The Raspberry Pi is a fairly cheap single board computer. It doesn't compare with the power of a desktop or even a laptop. For computing power they are about comparable to laptops from about ten years ago.
As I said the Raspberry Pi is just a single board computer. Just because it isn't as fast and powerful as todays computers does not make it useless. If I were to list just the amateur radio projects that you can build around a Raspberry Pi, you would be reading that list for days. Just Google amateur radio projects for Raspberry Pi.
So I got you here today to get started. The Raspberry Pi - RPI uses a Linux based operating system. For the hard drive it used Micro SD cards. So just with the Micro SD card, you have tons of options for how much memory your RPI will have. The MicroSD card is the hard drive for the RPI so you can have a hard drive of 32gb, 64gb etc. They even make 1TB Micro SD cards! For the most part a 32gb MicroSD card will work. For this post I'm using a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB of RAM and a 32GB SanDisk Ultra Micro SD card. My goal here is to walk you through the process of putting an operating system on a RPI so that you can do it on your own.
Just like any computer, your RPI will need an operating system. Now like the big W operating system there are minor financial incursions to use the RPI operating system. To start it's just a minor $500 deposit and another $700 a year for the permission to use it. JUST JOKING! 😂 The RPI operating system is Open Source which means it is 100% free. The concept of Open Source can be another post so email me at Aaron@K5ATG.com if you would like for me to write a post on that.
Where shall we start?
How about we start at the beginning.
We need an USB Micro SD card so that we can put the RPI Image (A RPI Image is just another words for RPI Operating System or OS) on your Micro SD Card. You don't need anything elaborate, here is a nice cheap one that will do the job: USB3.0 Micro SD Card Reader
Once you have your reader you will need the Raspberry Pi Imager software. To download it simply go here: Raspberry Pi Imager You can download it for Windows, macOS and Ubuntu so download the version that goes with your operating system.
Once the Raspberry Pi Imager is downloaded you want to put the Micro SD card in the USB Microd SD Card reader and plug it into a USB port. Then you will need to start the Raspberry Pi Imager software and a window will appear that looks like this:
First step is we start off on the left hand side of the RPI Imager. Why do we start off on the left you ask? It's because it's my darn blog and I'm left handed. Do you know how much the world is made around right handed people? All of it! In grade school, I had to cut along the dotted line with regular scissors which just tore up the paper all the while being high from the after recess glue high! Anyway back to today, or are you reading this tomorrow? So I'm typing this now and you are reading this in the future... thats trippy. Ok glue is put away.
The first option is you need to choose your Raspberry Pi Device. you click on the white CHOOSE DEVICE and select the Raspberry Pi device that you are using. The RPI Imager that I'm using is V1.8.5 and here is a little list of RPI devices that it supports:
- No Filtering - Show every possible image
- Raspberry Pi 5 - Raspberry Pi 5, 500, and Compute Module 5
- Raspberry Pi 4 - Model B, 400, Compute Modules 4, 4S
- Raspberry Pi Zero 2W - The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
- Raspberry Pi 3 - Models B, A+, B+, and Compute Module 3, 3+
- Raspberry Pi 2 - Model B
- Raspberry Pi Zero - Models Zero, Zero W, Zero WH
- Raspberry Pi 1 - Models A, B, A+, B+ and Compute Module 1
- Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) - A port of Debian Bookworm with the Raspberry Pi Desktop. (Recommended)
- Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit) - A port of Debian Bookworm with the Raspberry Pi Desktop.
- Raspberry Pi OS (Legacy, 32-bit) - A port of Debian Bullseye with security updates and desktop environment.
- Raspberry Pi OS (other) - Other Raspberry Pi OS based images.
I would recommend selecting the EDIT SETTINGS option as this will take you to another window where you can enter the Hostname, Username, Password, internet options. Going through this will make things easier down the line. Due to privacy I will not show this window.
Click the YES option and a warning window will appear saying: All existing data on USB STORAGE DEVICE will be erased. Are you sure you want to continue?
Here is another chance to make sure that you have the selected device to write the Image on. Once again triple check and click in the YES option. now the imager will go through the steps in putting the Raspberry Pi OS on your SD card.
Once it is all complete eject it from your computer and remove the Micro SD card, insert it in the Raspberry Pi and boot it up.
Thank you for following along this far. If you like this content please hit the subscribe button. That would really make my week. Feel free to put any comments or questions you have in the comment section below this post. You can contact me via email at Aaron@K5ATG.com
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Aaron K5ATG