Installing software onto the Raspberry Pi- Part 1

Now that the Raspberry Pi can access the internet, we can begin adding and configuring software.
One of the first things to do is log into the the RPi via SSH and run raspi-config:

We will:

• Update raspi-config
• Set Localization options
• Change Locale to 'en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8'
• Change Timezone to US-Eastern
• Change Keyboard Layout to match the new locale
• Change Wi-fi Country to 'US United States'
• Under Advanced Options
•  Expand Filesystem to use the entire microSD card

Now that we have plenty of space on the system disk, we can start installing software.
But how? Some options:

• From the RPi SSH terminal command line
• By downloading software packages onto the laptop and transferring them to the RPi for installation (WinSCP is good for this):

• Installing via the Rasperry Pi Desktop's Applications Menu -> Preferences -> Add/Remove Software.
• But we are running headless and there's no Desktop GUI!

While the first two options can be followed immediately, let's figure out how to get access to the RPi  Desktop. We want to use VNC (Virtual Network Computing) for graphical desktop sharing:

 https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/vnc/README.md

On your Raspberry Pi, run the following commands to make sure you have the latest versions of software, including VNC Connect:

$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get upgrade $ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade $ sudo apt autoremove $ sudo apt-get clean $ sudo apt-get install realvnc-vnc-server realvnc-vnc-viewer

Now, enable VNC Server by running raspi-config and doing the following:

• Navigate to Interfacing Options.
  
• Scroll down and select VNC > Yes.

On the laptop you will need to download and install VNC Viewer so you can connect to VNC Server that is running on the RPi:

https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/download/viewer/ 

Once it is installed, we can start VNC Viewer on the laptop, direct it to the IP address of the RPi and login with our default credentials:

 And we are in!:

 

Next steps: 

• Add more software!