If you’ve just opened a new Raspberry Pi and are excited to get started with it, the first thing you need to do is install an operating system onto an SD card for your Pi to run on. For this, you can go to the official website and find the Rasbian OS that can be downloaded at the click of a button. Once you’ve done that, you can get right into setting up your Pi. If you are new to the Rasbian interface, here is an article to help you understand how to go about the Raspberry Pi configuration settings.
Before you begin:
- Raspberry Pi
- Power cable
- micro SD card with the Rasbian OS installed
- Preferably, with WiFi or ethernet connection
Configuration Menu:
The Raspberry Pi configuration menu, is like the Settings tab in your phone/ laptop. So in order to make any adjustments in the configuration – like time, updates, or other settings it is easiest to change it from this menu. This menu automatically opens when you start your Pi for the first time. Alternatively you can open it from either the terminal by typing sudo raspi-config, or from the start menu –> Preferences —> Raspberry Pi Configuration
1. Expand Filesystem
If you have installed Raspbian using NOOBS, the filesystem will have been expanded automatically. However, if you chose to install the Rasbian desktop, you can and should use this option to expand your installation to fill the whole SD card, which gives you more space to use. Once you select this, it will prompt you to reboot your Pi to implement it.
2. Change User Password:
From the name of the setting it is obvious what this setting does. It changes the password of the pi. By default it is set to raspberry. This can of course be changed at any time.
3. Boot Options
By default, Raspbian will boot into the command line mode. However, the user can choose between three options:
- Console Text console (which is the default) – which boots into the command line.
- Desktop Log in – boots into a graphical desktop environment.
- Scratch Start the Scratch programming environment upon boot – boots into the Scratch programming environment.
4. Wait for Network at Boot
Using this option, you can choose whether boot-up should wait for the network to be available or not.
5. Internationalisation Options
You can change your timezone, keyboard layout and other regional settings using the Internationalisation Options. You will then see three set of customisation options
i) Change Locale:
You can use this to configure your language and regional settings. Select locales you would like to generate and select OK.
ii) Change Timezone:
Choose this option to select your timezone (depending on geographic area)
iii) Choose Keyboard Layout:
This option lets you choose from a vareity of keyboard models. If you cannot find your keyboard model, use one of the generic keyboards.
6. Enable Camera:
You can use this option to enable the CSI camera interface, which if you are using the Raspberry Pi camera should be enabled.
7. Add to Rastrack
Rastrack is a project that was the brain child of Ryan Walmsley. The goal of which is to allow Raspberry Pi owners to add their location. This geographic data is shown on Google Map available at http://rastrack.co.uk/. When you select this, ensure that you have an internet connection. It opens up a wizard to guide you through the process.
8. Overclock
Overclocking can increase the operating speed of the computer component. Which is done by forcing a computer component to operate faster than the manufactured clock frequency. However, it comes with a risk of damaging the component due to excessive heat or overvoltage.
Click Ok to proceed and select the level
9. Advanced Options:
i) Overscan
If the text shown on the screen disappears off the edge – you need to enable overscan. This might or might not have to be done, depending on the display you are using and whether or not there is a large border around it.
ii) Hostname
Your Raspberry Pi hostname is by default raspberrypi. However in the case that you have two or more Raspberry Pi devices, you can change the default name to differentiate between the devices when connected to the same network.
iii) Memory Split
Raspberry Pi has two processors: CPU and GPU between which the total memory is split. Of which the CPU is used for calculation and GPU is used graphical tasks. By default, 64MB of RAM is allocated for the GPU.
If you use your Raspberry Pi for graphics-intensive work, you can increase the amount of RAM allocated to GPU to improve the performance. However if you use your Pi as a server,you can decrease the amount of memory allocated for the GPU.
iv) SSH
SSH stands for “Secure Shell” and is useful for remotely managing the Raspberry Pi. This means that we will be able to interact with the Raspberry Pi’s command line without even a keyboard, mouse or screen connected to it.
v) Device Tree
A device tree (DT) is a data structure of named nodes and properties that can describe non-discoverable hardware. Using this option you can enable use of Device Tree on your Raspberry Pi.
vi) SPI
The Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) is a communication protocol used to transfer data between the Raspberry Pi and peripheral devices. This option lets you enable/disable SPI
vii) I2C
I2C is a multi-device bus used to connect low-speed peripherals to the Raspberry Pi. Once you enable this, you can connect more than one device without using additional pins on the header.
viii) Serial
By default your Raspberry Pi will use the serial port as a terminal. However, if you want to use it for other purposes you can disable this using this option.
ix) Audio
The Raspberry Pi has two audio output modes: HDMI and headphone jack. Using this option, you can switch between these modes at any time.
x) Update
Clicking this option will update the software of the Raspberry Pi
10. About
As the name suggests, this will give you a little insight about the configuration tool.
With this the configuration settings have been completely discussed and you should have a fully funtional Raspberry Pi on your hands
