Raspberry Pi 3 Model B 32 GB Setup and Config

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B 32GB Initial Setup and Configuration

So my first Raspberry Pi 3 Model B 32GB just arrived which is part of a “Canakit” on Amazon which can be found here. Below is a general setup and config step by step guide to get you started with your own Pi. I may follow up this post with the progress of my pie-in-the-sky project to build a miniature hyperloop “pod” and track, controlled by a stand-alone Raspberry Pi. But before I get into powering my Pi with an electrified rail, we need to get the Pi setup and configured. 

1. Unbox, connect peripherals & power on (I swear, every video and tutorial spends too much time on this topic.) But I will say that the little machine is very quick and responsive, and I’m really happy with it’s performance so far!
2. Initial power up. The Red LED powers on, and my monitor stays black, hmm, it’s not booting… Oh duh, it will help if I insert the included 32GB MicroSD. Important to note is the SD card does not click-eject or click-insert but is friction-based receptacle.
3. Ok 2nd power up – it’s alive! Boots to the desktop and looks great – except the resolution. I used the Wifi config to get connected to my WAP easy. But it’s strange that I can’t ping anything. A quick search found this post, and the command:

    sudo chmod u+s /bin/ping

   With that command I can now ping out and about.

4. Now I can go online with the default web-browser (Web 3.8.2) and find a fix for my monitor’s resolution. To set a raspberry pi 3 monitor resolution, follow the instructions in this post – which told me to first check my monitor’s capabilities with the commands:

   tvservice -d edid
   edidparser edid

   and then seeing that I do have a DMT monitor (group 2) and an hdmi mode 82, I edited /boot/config.txt with the new editor named Geany. I started geany with sudo so I could edit the protected file with the command:

   sudo geany
   

   Which brings up the Geany file editor running as sudo, and then I could open and browse to the File System > /boot/ directory where I could edit the file config.txt to include the following lines:

   hdmi_group=2
   hdmi_mode=82

   After a restart my monitor’s resolution is correct.

5. So now to make sure my OS is up to date. By default the version I installed is

   Linux raspberrypi 4.4.9-v7+ #884 SMP Fri May 6 17:28:59 BST 2016 armv7l GNU/Linux
   

   So it is time to run an update. It’s so nice that the distro is debian-based and the familiar apt package management system is installed. No dist-upgrade necessary.

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get upgrade