- Raspberry Pi 5
- Raspberry Pi 5 Power Supply
- SD card + Reader
- Adafruit MiniPiTFT
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Download the Raspberry Pi Imager
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Download our copy of Raspbian at this cornell canvas link. Download and use the file directly in the Raspberry Pi Imager (do not unzip).
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If using windows: Windows 11 SSH Client, PuTTY or VS Code SSH.
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Plug the SD card into your computer using the card reader
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Go download and install the Raspberry Pi Imager on your laptop, download the the customed image file we made for the class. Open the Raspberry Pi Imager and choose the downloaded image file from "Choose OS" and the SD card from "Choose SD card".
3. Click the gear icon on the bottom right to open Advanced Settings. In here, you need to make two changes:
- change the "hostname" to something unique
- set the password for user "pi" to something unique to you that you can remember Albert says, change the password after you ssh in.~
- do not change any of the other settings (username pi and network should stay as they are)
- Eject or unmount the microSD card reader, and then remove the SD card from the reader and reinsert it into SD card slot on the Pi: it is located on the bottom (silver rectangle on the right).
- Take and connect the Adafruit MiniPiTFT to your pi with the configuration shown below, the MiniPiTFT should be on the top left corner of your Pi.
- Boot the Pi by connecting it to a power source with USB-C connector.
Unlike your laptop, the Pi doesn't come with its own keyboard or mouse. While you could plug in a monitor, keyboard, and mouse we will be connecting to your Pi over SSH. You can do this in Mac Terminal or Windows 10 SSH Client.
Note: This set up assumes you boot your raspberry pi the first time when on campus or in The House. If you have a screen, mouse and keyboard you can edit the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf on the pi to make it connect to your home network already now.
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When you boot up your Pi, the MiniPiTFT should have the following information shown:
IP: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx NET: [YourWifiNetwork] MAC: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xxThe IP address is what you will need to SSH your Pi later through the same network. The media access control address (MAC address) is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller, you will need it later for registering the device if you are using Cornell network (e.g. RedRover). The NET shows which WiFi network your Pi is connected to.
For MAC address: If you are planning to use Cornell network (e.g. RedRover and eduroam), you will have to register the device (your Pi) to the Cornell System to get it online. Please follow the instructions here from Cornell. Register using the MAC address from your Pi's screen. If you are using the House network, you will need to register the device (your Pi) through whitesky. You might need to wait for a few minutes for your Pi to actually get online after registering it.
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Verify your Pi is online. In the terminal of your laptop, type
ping <Your Pi's IP Address shown on the MiniPiTFT>and press enter. If your Pi is online, you should get similar messages as below (with different IP address):PING 10.56.129.178 (10.56.129.178): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 10.56.129.178: icmp_seq=0 tt1=62 time=11.911 ms 64 bytes from 10.56.129.178: icmp_seq=1 ttl=62 time=8.179 ms 64 bytes from 10.56.129.178: iсmp_seq=2 ttl=62 time=11.489 ms 64 bytes • from 10.56.129.178: iсmp_seq=3 ttl=62 time=11.932 ms
You can use
control-Cto interrupt and exit the ping (press thecontrolkey, and while holding it down, also press theCkey, then let go of both together--this looks like^Cin the terminal). -
Once your Pi is online, you can go ahead and SSH into the Pi. In the terminal of your laptop, type in the command
$ ssh pi@<Your Pi's IP Address shown on the MiniPiTFT>When you first log in it, the terminal will show you a "fingerprint" and ask you whether you want to continue connecting. Type
yesand press enter.The authenticity of host '10.56.129.178 (10.56.129.178) ' can't be established. ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:uRnRAlBikqynXuZ8vc/kVSR8ohLFawA0nn+3Er7TXm8. This key is not known by any other names. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
If you set your password in the Advanced Settings during imaging, enter that password. If you didn't, the initial setting of your Pi's password is
student@tech, type it and press enter. Note: the terminal will not show what you type for security so do not worry about it and just make sure you type the correct password. After that, you should see something similar to this:pi@10.56.129.178's password: Linux raspberrypi 6.12.25+rpt-rpi-2712 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.12.25-1+rpt1 (2025-04-30) aarch64 The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software; the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright. Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law. Last login: Wed Sep 10 13:10:52 2025 from 128.84.84.249 pi@raspberrypi:~ $This means you are signed in and your terminal is now connected directly to the 'terminal' on your Pi, via
ssh. You can tell this by looking at the user and hostname at the beginning of each line, which should now look like:pi@raspberry ~ $
Write it down somewhere because we do not know how to recover lost passwords on the Pi. In the terminal on your Pi, type sudo raspi-config and press enter, you should be able to see the manual of your Pi:
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo raspi-config
Choose 1. System Options and then S4 Hostname Set name for this computer on a network , they terminal will then ask you to enter your new hostname.
The terminal will ask you to reboot it, and you are going to ssh back. After ssh'ed in, you will notice instead of the original
pi@raspberrypi:~ $
the terminal will look like this:
pi@<YOURNEWHOSTNAME>:~ $
Choose 1. System Options and then S3 Password Change password for the 'pi' user, they terminal will then ask you to enter your new hostname.
Again, the terminal will not show what you type for security so do not worry about it and just make sure you type the correct new password twice. After you change the password successfully, you will have to use the new password next time you SSH to your Pi.
Before you continue, take 2 minutes to set up your home WiFi - this will save you from getting locked out later!
While you're SSH'd into your Pi, configure your home WiFi so you don't lose access when you take your Pi home:
sudo nmcli connection add type wifi con-name "HomeWiFi" ifname wlan0 ssid "YourNetworkName" wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-psk wifi-sec.psk "YourPassword" connection.autoconnect yesReplace YourNetworkName and YourPassword with your actual home WiFi details.
E.g. when setting up the Wifi for the house:
sudo nmcli connection add type wifi con-name "WhiteSky-Cornell" ifname wlan0 ssid "WhiteSky-Cornell" wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-psk wifi-sec.psk “THEPASSWORDHERE" connection.autoconnect yesWhy this matters: If you only have school WiFi configured and take your Pi home, you'll lose SSH access and won't be able to connect remotely to fix it! Having home WiFi pre-configured means your Pi will automatically connect when you get home.
Verify it worked:
nmcli connection showThis should list your home network.
Pro Tip: Consider also setting up your phone's hotspot as a backup connection:
sudo nmcli connection add type wifi con-name "PhoneHotspot" ifname wlan0 ssid "YourPhoneHotspotName" wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-psk wifi-sec.psk "YourHotspotPassword" connection.autoconnect yesDo this now while you have SSH access! Otherwise, you'll need to come back to campus, find a screen, or reconfigure everything using the SD card formatter.
It's also a good idea to set up your Raspberry Pi to use your phone's hotspot. This way, you can always connect to it, even when you're on the go, allowing you to reconfigure it for new Wi-Fi networks.
You might want to give the hotspot Wi-Fi a higher priority so that it prefers connecting to that network. This way, you can test it even when a different network, like Red Rover, is available:
Change Priority:
# Set priority (higher number = higher priority)
sudo nmcli connection modify "connection-name" connection.autoconnect-priority 10Check Status:
# View all connections with priorities
nmcli -f NAME,AUTOCONNECT,AUTOCONNECT-PRIORITY connection showTest Switching: (or just reboot the pi)
# Force connection to test
sudo nmcli connection up "connection-name"The command line/terminal is a powerful way to interact with your computer without using a Graphical User Interface (GUI). When you SSH onto your Pi, you have a prompt you can enter commands. In your terminal there is a shell, there are many shells but for this class we will use one of the most common bash
```
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash
pi@raspberrypi:~ $
```
In the code above we've typed echo $SHELL. The echo tells it to print something to the screen. You could try typing echo 'hello' to see how that works for strings. The $ at the front of $SHELL tells bash we are referring to a variable. In this case it is a variable the OS is using to store the shell program. In a folder /bin is a program called bash that we are currently using. The up arrow with show the most recent command.
There are many commands you can use in the command line, they can take a variety of options that change how they are used. You can look these up online to learn more. Many commands have a manual page with documentation that you can see directly in the terminal by typing man [command]. For example:
```shell
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ man echo
ECHO(1) User Commands ECHO(1)
NAME
echo - display a line of text
SYNOPSIS
echo [SHORT-OPTION]... [STRING]...
echo LONG-OPTION
DESCRIPTION
Echo the STRING(s) to standard output.
-n do not output the trailing newline
-e enable interpretation of backslash escapes
-E disable interpretation of backslash escapes (default)
--help display this help and exit
--version
Manual page echo(1) line 1 (press h for help or q to quit)
```
These are some useful commands. Read the manual pages for advanced usage.
pwd- print working directory, tells us where on the computer we arels- list the things in the current directory.cd- change directory. This lets you move to another folder on your machine.mkdir- make directory. You can create directories with this commandcp- copy a file. You can copy from one place to any other placemv- move a file, also used to rename a filerm- delete a file. To delete a folder you need the recursive flagrm -r [folder]cat- view a filenano- this is a text editor (there are many) that will let you edit files in terminal.
There is plenty more to learn about using the terminal to navigate a computer but this should give a good start for getting around the raspberry pi.
Another convenient way to remotely connect to your Pi is using VNC (Virtual Network Computing), it essentially is remote login. The easiest client to use is VNC Viewer. Download and install it. Once that's done type the IP address of your Pi in the text-box at the top.
After that a login window should appear, use your normal logins (originally: Account=pi, Password=raspberry).
You might want to change a few settings to improve the VNC experience such as changing the display resolution. To change the resolution, run the command sudo raspi-config, navigate to Display Options > VNC Resolution, and choose an option. See here for more troubleshooting realvnc.com Pi Setup.
At that point the normal RPi desktop should appear and you can start and stop programs from here.
Quick addendum: Raspberry Pi now has its own in-house solution for screen sharing via Raspberry Pi Connect. This requires linking your Pi to a Raspberry Pi account, but then allows remote SSH and screen sharing through just a browser window, even when on different networks.
Setup (SSH into your Pi first):
rpi-connect on
loginctl enable-linger # Set rpi connect to autostart even when no user is logged in
rpi-connect signin After setup, your Pi will appear on: https://connect.raspberrypi.com/devices and you can connect from anywhere.
For this course, we have WendyTA, an AI Teaching Assistant that can help you with coding, debugging, brainstorming, and learning. WendyTA is automatically activated through GitHub Copilot Chat when working in this repository.
📖 Learn more about WendyTA: WendyTA Documentation
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VS Code Server on your laptop (Recommended): Use VS Code's Remote SSH extension to connect to your Pi and code directly with WendyTA available.
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VNC + VS Code on Pi: Use VNC to access the Pi desktop and install VS Code there with GitHub Copilot extension.
Setup Instructions: WendyTA Copilot Setup Guide
✨ Note: WendyTA works through both SSH/VS Code Server and VNC connections, so choose the method that works best for your setup!
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Download the RealVNC here
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Sign up an account
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SSH into your pi
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You should see the GUI something like this:
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On the virtual desktop, click the left most icon(the raspberryPi logo), and go to Accessories, in there, you can see Pi-Apps, which should be downloaded already there. Click that to enter the program.
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In Pi-Apps, go to the programming subsection.
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Download Github-CLI and Github Desktop. If the Github Desktop is already downloaded, delete that and download that again for the first time, (keep it there for the rest of the semester).
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Go back to the desktop click the right most icon(the raspberryPi logo) and click Accessories again. Enter Github Desktop
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In Github Desktop, go to File -> Options
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Go to Account, and sign in you github account:
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If there is a current repository, delete that. It is the history version when TA set up the raspberry Pi5.
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In Github Desktop, go to File -> Options, open the Git, enter correct information about your github account
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Go to File, and clone repository
Stay in the VNC virtual Desktop. Once you download the GitHub CLI, open your terminal, and enter gh auth login, and choose GitHub.com. Next question, choose HTTPS, followed by Login with a web browser
Go to the Lab 2/screen_boot_script.py, and modify from there