Pi Setup using a Display and Keyboard

Desktop Pi Setup

Instructions to access the Pi's terminal without a network connection (i.e. using it as a regular desktop computer).

First, connect the Raspberry to a monitor and control it with a keyboard. This is a failure-proof method.

Update the WiFi Network

This can be done from the Desktop Environment on the Pi, if the OS provides one (e.g. Raspberry Pi OS).

Alternatively, you may add or change WiFi networks using commands as explained in the Pi setup guide.

Obtain the Pi's IP

To obtain the Pi's current IP on each network it is connected to, use the ip command.

Using the keyboard and display, send the following command and it will display the Pi's IP address:

ip a

Tip

The Pi's IP address might expire and change over time. Repeat the steps above if this seems to have happened. You may also try fixing Pi's IP or making it static on your router (i.e. setting a "Static IP" or "DHCP Reservation", respectively), or use the Pi's hostname to connect to it (i.e. through mDNS/zeroconf to a a raspberrypi.local address).

Guides for this are available on the internet, specific to your internet router and operating system.

Troubleshooting

Screen distortion on boot

Once The Pi boots the OS, Raspberry Pi 3B might have a problem of screen distortion.

To solve this, we used the instructions of this link.

In brief, you'll need to add the following line in the file usercfg.txt:

dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d

Generate the SSH keys

If you face problems connecting to the Pi through SSH in the future, you can try running the following commands back on the Pi:

sudo ssh-keygen -A
sudo systemctl restart ssh