Installing from NOOBS
The easiest and most versatile way for the novice to get a Raspberry
Pi up and running is to use a NOOBS SD card. NOOBS stands for New Out
Of the Box Software. All you need is a computer or laptop to program
an SD card -
-
your Raspberry Pi 3
-
a keyboard and mouse (or a combo like a RII keyboard/trackpad)
-
a power supply (preferably a genuine Pi one or 5V 2.5A one)
-
a monitor, a TV or monitor with a HDMI connector
-
an SD card of at least 4GB, mode 10 or a faster UHS one
You can of course buy Raspberry Pi starter kit that may contain a Pi
3, power supply, NOOBS SD card, a case. Then you do not not a PC, but
it is likely that you will in the future to unleash other options.
The beauty of the Pi is that you can set up multiple configurations
on cheap SD cards and try out other operating systems and projects
while keeping a fail-safe card to fall back on. You can also store
images of your cards on a PC.
Let’s go!
If you have a ready made NOOBS SD card skip this step and jump to **
Making a NOOBS SD card.
If you have a Windows PC you may
need an adaptor to plug your SD card in a USB slot. Some PC’s and
laptops have internal flash card readers. I have installed one
internally because I use it a lot.
Open a web browser (any will do)
and visit https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/noobs/
look for NOOBS Offline and network install, and click on download
ZIP, unless you have a Torrent client and know how to use it.
Since version 2.4.1 we now have the
option to install operating systems directly
to a USB connected hard drive or SSD! I have previously written an
lengthy work-around to do this, which while it worked, was hard for
novices as it involved typing many commands.
Plug your SD card into your PC. If
it is a Windows PC you will need to download SD Card Formatter, the
built in Windows format will not work properly for SD cards. Visit
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads
and download the version for Windows or Mac if that is what you are
using.
Install the formatter and open it.
Be sure to select the correct drive letter for your SD card and
format it according to the instructions.
If like me you use a version of
Linux, you can generally find a USB stick formatter under
‘Accessories’ in Mint/Ubuntu distro’s. Simple enter your
password and format the SD card to FAT32. In either case this creates
a blank formatted file system for us to put the NOOBS files on.
Visit
https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/noobs/
and download a version of Noobs, the Offline and Network install
version will contain Raspbian and OSMC and will bring up other
options too.
Now go to the downloads folder
using file explorer or whatever you use to browser folders and right
click NOOBS_vx_x_x.zip where the x_x_x is the current version, it was
2.4.4 dated 2017-09-08 at time of writing. Right click the zip file
and extract the files to a new folder. Then copy those new files
exactly as they are to your SD card. Do not add anything or change
anything.
Eject the SD card properly by right
clicking on the drive letter or clicking the Eject/Unmount logo in
Linux.
Now to move to the Pi.
If you like, you can see the video
here Installing
Raspian Linux from a NOOBS SD card
If you bought a case for the Pi now
is a good time to assemble it to prevent any short circuits or static
electricity damage. Refer to any instructions that came with the
case. Place the NOOBS SD card into the slot underneath the Pi PCB
with the contacts facing the PCB. Do not force it, it only goes in
one way.
Attach your HDMI cable (or
composite video lead) and your keyboard/mouse dongle to a USB slot.
Do not plug the power supply into the mains until the micro USB
connector is plugged into the Pi.
Okay, time to plug the power supply
in. The first thing that you should see is the Raspberry ‘rainbow’
boot screen followed by some lines of text. Soon you will see the
NOOBS boot selection screen. The first time you run it this will
automatically enter the set-up mode. Select your language or keyboard
layout if necessary from the selector at the base of the screen. We
can now choose from Raspian (Debian) Linux and LibreElec RPi2 media
player, this is very similar to the KODI media centre. This is why so
many KODI boxes look suspiciously like Raspberry Pi boxes! Raspbian
is a customised version of Debian 9 (at time of writing) and can
install most Debian software or equivalent versions. e.g a version of
Google Chrome is called Chromium and is pre-installed. Firefox is
called Ice Weasel or Firefox ESR and is not installed.
If you want to check for updates or
want to see other operating system options simply click the WiFi
option and log into your WiFi as usual. The NOOBS software will scan
for alternative Operating Systems. If you choose one of these new
options it will download it before proceeding. It will also check for
updates to Raspian and LibreElec. The best options for the complete
beginner are Raspbian (the full version not the lite version unless
you are a command line Linux freak) and OSMC PI2 (This is full
featured KODI) of course you are free to make other choices. There is
also a version of RiscOS which I have not yet tried out.
Now if you have a USB hard dive or
USB SSD simply select it from the selector at the bottom of the
screen. You can simply buy a cheap SSD with more than 30GB and a USB
2/3 case I paid around £36 for both on Amazon/Ebay. You can always
go bigger if you want. The speed of the SSD will be faster than the
Pi USB 2 port anyway so there is little point in being extravagant.
When you are happy with your
choices click Install and go and make a coffee. Depending on your SD
card and what you selected the installation can take up to 45
minutes, UHS SD cards, hard drives and SSD’s are much faster at
under 10 minutes.
You can read the promo screens as
the operating systems partition the drive and are installed. When it
is done it will pop up a prompt “OS(es) Installed Successfully”
and when you click “OK” the Pi will reboot. Once it reboots you
will be presented with a choice of OS to boot up. At this point you
can also hit the “Shift” key within 5 seconds if you wish to
re-install or add other operating systems, though this will reset any
existing ones. The Pi will automatically boot the first or last
selected option if you do not select an option in around 10 seconds.
Raspbian Linux
This boots into a screen Linux
users will find familiar apart from the fact that the taskbar is at
the top of the screen, we can change this if desired.
We generally will need to remote
access the Pi and this is not enabled by default. So I recommend you
open a terminal by clicking the Raspberry logo and selecting Admin,
Terminal. Do not worry if you have never used the terminal, we are
just going to use it to enter the configuration screen. Type
sudo raspi-config all in lower case
(Linux is very fussy about CaSe).
The config screen opens, I really
recommend that you first choose option 2 Change User Password
(everyone knows it is set to ‘raspberry’) and change to something
more secure, you will have to enter it twice pressing return each
time and you will NOT be able to see it.
More Information
community section will
allow you to post questions. But first search as the chances are that
some one has had a similar or identical problem before you.
