Raspberry Pi Headless Setup

These pages describe how to setup a Raspberry Pi without a screen ( Headless )

So tomorrows job try and solder the header onto that circuit board. Going to be a challenge with my Eyes at the minute. !! eublished by Martinsy to get started with a Raspberry Pi especially if its a Pi3 or Pi4 as they have inbuilt Wifi and you can set it up for a Headless start ( no need for a HDMI Screen and Keyboard )

Grab a copy of the lastest .iso file for a Minimum install from here :

Rasbian Download Site

You are looking for the "Raspbian Buster Lite" edition as we do not need any desktop fancy stuff.

For a Mac the best imager to memory card is a program called Etcher :

Download and Install from here

Or if you are really good at command line give this one a try RaspberryPi

More alternatives for other Operating Systems are available here

For the Mac :

  1. Unzip the download from RaspberryPi.org
  2. Run Etcher.
  3. Pick the img file from the 1st button.
  4. Select the memory card in the 2nd
  5. Click on the Flash button

Diagrams

Etcher

Pi Headless Install

Once you have created the image on a mac, unplug the card and plug it back in again.

Start a command prompt ( Terminal Session on a Mac ) and cd to the /Volumes/boot directory. Do the following to make it automatically connect to a Wifi Source and start the ssh daemon for logging into the pi command prompt

vi wpa_supplicant.conf

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=AU

network={
ssid="WIFI NAME"
psk="WIFI PASSWORD"
}

Unmount the memory card and remove it from the Mac. Install it into the Pi and plug in the Power. Watch it boot or look for the IP address in your modem / router. You should now be able to connect to it

ssh pi@<ip address>

password: raspberry