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 13

A Trip Around the Board   14

Model A   16

Model B   17

A History of Model B PCB Revisions 18

Revision 1  18

Revision 2  18

A Bit of Background 18

ARM versus x86 19

Windows versus Linux   20

CHAPTER 2 Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi  21

Connecting a Display    22

Composite Video 22

HDMI Video 23

DSI Video  24

Connecting Audio 24

Connecting a Keyboard and Mouse 25

Installing NOOBS on an SD Card  27

Connecting External Storage  28

Connecting the Network   29

Wired Networking    30

Wireless Networking   31

Connecting Power    32

Installing the Operating System  33

Installing Using NOOBS   33

Installing Manually   35

CHAPTER 3 Linux System Administration   41

Linux: An Overview 42

Linux Basics  44

Introducing Raspbian    45

About Raspbian’s Parent, Debian 49

Alternatives to Raspbian  49

Using External Storage Devices  50

Creating a New User Account  51

File System Layout 52

Logical Layout 53

Physical Layout 54

Installing and Uninstalling Software 55

Obtaining Software from the Pi Store  55

Obtaining Software from Elsewhere 57

Finding the Software You Want 58

Installing Software    59

Uninstalling Software   61

Upgrading Software   61

Shutting the Pi Down Safely  62

CHAPTER 4 Troubleshooting  63

Keyboard and Mouse Diagnostics 64

Power Diagnostics 65

Display Diagnostics 67

Boot Diagnostics 68

Network Diagnostics    68

The Emergency Kernel   71

CHAPTER 5 Network Configuration 73

Wired Networking 74

Wireless Networking    77

Installing Firmware   78

Connecting to a Wireless Network via wpa_gui    82

Connecting to a Wireless Network via the Terminal   85

CHAPTER 6 The Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool 93

Running the Tool 94

The Setup Options Screen   95

1 Expand Filesystem   95

2 Change User Password  96

3 Enable Boot to Desktop  96

4 Internationalisation Options 97

5 Enable Camera 99

6 Add to Rastrack 99

7 Overclock 100

8 Advanced Options   101

9 About raspi-config   105

CHAPTER 7 Advanced Raspberry Pi Configuration  107

Editing Configuration Files via NOOBS  108

Hardware Settings—configtxt  110

Modifying the Display   111

Boot Options 114

Overclocking the Raspberry Pi 114

Disabling L2 Cache    118

Enabling Test Mode   119

Memory Partitioning   119

Software Settings—cmdlinetxt 120

Part II: Building a Media Centre, Productivity Machine or Web Server

CHAPTER 8 The Pi as a Home Theatre PC   125

Playing Music at the Console  126

Dedicated HTPC with Raspbmc 128

Streaming Internet Media  129

Streaming Local Network Media 131

Configuring Raspbmc   133

CHAPTER 9 The Pi as a Productivity Machine  135

Using Cloud-Based Apps   136

Using LibreOffice 139

Image Editing with The Gimp  141

CHAPTER 10 The Pi as a Web Server    145

Installing a LAMP Stack   146

Installing WordPress   150

Part III: Programming with the Raspberry Pi

CHAPTER 11 An Introduction to Scratch   157

Introducing Scratch   158

Example 1: Hello World   159

Example 2: Animation and Sound 162

Example 3: A Simple Game  165

Robotics and Sensors   171

Sensing with the PicoBoard  171

Robotics with LEGO   171

Further Reading 172

CHAPTER 12 An Introduction to Python   173

Introducing Python   174

Example 1: Hello World   174

Example 2: Comments, Inputs, Variables and Loops   180

Example 3: Gaming with pygame 184

Example 4: Python and Networking 193

Further Reading 199

Part IV: Hardware Hacking

CHAPTER 13 Learning to Hack Hardware   203

Electronic Equipment   204

Reading Resistor Colour Codes  206

Sourcing Components   208

Online Sources 208

Offline Sources 209

Hobby Specialists   209

Moving Up From the Breadboard 210

A Brief Guide to Soldering  213

CHAPTER 14 The GPIO Port  219

Identifying Your Board Revision 220

GPIO Pinout Diagrams   220

GPIO Features 222

UART Serial Bus    222

I2C Bus  223

SPI Bus  223

Using the GPIO Port in Python 223

GPIO Output: Flashing an LED 224

GPIO Input: Reading a Button 228

CHAPTER 15 The Raspberry Pi Camera Module  233

Why Use the Camera Module?  234

Installing the Camera Module  235

Enabling Camera Mode   238

Capturing Stills 239

Recording Video 242

Command-Line Time-Lapse Photography 243

CHAPTER 16 Add-on Boards  249

Ciseco Slice of Pi 250

Adafruit Prototyping Pi Plate  254

Fen Logic Gertboard   257

Part V: Appendixes

APPENDIX A Python Recipes  265

Raspberry Snake (Chapter 12, Example 3) 266

IRC User List (Chapter 12, Example 4)  268

GPIO Input and Output (Chapter 14)270

APPENDIX B Camera Module Quick Reference  271

Shared Options 272

Raspistill Options 275

Raspivid Options 276

Raspiyuv Options 276

APPENDIX C HDMI Display Modes 277

Index 283

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