A short note about what I've done to set the Pi up.

A new Raspberry Pi

Let’s get started and setup our new Raspberry Pi!

Whatever config

Use sudo raspi-config to configure the basic of the system, including:

• Display
• WLAN
• Audio
• Password
• Hostname

This command will be also used in this post.

Default password

raspberry, FYI.

Reliable reference

The bash / zsh history from previous setuped Raspberry Pi, including default user and the root.

Guideline

Do the following in order:

• Set root password.
• Install vim.
• Enable ssh.
• Install xrdp.
• (Optional but recommanded) Change username from pi to something else.
• (Optional) Change hostname.
• Install zsh.
• sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade.
• Update python to a newer version.
• Install other software/packages.

Enable SSH

Source: SSH (Secure Shell) - Raspberry Pi Official Documentation.

1. sudo raspi-config
2. Interfacing Options
3. SSH

About root login

Enable root login by changing the /etc/ssh/sshd_config, around line 32, PermitRootLogin yes.

Restart ssh service:.

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sudo service ssh restart

I prefer to allow root login only at the initialization stage. Otherwise, only switch to root from your normal user. Don’t allow root login through ssh.

Enable xrdp

Read more: How to Install Xrdp Server (Remote Desktop) on Raspberry Pi.

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sudo apt-get install xrdp

How you can access the pi GUI desktop via remote desktop apps.

Change the Username of Default pi

Change the name from pi to whatever else.

Source: How to Change the Default Account Username and Password - PiHut.

Read more: [HowTo!]Change default username pi

First of all we will make sure the user pi do not run any program.

Login via ssh as root, run who to check:

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root@your-hostname:~# who
pi       tty1         2020-06-02 21:34
root     pts/0        2020-06-02 21:34

Stop the services by pi:

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systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running
systemctl stop getty@tty1.service
who

Make sure there is no pi running services. If there is any, kill them all by.

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pkill -KILL -u pi

Then follow the description in the referance link above.

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usermod -l newusername pi
ls /home  # pi folder
usermod -m -d /home/newusername newusername
ls /home  # changed to 'newusername' folder
groupmod -n newusername pi  # change group name

Logout and re-login using the new username.

Change password by passwd.

Change the ssh root login permission to “no” in sshd_config.

Change Hostname

sudo raspi-config -> System Options -> S4 Hostname.

Change Default Boot-to

Read more: Adding PIXEL/GUI to Raspbian Lite.

By default the system will boot to GUI desktop. You can change this to command line to save power and CPU resources.

sudo raspi-config -> System Options -> S5 Boot / Auto Login -> B2 Console Autologin.

Start GUI desktop from command line

Install Xinit and run startx. See the “Read more” link above.

Setup Vim

git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim

Copy/link .vimrc to $HOMEDIR.

In vim: :PluginInstall

Or vim +PluginInstall +qall in command line.

Upgrade python

Source: Installing the latest Python 3 on Raspberry Pi. Read more: Python 3 Installation & Setup Guide.

The default python is 3.7.x. You may upgrade it to a higher version.

Follow the link above.

• Switch to root (sudo su).
• Download installation files.
• Install dependencies.
• Configure and install python. Note that you should use make altinstall to avoid overriding the system default python. Otherwise unexpected error could happen.

Note: The whole make process takes about 40 minutes to finish on a Raspberry Pi 3B+.

lsb_release issue

Installing the python from source may lack of the lsb_release executable.

We can create a symbolic link for it.

Source: No module named ‘lsb_release’ after install Python 3.6.3 from source.

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sudo ln -s /usr/share/pyshared/lsb_release.py /usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/lsb_release.py

Install python packages

Note: Some packages, like numpy, scipy, pillow, should be installed via sudo apt-get install, not python -m pip install. Otherwise building dependencies will fail.

It can take hours. Be patient.

Tips

Pinout map

If we install a python library gpiozero, we can check the pinout of the Raspberry Pi in the command line by pinout command.

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python -m pip install gpiozero
pinout

Output:

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RAM                : 1024MbRAM
Storage            : MicroSD
USB ports          : 4 (excluding power)
Ethernet ports     : 1
Wi-fi              : True
Bluetooth          : True
Camera ports (CSI) : 1
Display ports (DSI): 1

J8:
   3V3  (1) (2)  5V
 GPIO2  (3) (4)  5V
 GPIO3  (5) (6)  GND
 GPIO4  (7) (8)  GPIO14
   GND  (9) (10) GPIO15
GPIO17 (11) (12) GPIO18
GPIO27 (13) (14) GND
GPIO22 (15) (16) GPIO23
   3V3 (17) (18) GPIO24
GPIO10 (19) (20) GND
 GPIO9 (21) (22) GPIO25
GPIO11 (23) (24) GPIO8
   GND (25) (26) GPIO7
 GPIO0 (27) (28) GPIO1
 GPIO5 (29) (30) GND
 GPIO6 (31) (32) GPIO12
GPIO13 (33) (34) GND
GPIO19 (35) (36) GPIO16
GPIO26 (37) (38) GPIO20
   GND (39) (40) GPIO21

For further information, please refer to https://pinout.xyz/