Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Programming is fun! 1
A bit of history 3
So what can you do with the Raspberry Pi? 8
Part I: Connecting the Board
CHAPTER 1 Meet the Raspberry Pi 11
ARM vsx86 12
Windows vsLinux 13
Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi 14
Connecting a Display 14
Composite Video 14
HDMI Video 15
DSI Video 16
Connecting Audio 16
Connecting a Keyboard and Mouse 17
Flashing the SD Card 19
Flashing from Linux 20
Flashing from OS X 21
Flashing from Windows 21
Connecting External Storage 22
Connecting the Network 23
Wired Networking 24
Wireless Networking 25
Connecting Power 26
CHAPTER 2 Linux System Administration 27
Linux: An Overview 28
Linux Basics 30
Introducing Debian 30
Using External Storage Devices 34
Creating a New User Account 36
File System Layout 37
Logical Layout 37
Physical Layout 39
Installing and Uninstalling Software 40
Finding Software 41
Installing Software 42
Uninstalling Software 43
Upgrading Software 44
CHAPTER 3 Troubleshooting 45
Keyboard and Mouse Diagnostics 46
Power Diagnostics 47
Display Diagnostics 49
Boot Diagnostics 50
Network Diagnostics 50
The Emergency Kernel 53
CHAPTER 4 Network Configuration 55
Wired Networking 56
Wireless Networking 59
No Encryption 68
WEP Encryption 68
WPA/WPA2 Encryption 69
Connecting to the Wireless Network 69
CHAPTER 5 Partition Management 71
Creating a New Partition 72
Resizing Existing Partitions 76
Automatic Resizing 76
Manual Resizing 77
Moving to a Bigger SD Card 81
Imaging from Linux 82
Imaging from OS X 83
Imaging from Windows 83
CHAPTER 6 Configuring the Raspberry Pi 85
Hardware Settings—config.txt 86
Modifying the Display 87
Boot Options 90
Overclocking the Raspberry Pi 91
Overclocking Settings 92
Overvoltage Settings 93
Disabling L2 Cache 94
Enabling Test Mode 95
Memory Partitioning—start.elf 96
Software Settings—cmdline.txt 97
Part II: Using the Pi as a Media Centre, Productivity Machine and Web Server
CHAPTER 7 The Pi as a Home Theatre PC 103
Playing Music at the Console 104
Dedicated HTPC with Rasbmc 106
Streaming Internet Media 108
Streaming Local Network Media 109
Configuring Rasbmc 111
CHAPTER 8 The Pi as a Productivity Machine 113
Using Cloud-Based Apps 114
Using OpenOffice.org 117
Image Editing with The Gimp 119
CHAPTER 9 The Pi as a Web Server 123
Installing a LAMP Stack 124
Installing WordPress 128
Part III: Programming and Hacking
CHAPTER 10 An Introduction to Scratch 135
Introducing Scratch 136
Example 1: Hello World 137
Example 2: Animation and Sound 140
Example 3: A Simple Game 143
Robotics and Sensors 149
Sensing with the PicoBoard 149
Robotics with LEGO 150
Further Reading 150
CHAPTER 11 An Introduction to Python 151
Introducing Python 152
Example 1: Hello World 152
Example 2: Comments, Inputs, Variables and Loops 158
Example 3: Gaming with pygame 162
Example 4: Python and Networking 171
Further Reading 178
CHAPTER 12 Hardware Hacking 179
Electronic Equipment 180
Reading Resistor Colour Codes 182
Sourcing Components 184
Online Sources 184
Offline Sources 185
Hobby Specialists 186
The GPIO Port 186
UART Serial Bus 188
I²C Bus 189
SPI Bus 189
Using the GPIO Port in Python 189
Installing the GPIO Python Library 190
GPIO Output: Flashing an LED 192
GPIO Input: Reading a Button 196
Moving Up From the Breadboard 200
A Brief Guide to Soldering 203
CHAPTER 13 Add-on Boards 209
Ciseco Slice of Pi 210
Adafruit Prototyping Pi Plate 214
Fen Logic Gertboard 217
Part IV: Appendixes
APPENDIX A Python Recipes 225
Raspberry Snake (Chapter 11, Example 3) 226
IRC User List (Chapter 11, Example 4) 228
GPIO Input and Output (Chapter 12) 230
APPENDIX B HDMI Display Modes 231
Index 237
