For starters, get Raspbian Lite. Flash it onto an SD card with dd (for purists) or Etcher (for new users), enable ssh (easiest way is to create a file called ssh in the boot partition of the SD card), and connect the RPi directly to your laptop with a crossed Ethernet cable (configuring the connection properly). Connect to the RPi and have fun!
ssh [email protected]
raspberry
I suggest starting with an update, setting environment variables, and readying a session manager like Tmux, as well as Git.
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
nano .bashrc
export LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=en_GB.UTF-8
export LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8
source .bashrc
sudo apt install tmux git python3-venv
After changing the password, copy your RPi's ssh id to your local machine to avoid having to input password everytime
ssh-keygen
<choose whatever settings you want or spam Return for defaults>
ssh-copy-id [email protected]
<password>
nano ~/.ssh/config
Host my_pi
ForwardAgent yes
ControlMaster auto
Compression yes
ControlPersist 16
ControlPath /tmp/%r@%h-%p
Protocol 2
Hostname 192.168.1.100
User pi
ssh my_pi
All schematics used were for Raspberry Pi 2B (my model), datasheet below. You can also use the following command
gpio readall
