry Pi Model A it has 256MB RAM, only one USB port and no network connection.Raspberry Pi Model B it has 512MB RAM, 2 USB ports and a network connection.Raspberry Pi Model B+ it has the similar specifications as the Model B, but comes with 4 USB ports, more GPIO pins, and uses less power than the Model B. This model costs $35.Raspberry Pi 2 Model B the latest version of the device, with 900 MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU and 1 GB of RAM.Raspberry Pi Zero - a stripped-down (but still powerful) version of the Raspberry Pi. This model is equipped with 1GHz ARM11 core and 512 MB of RAM, but comes without an Ethernet port.

Here is how the Raspberry Pi Model A looks like (source: Wikipedia):

You can buy your model directly from the official site or from main distributors: Premier Farnell/Element 14 and RS Components/Allied Electronics. There are also many resellers worldwide and many sellers on e-commerce websites like eBay and Amazon.

The Raspberry Pi primarily uses Linux-based operating systems, with Raspbian usually the first choice for beginners. Raspbian is based on a popular Linux distribution called Debian and features a GUI similar to the one found in Windows:

When you get your hands on the Raspberry Pi, the first thing you will notice is that it is tiny - just 85.60mm x 56mm x 21mm (3.37 in x 2.21 in x 0.83 in). The device usully comes without a protective case, so you have a good overview of all the components that make up the device. Let's examine each component on the board:

1 - a system on a chip - an integrated circuit that incorporates many computer components on a single chip. This chip includes CPU, memory, and RAM. The Raspberry Pi B+ model uses the ARM1176 700 Mhz processor, the powerful GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) capable of playing HD videos, and 512 MB of RAM.

2 - DSI display connector - used to attach an LCD panel. On the other side of the board is a microSD card slot. The card will hold the operating system.

3 - GPIO (General-purpose input/output) pins - used to connect electronics devices. The Raspberry Pi Model B has 26 pins, while B+ has 40.

4 - HDMIport - used for connecting to a monitor or TV. HDMI can carry both sound and picture.

5 - Ethernet port - a standard 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet port used to connect your device to the network.