Getting started

Setting up your Raspberry Pi

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How to set up a Raspberry Pi

To get started with your Raspberry Pi computer, you’ll need the following accessories:

A computer monitor or television. Most should work as a display for the Raspberry Pi, but for
best results, you should use a display with HDMI® input. You’ll also need an appropriate display
cable to connect your monitor to your Raspberry Pi.

A computer keyboard and mouse

Any standard USB keyboard and mouse will work with your Raspberry Pi.

Wireless keyboards and mice will work if already paired.

For keyboard layout configuration options, see raspi-config.

A good quality power supply.

We recommend the official Raspberry Pi Power Supply, which has been specifically designed to
consistently provide +5.1V despite rapid fluctuations in current draw. Those fluctuations in
demand are something that happens a lot when you’re using peripherals with the Raspberry Pi
and something that other supplies—designed to provide consistent current for charging
cellphones—usually don’t cope with all that well. It also has an attached micro USB cable, which
means that you don’t accidentally use a poor-quality cable—something that can be an issue.

For the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B and Raspberry Pi 400, you should use the type C power supply;
for all other models, you should use the micro USB power supply.

Finally, you’ll need an SD card; we recommend a minimum of 8GB micro SD card and use the
Raspberry Pi Imager to install an operating system onto it.

Connecting a Display
Unless you’re setting up your Raspberry Pi to operate headless, for regular use, you’ll want to
plug the Raspberry Pi into a display: either a computer monitor or a television.

Your Raspberry Pi has an HDMI port which you can connect directly to a monitor or TV with an
HDMI cable. This is the easiest solution; some modern monitors and TVs have HDMI ports, and
some do not, but there are other options.

NOTE
 The Raspberry Pi 4 has two micro HDMI connectors, which require a good-quality micro
HDMI cable, especially when using 4K monitors or television. Raspberry Pi sells a suitable
cable.

If you’re using your Raspberry Pi with a monitor with built-in speakers and are connecting to it
using an HDMI cable, you can also use it to output sound. For monitors with a DVI port, you can
use an HDMI-to-DVI cable or an HDMI cable with a DVI adapter. In addition, you can use an
HDMI-to-VGA adapter for older monitors that only support VGA.

NOTE

Unlike HDMI, the DVI and VGA standards do not support audio.

Finally, some models of Raspberry Pi have a composite out port for connecting to analog
devices, but the type of connector varies depending on the model. The original Raspberry Pi
used an RCA connector, and a standard RCA composite video lead will work. Other models
(Raspberry Pi B+ and later) combine the audio and composite out onto the same 3.5mm jack.
This requires a particular type of lead, with audio left on the tip, audio right on ring 1, ground on
ring 2, and video on the sleeve. This is the same as leads used on the Zune and on Apple
devices.

More information on connecting to a monitor can be found in as part of the Raspberry Pi

Foundation’s Learning Resources.

SD Cards for Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi computers use a micro SD card, except for very early models which use a full-
sized SD card.

WARNING

Because of a hardware limitation in the Raspberry Pi Zero, 1 and 2, the boot partition on the
SD card must be 256GB or less otherwise the device will not boot up. Later models of
Raspberry Pi 2 — with a BCM2837 SoC — along with the Raspberry Pi 3, 4, Zero 2 W, and the
Raspberry Pi 400 do not have this limitation. This does not affect Raspberry Pi OS, which
always uses a small boot partition.

Recommended Capacity

We recommend using an SD card of 8GB or greater capacity with Raspberry Pi OS. If you are
using the lite version of Raspberry Pi OS, you can use a 4GB card. Other operating systems have
different requirements: for example, LibreELEC can run from a smaller card. Please check with
the supplier of the operating system to find out what capacity of card they recommend.

Optional items
A network (Ethernet) cable to connect your Raspberry Pi to your local network and the Internet.

If you aren’t using an HDMI monitor with speakers you might also need some form of sound
hardware. Audio can be played through speakers or headphones by connecting them to the AV
jack (not available on the Raspberry Pi 400). However speakers must have their own
amplification since the output from your Raspberry Pi is not powerful enough to drive them
directly.

Troubleshooting
If you are having problems with your SD card:

Make sure you are using a genuine SD card. The best way to avoid fake SD cards is to
always buy from a reputable supplier.

Make sure you are using a good quality power supply; we recommend using an official
Raspberry Pi power supply.

The cable from the power supply unit to the Raspberry Pi can also cause problems. This
is usually due to the resistance of the wires in the USB power cable; to save money, USB
 cables have as little copper in them as possible, which causes a voltage drop across the
cable.
Make sure you shut down the operating system correctly before you power down the
Raspberry Pi.
You can get help with setting up your Raspberry Pi on our forums.

Installing the Operating System

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Raspberry Pi recommend the use of Raspberry Pi Imager to install an operating system on to

your SD card. You will need another computer with an SD card reader to install the image.
Raspberry Pi Imager can be run on another Raspberry Pi, but also works on Microsoft Windows,
Apple macOS, and Linux.

NOTE

Before you start, don’t forget to check the SD card requirements.

IMPORTANT

NOOBS, or New Out Of the Box Software to give it its full name, was an SD card-based
installer for Raspberry Pi computers; we no longer recommend or support using NOOBS.
Going forward, please use Raspberry Pi Imager.

Using Raspberry Pi Imager

Raspberry Pi have developed a graphical SD card writing tool that works on Mac OS, Ubuntu
18.04, and Windows called Raspberry Pi Imager; this is the easiest option for most users since
it will download the image automatically and install it to the SD card.

How to use Raspberry Pi Imager | Install Raspberry Pi OS to your…

your…

Download the latest version of Raspberry Pi Imager and install it. If you want to use Raspberry
Pi Imager from a second Raspberry Pi, you can install it from a terminal using sudo apt install
rpi-imager. Then:

Connect an SD card reader with the SD card inside.

Open Raspberry Pi Imager and choose the required OS from the list presented.

Choose the SD card you wish to write your image to.

Review your selections and click on the Write button to begin writing data to the SD Card.

NOTE

If using Raspberry Pi Imager on Windows 10 with controlled folder access enabled, you will
need to explicitly allow Raspberry Pi Imager permission to write the SD card. If this is not
done, the imaging process will fail with a "failed to write" error.

NOTE
 You can see which operating systems are most often downloaded, on our statistics page.

You can now insert the SD card into the Raspberry Pi and power it up. When your Raspberry Pi
boots for the first time a configuration wizard will run that allows you to set up your Raspberry
Pi.

NOTE

In the past Raspberry Pi OS had a default user name and password; user name pi, with
password raspberry. This is no longer the case. However if you are using an older version of
the operating system, or you are working with an existing installation, this default user may
be present. If you have not already done so, you should change the default password
straight away to ensure your Raspberry Pi is secure.

Advanced Options

When you have the Raspberry Pi Imager open, and after you have selected the operating system
to install, a cog wheel will appear allowing you to open an "Advanced Options" menu if it is
supported by the operating system. This menu lets you carry out tasks like enabling SSH, or
setting your Raspberry Pi’s hostname, and configuring the default user before first boot.

NOTE

If you use the Advanced Options menu in Imager to configure your Raspberry Pi OS
installation then the configuration wizard that normally runs on first boot will be skipped.

Amongst other things the Advanced Options menu is useful for when you want to configure a
headless Raspberry Pi.

NOTE
 In older versions of Imager you should push Ctrl-Shift-X to open the "Advanced" menu.

If you are installing Raspberry Pi OS Lite and intend to run it headless, you will still need to
create a new user account. Since you will not be able to create the user account on first boot,
you MUST configure the operating system using the Advanced Menu.

Downloading an Image
If you are using a different tool than Raspberry Pi Imager to write to your SD Card, most require
you to download the image first, then use the tool to write it to the card. Official images for
recommended operating systems are available to download from the Raspberry Pi website
downloads page. Alternative operating systems for Raspberry Pi computers are also available
from some third-party vendors.

You may need to unzip the downloaded file (.zip) to get the image file (.img) you need to write
to the card.

NOTE

The Raspberry Pi OS with desktop image contained in the ZIP archive is over 4GB in size and
uses the ZIP64 format. To uncompress the archive, an unzip tool that supports ZIP64 is
required. The following zip tools support ZIP64: 7-Zip for Windows, The Unarchiver for
macOS, and unzip on Linux.

Installing over the Network

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WARNING

Network installation is only enabled by default on Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 400, and
only when using the latest supported bootloader. See Updating to the LATEST / STABLE
bootloader for details of how to update your bootloader.

When you get a new Raspberry Pi, you also need an SD Card with an operating system installed
on it. The easiest way to get the operating system onto the SD Card is to use the Raspberry Pi
Imager application running on another computer to copy it to your SD Card.

But how do you get the operating system onto your SD card if you don’t have another
computer?

If you do not have another computer to run Raspberry Pi Imager you can start the application
directly on a Raspberry Pi 4 or Raspberry Pi 400 by connecting it to the Internet with an Ethernet
cable. This will allow you to install the operating system onto a blank SD Card directly from the
network without using another computer.

Using Network Installation

You will need a keyboard to make use of the network installation feature. While a Raspberry Pi
400 always has a keyboard "attached", if you’re using a Raspberry Pi 4 you will need to plug in a
USB keyboard.
 Raspberry Pi Network Bootloader

Either insert a blank SD Card into the SD card slot of your Raspberry Pi, or press and hold the
SHIFT key.

Power on your Raspberry Pi. As always it will first look for an SD Card, and then a USB drive, to
find bootable media. However if you have a keyboard attached, the Raspberry Pi will now show
the network installation screen.

In the background the Raspberry Pi is still looking for a bootable image, but you can now start a
network installation by holding down the SHIFT key. You will then be prompted to connect your
Raspberry Pi to the network with an Ethernet Cable.

NOTE

You can also start network install by holding SHIFT when powering on the device.

Plug your Raspberry Pi into the network using an Ethernet cable. When it detects a cable has
been inserted it should start downloading the Raspberry Pi installer. If the download fails, you
can repeat the process to try again.

Eventually it should start the Raspberry Pi Imager application allowing you to install a full
operating system to a blank SD Card or a USB Drive.

NOTE

More information can about using the Raspberry Pi Imager can be found in the section on
installing your operating system.

After installing the operating system onto your blank SD Card you will no longer see the network
installation screen on boot. If you do want to run it, you can hold down the SHIFT key while
powering on the device. But take care not to overwrite any working SD cards that you want to
keep!

See HTTP boot for details about how to configure network install.

Configuration on First Boot

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If you have not already configured your operating system using the Advanced Menu of
Raspberry Pi Imager when Raspberry Pi OS starts up for the first time, you will be guided
through initial setup.
The Raspberry Pi Configuration Wizard dialog.

The Raspberry Pi OS configuration wizard will run on the first boot. The wizard starts by
allowing you to configure international settings and your timezone information.

NOTE

If you are using a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse the first page will prompt you to put any
Bluetooth keyboard or mouse you wish to use into pairing mode, and then to wait. As long
as you are on the first page of the wizard, the Raspberry Pi will now scan for pairable
Bluetooth mice and keyboards, and will automatically pair the first of each which it finds.
You will see messages pop up to indicate that a Bluetooth device has been found and is
being paired – you may need to wait a few seconds after the final “connected” dialog
appears for the newly-connected device to wake up and start being used by the system.
This works both with the built-in Bluetooth adapter on Raspberry Pi 3 and 4, and also with
USB Bluetooth adapters on earlier models of Raspberry Pi – just make sure the USB adapter
is inserted before the Raspberry Pi is booted.

The Set Country dialog.

After selecting "Next" you’ll be prompted to create a user account. Here you can choose your
username, and a password.

The Create User dialog.

Optionally, you can set your username to the old default username of pi, which was used on
older versions of Raspberry Pi OS.

NOTE

Some older software may require the presence of the pi user.

However, if you do choose to create this account you will trigger a warning message, and we’d
advise you to avoid the old default password of raspberry.

A warning appears if the default password is used.

After creating a user account, you can configure your screen.

The Set Up Screen dialog.

Then, configure your wireless network.

The Select Wireless Network dialog.

Once your wireless network is configured and your Raspberry Pi has access to the Internet you
will be prompted to update the operating system to the latest version. This will automatically
download any patches and updates needed to update your new operating system.
 The Update Software dialog.

Once the operating system is updated you will be prompted to reboot your Raspberry Pi.

When setup completes, click Restart to restart your Raspberry Pi.

NOTE

If you are installing Raspberry Pi OS Lite you must create a new user account. You will
therefore be prompted to create an account by text prompts at the command line when you
first boot a Lite image. If you are booting Raspberry Pi OS headless you MUST configure the
operating system using Raspberry Pi Imager using the Advanced Menu.

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