Skip to main content
Version: 2025

Raspberry Pi Setup

During this course, we will be using a Raspberry Pi 4B as our main computer. This section will walk you through the steps to get your Raspberry Pi up and running.

The Raspberry Pi is a small, single-board computer that can be used for a variety of projects. It is a great tool for learning about computers and programming, and it is also a great tool for building projects.

Raspberry Pi 4B

What you will need​

  • Raspberry Pi 4 (provided by the course)
  • a microSD card (provided by the course)
  • a USB-C cable (provided by the course)
  • a computer with a USB port.

Setting up the Raspberry Pi​

The RPi has a microSD card slot on the bottom. Insert the microSD card into the slot, and connect the RPi to your computer using the USB-C cable. The RPi will power on automatically.

tip

If you are using a Windows computer, you may need to install a driver for the RPi. You can download the driver here.

  1. Download and extract the zip file.
  2. Open Device Manager on your computer and locate COM & LPT ports.
  3. Connect the RPi to your computer and locate the new device (it should be called COM PORT ...).
  4. Right-click on the device and select Update Driver Software.
  5. Browse to the folder where you extracted the zip file.
  6. Install the driver.

Check that the driver was installed by opening a terminal and running the following command:

ping backseat.local

Connecting to the Raspberry Pi​

Once the RPi is powered on, you can connect to it using SSH. We will be using Visual Studio Code to connect to the RPi.

  1. Open Visual Studio Code.
  2. Install the Remote - SSH extension.
  3. Click on the Remote Explorer icon in the left sidebar.
  4. Select on the Remotes (Tunnels/SSH) from the dropdown.
  5. Click on the + icon next to SSH.
  6. Enter the following command in the input field:
ssh blue@backseat.local

The default password is iamblue.

note

You might be prompted to select a config file. If so, select ~/.ssh/config or C:\Users\<username>\.ssh\config.

note

If you are asked to accept the host key, type yes and press Enter.

note

If you are asked the operating system of the remote host, select Linux.

Once connected, you should see a terminal window in Visual Studio Code (bottom). You can now run commands on the RPi.

For example, you can now run the following command to check the IP address of the RPi:

hostname -I

Creating a new user​

The default user on the RPi is blue. We will be using a new user for you for this course.

  1. Run the following command to create a new user:
sudo adduser <username>
  1. Enter a password for the new user.
  2. Enter the password again to confirm.
  3. Enter a full name for the new user.
  4. Press Enter to skip the rest of the prompts.

Setting up the new user​

  1. Run the following command to add the new user to the sudo group:
sudo usermod -aG sudo <username>
  1. Run the following command to switch to the new user:
su <username>
  1. Run the following command to create a new SSH key:
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "<username>@backseat.local"
  1. Press Enter to save the key in the default location.
  2. Press Enter to skip the passphrase prompt.

Connecting to the Raspberry Pi using the new user​

Similar to the previous section, you can now connect to the RPi using the new user.

  1. Click on the Remote Explorer icon in the left sidebar.
  2. Click on the SSH Targets icon at the top of the sidebar.
  3. Click on the + icon at the top of the sidebar.
  4. Enter the following command in the input field:
ssh <username>@backseat.local
  1. Enter the password for the new user.

You are now connected to the RPi using the new user you just created.

Setting up the RPi for the course​

For this course, we will be using a few tools that are not installed by default on the RPi. We will now install these tools.

ZSH​

zsh is a Unix shell that can be used as an interactive login shell and as a command interpreter for shell scripting. Zsh is an extended Bourne shell with a large number of improvements, including some features of Bash, ksh, and tcsh.

We will be using zsh as our default shell in this course.

Install​

sudo apt install zsh

Set as default shell​

Set zsh as default shell:

chsh -s $(which zsh)

Restart shell​

Restart the shell:

exec zsh

Oh-My-Zsh​

Oh-My-Zsh is an open source, community-driven framework for managing your zsh configuration (and it comes with a bunch of plugins and themes).

Install​
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

.zshrc​

The .zshrc file is a script that is executed each time a new zsh shell is started. It is located in your home directory (~/.zshrc).

You can edit the .zshrc file with your favorite text editor.

We will be adding some configuration to the .zshrc file in the next sections.

Assigning the RPi a Static IP​

By default, the interface between your Raspberry Pi and local machine will have dynamic IP addresses. To simplify future sections of the course, you'll assign a static IP address to the Raspberry Pi.

Raspberry Pi​

Once connected to your Raspberry Pi, open the /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml file using the in-terminal text editor. This file is responsible for defining network connections like the usb0 interface to your local machine and the wlan0 wifi interface.

sudo nano /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml

After the file is open, modify the usb0 interface to look like this:

        usb0:
            dhcp4: false
            dhcp6: false
            addresses:
            - 192.168.3.2/24
            match:
                name: usb0
            set-name: usb0
info

Once the usb0 interface matches the above code, press CTRL + X to close the file. When you are prompted if you want to save the modified buffer, enter y. Then, press enter an additional time to save the file using its current path and name.

Apply the changes to the netplan in the same terminal:

sudo netplan apply

Local Machine​

Now, you must also update the interface on your local machine.

warning

If you are using Windows and WSL, then for this section only, follow the Windows tab rather than the Ubuntu tab.

Open System Settings > Network.

Select the network interface for the Raspberry Pi (likely called RNDIS/Ethernet Gadget).

info

If you are unsure which interface this is, disconnect the RPi from your laptop. This will remove the interface from the list. Reconnect the RPi to your laptop and the interface should appear again.

With the correct interface selected, click Details....

Under the TCP/IP tab, set the Configure IPv4 dropdown to Manually.

Enter the following

  • IPv4 Address : 192.168.3.1
  • Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Click OK to save the settings.

Testing​

Once these steps are complete, you should be able to run ping 192.168.3.1 from a terminal on the Raspberry Pi.

danger

Make sure you always use the same USB port that the RPi was plugged in when you set the IP address, as that is the specific interface that is now setup. If you use another USB port, it will reset your interface settings.

warning

When you are done using your Raspberry Pi, run sudo poweroff and wait for it to complete before unplugging your RPi. If you skip this step, you may end up corrupting your RPi.