Setup issues
I bought a Raspberry pi computer http://francesobolensky.blogspot.co.uk/#!/2012/01/raspberry-pi-and-beagleboard.html in April and I'm going to explain the setup problems that I had and how I finally started learning to code.When the Raspberry pi was first released in the spring, the release was mainly designed for developers. I had problems setting it up then because at that stage you had to download and burn an operating system image on an SD card using another computer which was quite complicated for laptop users. Also I was not sure if the accessories I was trying to attach to it were compatible: altogether there were too many variable unknowns as to why the thing wasn't working, even had I been entirely sane at the time (which I was not.)
These days things are much better: relative beginners can buy all the add-ons they need as a kit at the online shop ModMyPi, including an SD disc with the Debian operating system pre-loaded. (I see some are now calling this combination 'Raspian.') The cable I chose, HDMI, still did not plug into my new TV or old monitor because the adapter was a different type of HDMI cable to what I expected, so I bought a separate yellow video and black audio cables. After ensuring that my pi actually did work by getting a friend to test it on his setup, I had the confidence to try again and discovered that one secret is to turn on the TV or monitor and if necessary tune it to the correct input channel before turning the Pi on. (Yes, I know, "have you tried switching it off and on again?" should have thought of that one.)
Logging in and starting the Graphical User Interface
So finally a rainbow screen appeared on my TV and a preferences box appeared. I somehow managed to skip a stage here, by pressing 'enter' too many times in my shock and wild enthusiasm, so was not able to change the default password and the default username, or the variables (you ought to do this stage: it is explained in the online tutorials) [I exxplain how to change the config.txt file in my next post] Then a command prompt appeared: I entered the default username 'pi' and the default password, which is 'raspberry' and then I had to type 'startx' to start the operating system and then, hey presto, there was light. [No I am not connected to the Internet so nobody can hack my account yet. Thanks for thinking of it all the same. Simon the Pi man - no less- explains how to change your password in his post.] The first day I played the program like Tetris that came pre-loaded on my ModMyPi SD card.The second day I looked at the program called Scratch where you can create your own video games using an operating system, and I learned how to find my way around files from the command prompt, list, copy and move things (a lifelong ambition!). I learned that 'sudo' is an administrator override command that you need to make anything happen,
Turning off the Raspberry Pi
You can exit the GUI using the red button on the bottom right but you still need to log out of the command prompt view. At the end of the first day I learned how to turn off the system properly at the command prompt by typing 'sudo halt'.) At the end of the second day I learned another way of turning the system off from the command prompt: "sudo shutdown now."Yay.
Many thanks to all who added Raspberry pi tutorials on the Internet to help me to get this far.
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