Johnson - Raspberry Pi 2 The Complete Step-by-Step Beginners Guide: How To Master Raspberry Pi 2 & The Best Beginner Friendly Projects To Start With!

You will have noticed by now that your Raspberry Pi comes with the very barest of essentials: You get the board and nothing else.

You will, however, need some extra hardware to get started:

Power supply

Keyboard and mouse

HDMI cable

Ethernet cab

MicroSD card (you need at least 8GB capacity)

The Raspberry Pi 2 requires a 5V power supply, although the current really depends on what hardware you plan to hook up with the USP ports, of which there are 4.

Remember, the more ports you use, the more power the Pi 2 will need to exert.

If you use all 4 ports, you will need a 2.5 amp.

Personally, I ve been using the LogiTech bluetooth mouse and keyboard that I connect via a bluetoothUSB stick. It works like a dream because both are powered by batteries and thus do n t require any juice from your Pi 2.

As an alternative, you could use your P C s USB port to power your device.

Connecting the Pi 2 to the Internet should be really easy; I always suggest using an ethernetcable because i t s safe and simple. If, however, you want to make it more mobile, you can use the WiFi stick.

Which Operating System Should I Try?

There are a lot of O S s available for the Raspberry Pi 2 so yo u re spoiled for choice. Of course, this is a bit of an issue if you decide to try them all. It takes up a heck of a lot of time.

I did try a large number of them, and some of the best include:

Raspbian

Ubuntu Snappy Core

Arch Linux

Fedora

You can find them all via the Raspberry P i s official downloads page, which is found on their site.

The experience was always varied. I enjoyed some, did n t enjoy others, but the reality is that what works for me might not work for you. It really depends what you want to do with your Pi 2.

I found that installing the Arch Linux on my device was easy but boy did it take a lot of hours to actually get things to work. I personally would not recommend it, but I would like to quickly run you through the ones that I do recommend:

Raspbian

Raspbianwas really popular with users of the first gen Raspberry Pi, and i t s also referred to as a distro .

This OS comes with the Advanced Packaging Tool that can install software from a large number of Raspbian add-ons.

The user interface is a lot better than last time around; i t s no longer cluttered and apps and config tools now have their own categories that are clearly marked.

Raspbian is also a lot feaster than it was last time around. it has more RAM as well as a better CPU.

Fedora

If you owned the first Raspberry Pi, you might recall a large swathe of vids and blog posts that demonstrated how the Pi can run Fedora.

In a rather strange twist, when the Pi was released it was not actually able to run Fedora.

Fedora was just too big.

Things have changed now, though, and you can get your giddy hands on Fedora and run it with the Raspberry Pi 2. Installation is easy, the desktop is clean and functional, and you get a few apps already installed, including a word processor tool and a spreadsheet too. I t s all really neat and just feels right.

There is also very little lag, and Fedora overall handles hardware like a pro. Highly recommended.

But you can also download the officially recommended NOOBS version.

This operating system has everything you need to get your new device up and running, and if yo u re looking for an OS that is easy and quick, i t s probably your best choice.

The system comes with complete instructions as well as a video that helpfully guides you through the process.

Seriously, formatting an SD card and then copying everything over to a downloaded zip file has never been easier.

Once you have formatted the card, put it into your slot on the Raspberry Pi, before hooking up your mouse, keyboard and power.