Chapter 6 ■ Building low-Cost MysQl data nodes- PiNet: Classroom management system. A special edition for educators using the
Raspberry Pi in the curriculum. - RISC OS: Non-Linux, Unix-like operating system. If you know what IBM AIX is or
you’ve used other Unix operating systems, you’ll recognize this beastie.
■Tip if you are just starting with the raspberry pi, you should use the raspbian image. this image is also
recommended for the examples in this book.
There are a few other image choices, including a special variant of the Raspbian image from Adafruit.
Adafruit calls its image occidentals and includes a number of applications and utilities preinstalled,
including Wi-Fi support and several utilities. Some Raspberry Pi examples—especially those from Adafruit—
require the occidentals image. You can find out more about the image and download it at http://learn.
adafruit.com/adafruit-raspberry-pi-educational-linux-distro/overview.
There are two methods for installing the boot image. First, you can use the automated, graphical user
interface platform named New Out Of the Box Software (NOOBS^8 ), or you can install your image from
scratch onto a micro SD drive. Both require downloading and formatting the micro SD drive.
If you are just starting out, the NOOBS solution is by far the easiest. It will take a bit longer to get
going (but not much) and simplifies the process. Aside from formatting the micro SD card, everything is
automated. I present both options in the following sections.
Using NOOBS
NOOBS is by far the best way to get your Raspberry Pi up and running. With NOOBS, you download a base
installer image that contains Raspbian Jessie. You can choose to install it or configure NOOBS to download
one of the other images and install it. But first, you have to get the NOOBS boot image and copy it to your
micro SD drive.
Begin by downloading the NOOBS installer from http://raspberrypi.org/downloads/noobs/.
You will see two options, a network installer (sometimes referred to as the offline installer) that includes the
Raspbian image or a base image that does not contain any operating systems. This base image is what you
would use if you wanted to use the automated installer with an operating system not already included such
as Adafruit’s version.
■Tip if your download bandwidth is limited, online retailers offer a preconfigured micro sd card that includes
nooB. in fact, you can often find micro sd cards with any of the popular raspberry pi operating systems. Just
plug it in and go. they usually cost a few dollars more than a blank card of the same size.^9
(^8) Not to be confused with noob, which is a bit derogatory. See https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/noob.
(^9) The operating system is free. You’re just paying for the convenience of someone having formatted and installed the
image on the card for you.