Friday 5 October 2018

Raspberry Pi - Useful stuff

Some useful config details to get the Pi up and running, this is based on Raspbian with the minimal installation image on version 9.
(Make sure to use a powerful enough PSU otherwise you will get undervoltage warnings in logs and the red LED will flicker)

To update to latest version:
  • apt-get update
  • apt-get dist-upgrade

Use raspi-config to configure this:
  • The Edimax EW-7800Un wireless card is automatically detected. Option 2 & 2 to setup the SSID & password
  • Check localization options are correct with option 4, including WiFi region.
  • Enable ssh with option 5 & 2 (This can also be done by putting the SD card in another machine, mounting the linux partition and creating the empty file /boot/ssh)

To configure a static IP on wireless, add this to /etc/dhcpcd.conf
  • static ip_address=192.168.0.108/24
  • static routers=192.168.0.1
  • static domain_name_servers=192.168.0.1

The red power LED can be turned off:
  • echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/led1/brightness
The green activity LED can also be turned off:
  • echo none > /sys/class/leds/led0/trigger

Might as well turn the HDMI output off (saves a few mA)
  • tvservice -o

You can disable bluetooth and wifi on the newer models:
  • Add dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt to /boot/config.txt
  • Add dtoverlay=pi3-disable-wifi to /boot/config.txt

That's a basic headless wireless system, it's now good to go.

Install rng-tools (fixes startup issues with dnscrypt-proxy, cloudflared)
  • apt-get install rng-tools
  • Edit /etc/default/rng-tools to specify /dev/hwrng device