Getting started with the Pi 2

🕒 2 min read

There are various things that needs to be done before we can start using the Raspberry Pi 2, which includes flashing the Raspbian OS into the MicroSD card (which is the brain of the Raspberry Pi!).


Raspberry Pi 2

Features

Here are some features of the Raspberry Pi:

  • A 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU
  • 1GB RAM (previously 512MB RAM)
  • 4 USB ports (previously 2 USB ports)
  • 40 GPIO pins
  • Full HDMI port
  • Ethernet port
  • Combined 3.5mm audio jack and composite video
  • Camera interface (CSI)
  • Display interface (DSI)
  • Micro SD card slot
  • and many more!

 

Items required

  • Raspberry Pi 2
  • MircoSD Card (At least 8GB)
  • MicroSD Adapter (For burning image into card)

 

Burning the OS Image

Raspbian_OS

The Raspbian OS iso can be downloaded here or here.  Extract the zip file after downloading.

Next, download & install the Win32DiskImager utility from the Sourceforge Project page here:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/. This software is to write the Raspbian OS into the MicroSD card. Once the installation in done, open up the program. Press yes when a dialog box pops out. It should look something like this:

win32_dsk_ss

Insert the MicroSD card into the MicroSD Adapter, and then into your computer. A drive name should appear in the Device combobox. After that, press the folder image & select the image file (ends with .iso) you extracted. Click Write and wait for the write to complete. Once done, eject the SD card & transfer the MicroSD into the Raspberry Pi 2.

 

Booting Up

Connect your Pi to a HDMI output & power source. As you turn on the switch, the Pi would boot up automatically. By default, the Pi would boot into terminal, but you can change this in the raspi-config screen. As this is the first time you up turning on the Pi, the screen will display the raspi-config screen for you to do your configurations. Select Finnish to exit the configuration screen.

Before doing anything, you will have to loginfirst. But, what is my username & password?? By default, they are:

Username: pi

Pasword: raspberry

[Note: When you are typing your password, do not be alarmed when there is no text there. Linux does NOT display password when typing!]

Once you have login, the terminal will display:

pi@raspberry ~ $

This means that the terminal is ready for the next command!

 

Starting the GUI

If you are not familiar with the linux line, using the GUI (Graphical User Interface) will be a better option. But how? Just type startx into the command line. It should look like this:

pi@raspberry ~ $ startx

After that, the Raspberry Pi will exit the terminal view & enter the GUI. It will look something like this:

Raspbian_1

and viola! You can now use your Pi for your project, surfing the net, etc.

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