2.1. Preparing a Raspberry Pi for Fermentrack¶
Prior to installing Fermentrack, you need to install Raspbian and set everything up. Click the link below to watch a video showing how to prepare the Raspberry Pi using a Mac, or read the linked instructions below for your operating system.
2.1.1. Prepare the Raspberry Pi - [Video]¶
- Download the latest version of Raspbian from here. I recommend the Lite version as I prefer headless installations, but the full version works as well.
- Burn Raspbian to your SD card using these instructions.
- Enable SSH on your Raspberry Pi by writing an empty file named “ssh” to the root of the SD card.
- Optional - Pre-configure WiFi - See the note below if you want to configure WiFi now, thus preventing having to find an ethernet cable
- Plug the SD card into your Raspberry Pi, connect the Pi to ethernet (if you did not configure WiFi), and plug in power.
- Locate the IP address for your Raspberry Pi This can generally be done by executing
arp -a | grep raspberry
however you can also locate your Raspberry Pi by logging into your router and looking for the device. - Update the Raspberry Pi software by running
sudo apt-get update
andsudo apt-get upgrade
. - Run
raspi-config
and configure the Pi. At a minimum, expand the filesystem (option 1). - Update the default password for the
pi
user usingpasswd
- Optional - If you didn’t do it earlier, Configure WiFi on your Raspberry Pi (if needed)
2.1.2. Additional Info about Install-Time WiFi Configuration¶
To configure WiFi on a headless install (or otherwise configure it at setup) prior to the initial boot on a newly flashed Raspbian installation, create a wpa_supplicant.conf
file in the /boot
directory of the SD card with the following contents (adjusting to match your network configuration):
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
country=US
network={
ssid="YOUR_SSID"
psk="YOUR_PASSWORD"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
Note - In the above, ssid
is the name of your wireless network, psk
is the password for your wireless network (if applicable), and key_mgmt
is the password management protocol (which, for most home networks these days is WPA-PSK)
You will also need to select the appropriate 2 letter country code for where you plan on using the Raspberry Pi.