Raspberry Pi Headless Setup

Have you ever wondered how you can set up a raspberry pi without a monitor? It's easy, you will just need an OS on an SD card and an Ethernet cable. Also some free programs and a bit of patience.

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Step 1: Booting Up the Pi

Start by downloading and mounting the OS that you've chosen on an SD card. For this tutorial, I'm going to use Raspbian Stretch Lite. After downloading the zip, use Win32DiskImagerto mount the SD card. Create a blank file on the root of the card, named ssh (without an extension!). Without this, you wont be able to ssh into the pi. Why? It's explained here (Look for SSH into a headless Pi).

Step 2: FInding the Pi's IP

How can I SSH into the Pi without having a screen? It's easy, just connect it to your router with an Ethernet cable and power up the board. Somehow, you need to find the Pi's local ip address in order to continue. The simplest way is using a command in raspbian, but we don't have a screen, do we? The simplest way is to download a program called Advanced IP Scanner. Before installing it, you can choose a portable version, just like I did. After opening the app, scan your network and look out for a device, manufactured by Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Step 3: SSH-ing Into the Pi

Lastly, you need to download PuTTY. Open it up and the enter the IP address from the last step. The port needs to be 22. You can use the screenshot above as a reference. Press the open button and if you receive a security prompt, just click yes to continue. If you are using Raspbian lite as well, the username is pi and the password - raspbian. Now you can enjoy your raspberry without a screen, just by using ethernet and some free tools.