how to inspect Rasperry Pi 1A from Laptop (Ubuntu Linux 14.04)

Question

I won a Raspberry Pi at a contest about 2 years ago. Finally I got the proper wire to connect it to my laptop, but it's not doing anything!

The light goes on, but nothing appears in my operating system in reference to the machine I just connected. This is a Raspberry Pi 1A connected to Ubuntu 14.04

This is an absolute beginner mistake. I am not a Linux beginner, but I am Raspberry Pi beginner. It seems many try to connect directly the Pi to keyboard and monitor. And that I might need to download and operating system first.

Any clarification?

A-to-A USB cables give me the creep. They're out of spec and they should be out of universe. — Ghanima, Dec 04 '15 at 08:07

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 02 '15 at 13:32

7

John,

RaspberryPi is essentially a computer all by itself. To boot up and make it all work nicely you will need a few things.

A standard size SD card
MicroUSB power cable (like the one used to change your phone)

If you want to see the output, you will need a display, either connected over HDMI or the RCA Video Outputs.

Once you have the SD Card, you will need to copy an OS on it (such as Raspberian) and then you can boot it up and see all of it's glory.

answered Dec 02 '15 at 13:32

AutomationNation

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2

You will also need a keyboard and mouse. – AutomationNation Dec 02 '15 at 13:34
Again, not much to look at on it, other than a Linux OS - but yes, there is a bit of work to get it working ;) – AutomationNation Dec 02 '15 at 13:34

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:56

3

The raspberry pi won't show up as an USB-device on your laptop. You need to create an SD-card with an operating system like raspbian. Then it will boot and you can 'inspect' it like a 'real' computer. I'd recommend starting with the quick start guide.

Be also aware of connecting the pi to powered USB hubs like in your picture, that may damage the pi.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:56

Community

1

answered Dec 02 '15 at 13:29

user236012

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10

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John, since you have a big account at Math.SE, which I know is quite stringent about questions, please consider what would happen there if someone came along asking for explanations of basic things about algebra which can be easily looked up online by anyone who can find the "google" button. They'd be told to go do their homework and come back if they have something they are confused about beyond, "Please regurgitate some pages from a grade 10 textbook for me". – goldilocks Dec 02 '15 at 14:15
Well. One of his top posts belongs to the question 'Nobody told me that self teaching could be so damaging…' ;) – user236012 Dec 02 '15 at 15:00
Of course using SE falls into the category of "self-teaching", no matter how you do it, so we can't save anyone from that. Just tell them when they are doing it wrong ;) How to Ask Questions the Smart Way <- Read the beginning of that replacing "hackers" with "autodidacts" (both are connoted positively, BTW: "In the world of hackers, the kind of answers you get to your technical questions depends as much on the way you ask the questions as on the difficulty of developing the answer..."). – goldilocks Dec 02 '15 at 15:30
@goldilocks you're forgetting the obvious possibility that raspberry pi is a ripoff and a waste of time it's in your best interest to entertain even obvious questions as mine at least once or even ten times... – john mangual Dec 04 '15 at 11:21
1

Why is it in my best interests? I'm not a marketeer, and this is not a promotional site. I don't care if anyone likes the pi or not. TBH I'd prefer if it were marketed less because I agree with you in the sense that it is not an appropriate toy for a lot of people ("Oh look, only $35! Oh look, it plays HD video and I can make a robot!") -- then they come here and whine and expect everyone to commiserate that they bought something they should not have. It is not fast food. It was intended for educational purposes, not instant gratification. – goldilocks Dec 04 '15 at 11:37
In other words, I totally believe in the appropriateness of that E.S. Raymond thing. If it isn't for you, forget about it and go away. Note that all I was doing was explaining to you likely why other people were downvoting you (the tooltip says, "This question does not show any research effort"). – goldilocks Dec 04 '15 at 11:37
BTW, I do not think the second comment here was intended as an insult and the third one certainly was not. Just mentioning that because you seem upset... – goldilocks Dec 04 '15 at 11:47

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 02 '15 at 13:35

3

If you want to conect your raspberry pi to computer you need a usb to TLL cable(like this https://www.adafruit.com/products/954) , but you need a sd card with raspbian, or some other OS.

answered Dec 02 '15 at 13:35

Ignas Kiela

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how to inspect Rasperry Pi 1A from Laptop (Ubuntu Linux 14.04)

3 Answers3