In this chapter you're gonna install an OS on your Pi, learn how to remote connect to your it from your computer, and install the video looper.

It's worth noting that once you have the materials, you have other options from here. This tutorial is for a higher quality video looper that'll take some effort to curate videos for. If you just wanna plug n' play, you could search for other tutorials like this one that will display any GIPHY feed (also cool!).

This is probs the densest section, if you're not comfy with Terminal. But it's really just copy/pasting code.

1. Install an OS on Your Pi

This piece is on your computer.

1. Pop the sd card into your card reader or sd slot

2. Install & open the Raspberry Pi Imager that you downloaded earlier

3. First we'll make sure the card is formatted properly, which it should be if it's new, but just in case. select Choose OS & click Erase– Format Card as FAT32

4. Select Choose SD Card & pick your card from the dropdown

5. Click Write to format your card

6. Now we'll install the OS. Click into the Operating System dropdown again (by clicking Erase if you haven't closed the app), click Raspbian (Other), & then click Raspbian Lite

   1. You can also install the full version instead, but we don't need a desktop GUI for any of this & terminal is more fun

7. Click Write again to install the OS

   It may take a few minutes to download & install

2. Setup Your Pi

This piece is on your pi.

For the initial setup you'll need to have a usb keyboard plugged into the Pi, along with your display. If you don't have a usb keyboard, don't freak out. There should be ways to do this without one, but it's not how I installed it. Google plz.

Take the SD card out of your card reader, & plug it into the pi. Plug the power cable in last, & the Pi should boot up & install itself.

You should see a console screen now. Before you change any settings, the default user is pi & the default password is raspberry.

<aside> 👉 Pretty much all commands need to be executed with enter. I don't want to include that step with every command, so when in doubt just hit enter.

</aside>

1. Enter your pi's config

2. Paste sudo rasbpi-config

3. Assuming you haven't already set a password, it should ask you to enter the password (sending sudo commands requires authentication). Enter the default password raspberry

4. Set up your network options

5. Enter into 2. Network Settings

6. Enter into N2 Wi-Fi

7. Type in your network's SSID (its name)

8. Type in your network's password (if exists)

9. Set up your timezone

10. Select 4 Localization Options

11. Select I2 Timezone

12. Select your country

13. Select your timezone

14. Right arrow twice to select "Finish"

15. Change the default password

16. Enter into 1 Change User Password

17. Hit enter twice

18. Type in your new password

19. Type it in again

20. Set the pi to automatically login on boot

21. Select 3 Boost Options

22. Select B1 Desktop / CLI

23. Select B2 Console Autologin. It should have flashed to Terminal & loaded back into the main menu

24. Enable SSH to control your pi without it being connected to your keyboard

25. Enter into 5 Interfacing Options

26. Select P2 SSH

27. Hit Yes to enable SSH

28. Exit Config

29. Hit your right arrow twice & hit enter to quit the config.

30. It should ask if you want to restart now. Go for it, to see if everything worked. Or exit & type sudo restart to apply & restart your pi.

The tl;dr of everything we did above was made your pi more secure, connected it your wifi, localized it, & enabled ssh (remote) connections).

The last thing we need to do here is find your pi's IP address so you can connect to it from your computer without having have a keyboard plugged directly into the pi. At the main terminal window, type hostname -I. It should return you something like 192.123.72.12. Write this down somewhere.

3. Connect to Your Pi Via SSH

If you're on a Mac, you can do this with Terminal.

If you're on Windows, theoretically you can do this with Command Prompt, but you might have to install stuff first. The better option for Windows is to use PuTTy. You can also do these direct from the pi too connected with the keyboard, but that'll get more cumbersome in the future, so SSH is better.

To connect to your pi in terminal, type ssh [email protected] (replacing the number with your pi's ip). It'll prompt you for a password, enter the password you set.

Next it should tell you that you haven't connected to it before, and if you'd like to accept the security fingerprint. Type yes.

You should be connected now. Test that out by typing sudo reboot. If you see your pi restart, it's working.