Try It Yourself: Explore the LXDE Graphical Interface
Now that you have reviewed the various icons on the LXDE graphical interface and
the features of the LXPanel, it’s time to play with the GUI yourself. In the following
steps, you will get a chance to try out items in both the command line and the LXDE
GUI, as well as fix some potential problems and irritations.- If you have not already done so, connect your Raspberry Pi to your network.
Watch Out!: Wired Versus Wi-Fi
In the next few steps, you will update your Raspbian Linux distribution
software. When you do this, it is best to use a wired network connection. A
Wi-Fi connection can be a little fussy and cause you a great deal of
unnecessary work due to software bugs. The safest way to proceed is to
connect to a wired network, update your software, and then attempt to connect
to your Wi-Fi.- Power up your Raspberry Pi.
- At the raspberrypi login: prompt, type pi and press the Enter key. You
should now see a Password: prompt. - At the Password: prompt, type raspberry or the password you created in the
last “Try it Yourself” section, and press the Enter key. You should see the
pi@raspberry~$ prompt.
Watch Out!: Did You Change Your Password?
Earlier this hour, you may have changed your password from raspberry to
something else. If you are following along with the Try It Yourself steps, be
sure to enter that password in step 4.- At the pi@raspberry~$ prompt, type startx and press the Enter key to start
Raspbian’s LXDE graphical interface. - Once you are in the LXDE graphical interface, click the LXTerminal icon to open a
command-line interface. You should see the familiar pi@rasbperry~$ prompt
displayed in the LXTerminal window. - Click the LXTerminal window with your mouse to select it. Type whoami and
press the Enter key. You should see the response pi displayed along with another
prompt, just as you saw when you were typing in commands at the command line. - To get your Raspbian Linux distribution software up to date, in the same
LXTerminal window, type the command sudo apt-get dist-upgrade and
press the Enter key. You should see several messages concerning the software
update, and then the question Do you want to continue [Y/n]? - Type Y and press the Enter key. If your software was already up to date, you will get
a message similar to “0 upgraded, 0 newly installed...” However, if your software
was terribly out of date this may take several minutes! The software update will