CAVEAT: The information provided herein is most likely exactly correct, HOWEVER use it at your own risk: we assume no risk or liability. Do your own evaluation and make your own choices.
In previous articles we have shared how we decided on the design of our public computer lab, selected and assembled the parts, installed the Linux and Microsoft operating systems, and configured the computers for security and some automatic things to make our lab fairly pain free to manage and maintain.
A large part of this automation is an amazingly inexpensive and easily configured device, the Raspberry Pi computer. We will share how we selected this tiny $35 computer instead of a $750 PC server, and how we made and programmed all the simple but very helpful things that it does to keep our lab looking snazzy, high tech, and mostly sparing us much effort in keeping it all running.
Selection
WikiPedia describes the RPi in this way:
The Raspberry Pi (/paɪ/) is a series of small single-board computers developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation to promote teaching of basic computer science in schools and in developing countries.[13][14][15] The original model became far more popular than anticipated,[16] selling outside its target market for uses such as robotics. It is now widely used even in research projects, such as for weather monitoring[17] because of its low cost and portability. It does not include peripherals (such as keyboards and mice) or cases. However, some accessories have been included in several official and unofficial bundles.[16]
Preparing the way for the RPi was the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, which was intended “to enable a $100 laptop, which would enable constructionist learning, would revolutionize education, and would bring the world’s knowledge to all children”. OLPC developed a way to create a very affordable and child-rugged laptop computer so well thought out and constructed that it would remain reliably in service even in remote villages possibly with no Internet and no electricity.
OLPC was deemed a failure by the project team because its goal was a laptop cost of $100 and they did not achieve that: the final cost was a few dollars more, yet the reverberations of the design shattered the $1,500 – $2,000USD retail price then common for laptop and notebook computers. Today we can find notebooks on sale starting for around $350USD, and Chrome Books or OLPC notebooks for around $200USD at some retailers. Knowledge is power, and in my opinion OLPC was a success, because it demonstrated that we can do better, and it inspired us to so do.
The Arduino and The Raspberry Pi (RPi) project came soon after OLPC. The Arduino Project started in 2005 and has a price point around $25USD, however it’s use is rather technical, and it is not intended to be powerful enough to serve as a desktop computer. In 2012, a group developed the RPi for use in teaching school students the rudiments of computer programming and (I think) to inspire them to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). The price point was low for a desktop computer. The Arduino does not have an O/S suitable for non-technical users, while the RPi O/Ses – there are many – provide a very familiar look and feel from Linux to Windows 10.
Our decision to try the RPi was based upon its long running popularity and technical capacity. RPis are available today from many retailers, starting at about $35USD for the board alone, or more for kits containing the RPi board plus some additional parts needed to actually use it. We purchased a kit assembled by Vilros, the Vilros Raspberry Pi 4 Complete Kit with Clear Transparent Fan Cooled Case (4GB), for which we paid $99.99USD at Newegg.com. Vilros looks to be a big vendor with many products, but there are many other vendors available. We decided on the RPi 4B with 4GB of RAM.
UnBoxing, Assembly, and Desktop Setup
Setup instructions are available from the Raspberry Pi organization at https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/raspberry-pi-setting-up.
If you unbox your RPi and it is not immediately clear to you exactly how it fits together, you can always look at the pictures in the book. The circuit board fits into the plastic case only one way, the heat sinks stick to the top of the chips (see the picture in the book to know which chips), the HDMI cable plugs into the first HDMI port (beside the power port) and your screen, the power plugs into the power port and the wall outlet, the provided micro SD chip plugs into the micro SD slot, your keyboard and mouse into the USB slots, and you can turn it on and the RPi will prepare its SD chip, then ask you several questions about how you want to use your RPi. After you type in your time zone and such you’re ready to use it as a desktop.
I grant you that creating new user accounts using Linux command line instructions (CLI) might feel a bit new if you are using Raspbian, because it involves typing commands instead of clicking things, but it is very do-able. If you are only using the RPi as a desktop replacement, you won’t need to bother with such details. Stop here.
If you purpose to build your own file or web servers you probably already are comfortable with the Linux command line instructions. Raspbian is Debian, which is Ubuntu and Mint, so if you are familiar with Linux servers you will immediately grasp configuring the RPi.
Next Post
I’m anticipating at this point that if you are intending to make a File Server or a Web Server that you either already have done this in different computers or you are technically inclined enough that you have no emotional issue with learning a bit about Debian Linux. Online documentation is readily available and the packages used, with the exception of MySQL which is MariaDB for the RPi, are the very same packages with the same configurations that you already know – they are just re-compiled for the RPi chipset and come down from the Raspbian repo.
I will detail more about the software I installed and how I configured it in the next post.
APT, ufw, gufw, php, apache2, fail2ban, iptables – it’s all there. It’s in the same locations and works the same way it always has in bigger hardware. Yes, they also have systemctl but at least you are allowed to choose between using classic understandable “eth0” and the “new and better predictable enp2s0” for ethernet port names.
Citations
https://www.raspberrypi.org/ Raspberry Pi 4
Your tiny, dual-display, desktop computer … and robot brains, smart home hub, media centre, networked AI core, factory controller, and much more.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/ Download page for Raspberry Pi. Use Raspberry Pi Imager for an easy way to install Raspberry Pi OS and other operating systems to an SD card ready to use with your Raspberry Pi or use the provided links to download OS images which can be manually copied to an SD card.
You must be logged in to post a comment.