Omnishambles


Setting up a Raspberry Pi Zero W

Posted: 2023-08-18

Notes to self from the last time I set up a Raspberry Pi Zero W. I was doing so to replace an old Airport Express that I was using as a print server, with a Raspberry Pi based one instead 


Using Raspberry Pi Imager:

  • Use "Lite" OS Image

  • Make sure to set options in Settings

    • Put password in password manager


I've got emoji in my wifi SSID, which can be entered in the Raspberry Pi Imager, but then doesn't seem to work (though there's a chance I hadn't done the wait and reboot dance before giving up?). Find the .txt file with the SSID entered in the imager, and replace it with the output of:


echo -n 'My Home 🏠Wifi' | xxd -ps


But without enclosing it in quotes.


Then:

  • Boot

  • Wait a few minutes

  • Power cycle

  • Wait for it to come up on the network

  • ssh in to the hostname.local set in the imager


Once connected:


sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt install unattended-upgrades && sudo apt-get install vim

(can take a while, go and have some tea)

Set up automatic security patching:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low unattended-upgrades


If you're going to be playing around and might want to revert, take a disk image:


diskutil list | grep "Windows_FAT_32 bootfs" -B 3 

sudo dd if=/dev/XXXX of=/Users/arw/Desktop/PrinterPiCardBackup.dmg


Tags: techsetup, notetoself


© Andrew