Chapter 6 ■ Building low-Cost MysQl data nodes
The configuration menu displays a list of common initial options you may want to set when using the
Raspberry Pi. It is loaded on the first boot for convenience. You can navigate among the options using the
up and down arrow keys and select the action buttons using the Tab key. The menu items are described
briefly here:
- Expand Filesystem: Use the full space on the SD card.
- Change User Password: Change the password for the Pi user. Use this if your
Raspberry Pi will be connected to a network and especially if it is accessible from the
Internet. - Boot Options: Enable/disable boot to the GUI windowing system.
- Overscan: Change how the video signal is sent to the monitor/TV. Use this if your
output image from the Raspberry Pi does not fill the available display area. - Internationalisation Options: Change keyboard mapping (country/language
specific), time zone, and language, which sets country/language-specific display
modes for how time, currency, dates, and so on, are displayed. - Enable Camera: Turn on/enable the camera module.
- Add to Rastrack: Add your Raspberry Pi to the Pi Map, a global indicator of the
Raspberry Pi’s in the world. - Overclock: Change the CPU timing settings (also called speed) for the system. Experts
only. This is not needed for normal Raspberry Pi use. - Advanced Options: Enable/disable various system services such as SSH.
- About raspi-config: Get information about how to use this tool.
■Note Future releases of the configuration menu will include additional options. once you have connected
your raspberry pi to the internet and executed the update option, it is a good idea to check the menu for
new options.
The first time you boot your system, you should use a few of these options. At a minimum, you should
set the root file system to use the entire SD card space, change the keyboard setup, set your locale and time
zone, and, if you want to be able to remotely log in, enable the SSH server.
When you first initialize an image on an SD card, the process does not use the entire space available.
The Expand Filesystem option does this for you. In some cases, the system will be rebooted when the
operation is complete, so make sure you don’t have other things running before executing this option.
Setting the keyboard, locale, and time zone enables you to use the Raspberry Pi in a manner you are
used to with a PC. In particular, your keyboard will have the special symbols where you expect them; dates,
time, and similar values will be displayed correctly; and your clock will be set the correct local time. These
operations may not require a reboot. You should set these prior to using the Raspberry Pi in earnest.
On future boots, the system will start, and, once you are logged in, it will be in terminal mode (unless
you selected the option to start in the windowing environment). From here, you can explore the system
using command-line utilities or start the graphical user interface with startx. Take some time and explore
the system before proceeding. If you want to restart the configuration session, use the command sudo
raspi-config.
Once your Raspberry Pi is running and you have spent time exploring and learning the basics for
system administration, you are ready to start experimenting with hardware.