How to minimise your Pi.

Like putting the necessities in a suitcase for a trip abroad, the same can be said of putting the necessities in a Pi configuration. The first step for all things Raspberry Pi is to consult the www.raspberrypi.org site. At www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/

installing-images documents there are instructions that are relevant to the installation of current operating system (OS).

With the OS installed, there are a few raspi-config options that can be applied to tailor the configuration. These include expanding the file system to take advantage of the larger memory cards being used, personalising the device by giving it a hostname and tweaking options to accommodate what side of the Atlantic the Pi resides on. Access the command line interface (CLI) by turning on SSH and turning off a GUI. A final touch is a password change. To keep the bad guys out never leave password defaults unattended. At www.raspberrypi.org/ documentation/configuration/raspi-config.md you’ll find specifics for the tasks we’ve just summarised.

Reboot the device to confirm that all options are in order. A command line update and upgrade are next along with that final reboot to prepare the Pi for enabling Wi-Fi, using the instructions provided at www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/ wireless/wireless-cli.md. We recommend that you take advantage of the wpa_passphrase command to build the configuration. The option prevents passwords from being transmitted in plain text.