Chapter 6 ■ Building low-Cost MysQl data nodes
The Raspberry Pi 2B has a micro SD drive^2 that you can use to boot the computer into any of several
Linux operating systems. All you need is an HDMI monitor (or DVI with an HDMI-to-DVI adapter), a USB
keyboard and mouse, and a 5V power supply, and you’re off and running!
■Note i use the term micro SD to refer to a specific media and SD to refer to the drive or card in abstract.
You can also power your Raspberry Pi using a USB port on your computer. In this case, you need a USB
type A male to micro-USB type B male cable. Plug the type A side into a USB port on your computer and the
micro-USB type B side into the Raspberry Pi power port.
There have been many improvements to the Raspberry Pi over the few years it has been around. But the
largest improvement is in the area of support. The Raspberrypi.org organization has worked very hard to
improve the initial experience for new users. There is an easy-to-use and navigate web site that combines
all of the old, hard-to-find wikis, lists, charts, and blogs into a central place. You can find just about anything
you need to get started on Raspberrypi.org. Figure 6-1 shows an excerpt of the main page.
The menu across the top provides links to their extensive blogs with examples and how-to articles, a
comprehensive downloads page for all the available operating systems and tools, community Raspberry Pi
projects, documentation (help), discussion forums, and resources for teachers, students, and makers.
There is also a link to the Raspberry Pi online shop (see the tag to the right with the Raspberry Pi logo)
where you can buy boards, accessories, swag, and more. The shop is based in the United Kingdom, but there
are links to online retailers in case you want to find a dealer closer to you.
The Raspberry Pi board is available in several versions and comes as a bare board costing as little as
$35 (or $5 for the new Raspberry Pi Zero). It can also be purchased online from electronics vendors such as
Sparkfun and Adafruit. Most vendors have a host of accessories that have been tested and verified to work with
the Raspberry Pi. These include small monitors, miniature keyboards, and even cases for mounting the board.
Figure 6-1. Raspberrypi.org main page (courtesy of Raspberrypi.org)
(^2) Micro Secure Digital (micro SD): a small removable memory drive. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital.