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Headless Raspberry Pi Setup Notes

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Mark Jessop edited this page Dec 29, 2024 · 3 revisions

Last Updated: 2024-12-29

Some notes on using the Raspberry Pi Imager software to get a Raspberry Pi setup to the point where it can be SSH'ed into over a network.

1. MicroSD Card Selection

Don't cheap out on your MicroSD card. Get a decent quality one and it should last for a few years without issues. These are cheap enough that I generally go with the 64GB versions, but 32GB or higher is fine.

I've had good success with the SanDisk High Endurance series, which I obtain locally (Australia) from OfficeWorks. You can

2. Getting Raspberry Pi OS Installed

In this section we're going to flash up a microSD card with Raspberry Pi OS, using the Raspberry Pi Imager software.

2.1 Raspberry Pi Imager

You can download this software from the Raspberry Pi Website here: https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/

It's available for Linux, OSX and Windows.

Note that you'll need an internet connection going for the next few steps, as the imager software will download the disk image it needs.

Screen Shot 2024-12-29 at 17 07 32

2.2 Choose OS

  • Open up the Raspberry Pi imager software and click "Choose OS"
  • In the popup window, scroll down a little and click "Raspberry Pi OS (Other)"
Screen Shot 2024-12-29 at 17 13 01
  • Depending on your Raspberry Pi model, select either "Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit)" or "Raspberry Pi OS Lite (32-bit)"
  • For RPi 3B+, RPi 4 and RPi 5, use the 64-bit version. For everything else use 32-bit.
Screen Shot 2024-12-29 at 17 13 06
  • Once you have selected an OS, you should now be back on the main screen.

2.3 Choose Storage

  • Plug your microSD card into your computer, via an onboard or USB microSD card reader.
  • Click "Choose Storage"
  • In the popup window, find your microSD card and choose it. This might be called something like "SDXC card reader", and will also include the card size.
Screen Shot 2024-12-29 at 17 11 05

2.4 Advanced Options (Important!)

  • Click the 'Gear' icon at the bottom right of the main imager window.
  • Depending on your OS, this may bring up a prompt asking if you want to pre-fill your WiFi details. If you intend to have your RPi connect to your network via WiFi, then you may want to click 'Yes' to this prompt.
  • Tick the checkbox next to 'Set Hostname', and enter a suitable hostname in the box. In my example, I'm using sondevk5qi.
  • Tick the checkbox next to 'Enable SSH'.
  • Scroll down a little further, and ensure 'Set Username and Password' is checked, and set a username and password.
    • Don't use the old default password of 'raspberry'!
Screen Shot 2024-12-29 at 17 19 40
  • Scroll down further to find the 'Configure Wireless LAN' section.
    • If you're going to be connecting your RPI to your network via WiFi, then you will need to fill in your WiFi SSID and Password here (this might have already been pre-filled.
    • You will also need to select your Wireless LAN country (e.g. AU), so the RPi knows what WiFi channels it can use.
  • If you're going to be connecting your RPi via ethernet, then you can leave the WiFi settings blank.
Screen Shot 2024-12-29 at 17 19 49
  • Scroll right down to the locale settings. These should already have been set for for your local timezone, but you can change this, or set the timezone to UTC (Look for Etc/UTC in the list) if you wish.
  • Right at the bottom, untick 'Enable Telemetry'
  • Click Save, and you'll be back on the main screen.

2.4 Writing the Image

  • Click the 'Write' button to start writing the image to your microSD card. You may get a prompt asking for permissions to write to the card.
  • Writing the image will take a little while, especially if the image has to be downloaded. A progress bar will show you how it's going.
  • Once finished, you'll get a prompt that you can now remove the microSD card - we're done!

3. Booting up for the first time

  • Plug your microSD card into your Raspberry Pi, hook up an ethernet cable if not connecting via WiFi, and power it up!
  • On first boot a few actions are run to expand the SD card filesystem and do a few other things, so it can take a little while before the RPi shows up on your network.

3.1 Finding your RPi on the network and connecting via SSH

We now need to connect to your RPi via SSH. Depending on your OS, SSH might already be available via a terminal or command prompt. If not, you may need to install some other software (e.g. on Windows, PuTTY)

Depending on how your network is configured, you may be able to connect to your Pi using the hostname we set earlier, with .local on the end, e.g. sondevk5qi.local From a terminal you would run:

ssh pi@sondevk5qi.local

(Replacing pi with your username, if you changed it.)

You should then get a password prompt, and once entered, you should be in!

If this doesn't work, you may need to find the IP address of your RPi. You might be able to find this from a page on your router ('DHCP Leases' or similar), or there are other apps like Fing that can help here.

4. Next Steps

From here, you can now start to setup radiosonde_auto_rx - we recommend using the Docker-based installation guide.

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