Introduction
At the workshop
We'll have fully working Raspberry Pis for you at the workshop, so for now no need to learn how to set one up. The information below is really meant for people NOT coming to the workshop, or of you want to read up more afterwards!
At the workshop, have a look at what we've got. At some point during the workshop, experiment with different ways of connecting a Raspberry Pi to screens, keyboards etc.
Some of the electronics we bought for the workshop are listed here: components.
What you need to know
Exercise 1: Connect up the Raspberry Pi with the lapdock (hint: you need two cables), and turn it all on.
Exercise 2: Logging in.
The RPis have got the so-called NOOBS image installed. You will need these details to log in:
username: pi password: raspberry
Note that you will not see the password appear on screen as you type! (Why do you think that is?)
Graphical user interface
You will then get to the command-line interface, and see the command prompt, where you can type commands. If you type
startx
and press enter, the graphical user interface will launch.
Have a look at the graphical user interface, and see whether you can spot some familiar applications
The Terminal
In the graphical user environment, open a terminal. You may have seen this before if you have use linux or an OS X Terminal, or perhaps a DOS prompt in Windows.
Have a look at these links: [1] [2]
Explore some of these commands:
pwd cd mkdir
Try editing something
nano
With the lapdocks, you need to explore where certain keys are - the keyboard is obviously not a UK keyboard, so some keys are swapped round. E.g. you get the "#" character via the "\" key on the right of the keyboard. Go on Sherlock, you'll figure it out.
Shutting down
Shutting down from the graphical users interface: explore bottom right of screen (power down), and select logout on any windows that require it. When you get back to the to the command line, type
sudo halt
to safely shut down the pi. The lights on the RPi will flash for a little longer, and you'll see the shut down sequence on the screen. The RPi then turns off, and can be disconnected.
Getting started with Raspberry Pi on your own
Just in case you want to use these tutorials on your own, here is some basic information. However, if you are coming to our workshop, you don't really need to read this in detail - just skim it so that you know what a Raspberry Pi is!
You can find advice on buying a Raspberry Pi here http://elinux.org/RPi_Buying_Guide
Go to the http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads page and download the ‘debian image’, which you then need to transfer to an SD card. Further help is available here: http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup
http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/by-subject/computing/raspberry-pi/
Setup Tutorial
Links used in this tutorial: Raspberry Pi Operating System Downloads: http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads Win32DiskImager: https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+download MD5 & SHA-1 Checksum Utility: http://download.cnet.com/MD5-SHA-1-Checksum-Utility/3000-2092_4-10911445.html See http://www.raspberrypi.org/ for more info.
Existing resources
- http://www.raspberrypi.org/resources/teach/
- http://www.raspberrypi.org/resources/make/
- http://www.raspberrypi.org/resources/learn/
More links for Raspberry Pi
- http://elinux.org/Rpi_Education
- http://python4kids.wordpress.com/ - python for kids, raspberry pi, minecraft, etc.
