© Sibeesh Venu 2020
S. VenuAsp.Net Core and Azure with Raspberry Pi 4https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6443-0_1

1. About Raspberry Pi

Sibeesh Venu1  
(1)
Birkenfeld, Germany
 
Welcome to the first chapter; I am happy that you are here. In this chapter, we will discuss the following topics:

  • An introduction to Raspberry Pi.

  • The history of Raspberry Pi.

  • About Raspberry Pi 4.

  • Accessories to be used with Raspberry Pi 4.

  • The operating systems used with Raspberry Pi 4.

  • How to install the operating system?

Let’s continue reading.

About Raspberry Pi

According to Wikipedia, a computer is a machine that can be instructed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically via computer programming. When I say “computer programming,” I mean that we tell the computer what it needs to do via a set of operations called programs.

You may be thinking, why I am giving an introduction to computer programming here? The reason is that I will call the Raspberry Pi device a minicomputer. The possibilities of this tiny device are endless. It can perform a huge variety of tasks.

Figure 1-1 shows the Raspberry Pi 4, which was released in June 2019 by the Raspberry Pi foundation.
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Figure 1-1

The Raspberry Pi 4

The History of the Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi is a tiny computer that uses one single board. It was developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in the United Kingdom. The initial motive for this project was to promote teaching basic computer science in schools. The first version of the Raspberry Pi was released on February 24, 2012. The latest Raspberry Pi version is RPI 4, as of 2019.

There are many operating systems that we can run on a Raspberry Pi; some of them are listed here:

  • Linux

  • Windows 10 IoT Core (not supported by Raspberry Pi 3 or 4)

  • Windows 10 ARM64

  • FreeBSD

  • NetBSD

As of now, the maximum memory supported by the Raspberry Pi is 4GB. It has memory variants of 1GB and 2GB as well.

Now you have an idea about this device, you might wonder how popular it is. Table 1-1 shows how many Raspberry Pi devices were sold in the last few years.
Table 1-1

Raspberry Pi Sales Over the Years

Year

Sales

2015

5 million

2016

11 million

2017

15 million

2018

19 million

About Raspberry Pi 4

According to the creators of the Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi version 4 is the most advanced and efficient Pi they have ever made. Here are some reasons for such a claim:

  • Dual 4K HDMI support.

  • Fast data transfer with USB 3.0 and Gigabit Ethernet.

  • Silent and energy efficient.

  • Many variants, such as 1GB, 2GB, and 4 GB.

  • Onboard wireless network connectivity and Bluetooth 5.0.

Now, let’s look at the specifications of Raspberry Pi 4.
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Figure 1-2

Raspberry Pi 4 B model

Here are explanations of the numbers shown in Figure 1-2:
  1. 1.

    A more powerful processor. The Raspberry Pi 4 uses Broadcom BCM2711 SoC with a 1.5GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 processor.

     
  2. 2.

    RAM options. With the Raspberry Pi 4, you can choose 1GB, 2GB, 4GB or 8GB RAM, depending on the model you select. This was not possible until Raspberry Pi 3, as the maximum RAM provided was 1GB.

     
  3. 3.

    Gigabit Ethernet support. The older version (Raspberry Pi 3) has only 100Mbit capacity.

     
  4. 4.

    Two additional USB 3 ports. Now you should be able to transfer your data 10 times faster. Happy transferring!.

     
  5. 5.

    Two USB 2 ports.

     
  6. 6.

    Micro HDMI support. Raspberry Pi 4 provides dual 4K displays. I love this feature, as now I can connect two monitors to my Pi.

     
  7. 7.

    Micro HDMI.

     
  8. 8.

    Support for a USB C power supply. This is the first Pi that supports a USB Type C device.

     

Raspberry Pi 4 Accessories

If you are buying a Raspberry Pi alone from the store or online, keep in mind that you will not get any accessories with it. You need the following accessories to make it work, though.
  • Memory card. You must have an SD card. You can select the memory card size. It purely depends on which operating system you are going to install. When you buy an SD card, just make sure that you follow these guidelines.

    • The minimum size requirement to write a Raspbian image is 8GB, and you can install the Lite image of Raspbian in 4GB. I always recommend a memory card of 16GB or 32GB so that you won’t have to worry about space (see Figure 1-3).

    • Make sure that you buy a Class 10 memory card. The card class determines the write speed of your card. Class 10 has a write speed of 10MB/s and class 4 has 4MB/s.

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Figure 1-3

32GB memory card

  • You should have a 5.1V/3A power adapter to charge your Raspberry Pi (see Figure 1-4).

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Figure 1-4

5.1V/3A power adapter

  • You also need a Micro HDM cable to connect your Pi to the monitor (see Figure 1-5).

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Figure 1-5

An HDMI cable

  • Although you don’t specifically need a case for your Pi, I do recommend you get one to keep it safe and clean (see Figure 1-6).

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Figure 1-6

A Raspberry Pi 4 case

Introduction to the Operating System

The Raspberry Pi can be treated as a minicomputer, so we need an operating system to work with it. There are many suitable operating systems on the market now. When you buy a Raspberry Pi device kit, it may already have a default operating system installed on the memory card, which is the Raspbian Operating System. In this chapter, we explain how to install the Raspbian OS onto a memory card.

Raspbian

Raspbian is the one and only official operating system supported by the Raspberry Pi foundation. You can install the Raspbian OS either manually or with the help of NOOBS (New Out Of Box Software). As the name implies, NOOBS is an easy operating system installation manager for the Raspberry Pi.

Windows 10 IoT

As you might have already known, in the world of IoT, we categorize devices as single app devices or multi-app devices.

When you use an app to upload files to the cloud, this is an example of a single app device. Your mobile and smart watch are good examples of multi-app devices. I hope you get the idea.

In the same way, Microsoft introduced two editions of the Windows 10 IoT:

  • Windows 10 IoT Core.

  • Windows 10 IoT Enterprise.

Table 1-2 lists the differences between them.
Table 1-2

Windows 10 IoT Core vs. Windows 10 IoT Enterprise

Windows 10 IoT Core

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise

A version of Windows 10

The full version of Windows 10, it shares all the benefits of the worldwide Windows ecosystem

Optimized for smaller devices

Optimized for complex solutions

Receives fewer updates

Receives more updates than IoT Core

Single-app support, one foreground app at a time with a supporting background application

Multi-app support as traditional Windows

Only UWP UI supported

Full Windows UI supported (UWP, WinForms, etc.)

About Windows 10 IoT Core

Now that you have learned about Raspberry Pi and its relevant operating systems, it is time to start learning about Windows 10 IoT Core. Consider that the Windows 10 IoT Core is a version of Windows 10, but is made for smaller devices, for example, the Raspberry Pi. Although it is a smaller version of Windows 10, there are many differences. Some of these are listed in Table 1-3, which is updated as of September 2019. As the Windows 10 IoT core operating system is being updated, these differences may not be the same in the future releases.
Table 1-3

Windows 10 vs. Windows 10 IoT Core

Windows 10

Windows 10 IoT Core

FileOpenPicker API is supported

FileOpenPicker API is not supported

Desktop

Boot to the default app available in the operating system

Inbox Cortana is supported

Inbox Cortana is not supported

More supported drivers

Fewer supported drivers when compared to Windows 10

Support Remove-AppxPackage PowerShell command

Doesn’t support Remove-AppxPackage PowerShell command

Installing the Raspbian Operating System

In this section, we discuss the ways that you can install the Raspbian operating system on your Raspberry Pi 4.

Using the Raspberry Pi Imager

The Raspberry Pi foundation created a tool called Raspberry Pi Imager, which allows you to easily write the Raspbian to an SD card. You can download it from the Raspberry Pi official website, at https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/. Once you are on the site, just select the Imager to be used as per your operating system. See Figure 1-7.
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Figure 1-7

Select the Imager to be used

Once you install the application, you will be asked to select the operating system to be installed and to which SD card it must be installed. See Figure 1-8.
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Figure 1-8

Choose the appropriate OS and card

Make sure that you have formatted your SD card; otherwise, the card will not be shown after you click on the Choose SD Card button. It is worth a mention that the name of the operating system is now Raspberry Pi OS; it was previously called Raspbian. See Figure 1-9.
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Figure 1-9

After OS and SD card selection

Now click the Write button. The selected operating system will be added to the SD card. Figure 1-10 shows the pop-up you will see once the process is completed.
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Figure 1-10

Raspbian OS installation complete

Manually Downloading the Image and Writing

The next way to install is to download the OS image from the official website (https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/). The image is in the downloaded ZIP archive file, and the file is over 4GB. As it uses ZIP64 to compress these files, we must use an unzip tool that supports ZIP64. Here are the supported unzip tools in different operating systems.

  • 7 Zip: Windows.

  • The Unarchiver: Mac.

  • Unzip: Linux.

Note that the File Explorer in Windows XP does not support ZIP64, but Windows Vista and later do.

Once you have unzipped the file, you can write this image to your SD card by using any image-writing tools. My recommendation is to use the balenaEtcher, which works on Windows, Linux, and macOS. If you are using balenaEtcher, you don’t have to unzip the Raspbian image, as the tool supports writing images directly from the ZIP file. You can learn more about this tool at the official website at https://www.balena.io/etcher/.

Using NOOBS to Install the OS

Another way to install a Raspbian OS on your SD card is to use NOOBS. You can download NOOBS from https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/. The good thing about NOOBS is that it generically supports the installation of multiple operating systems, including these:

  • Raspbian.

  • Windows 10 IoT Core.

  • LibreElec.

  • Lakka.

  • RISC OS.

  • TLXOS.

  • Screenly OSE.

  • REcalbox.

  • OSMC.

To set up the SD card, follow these steps:
  1. 1.

    Format the SD card.

     
  2. 2.

    Copy all the files from the extracted folder of the downloaded NOOBS file. Make sure you copy the contents, not the folder.

     

That’s it. When you boot the device the first time, it will ask you to select the OS you want to install.

Summary

Congratulations, you have finished reading the first chapter! I am sure that you have learned these topics.

  • What Raspberry Pi is

  • The specifications of the Raspberry Pi 4 device and the accessories that you can use with it

  • Operating systems to use with Raspberry Pi 4

  • How to install the Raspbian Operating System on Raspberry Pi 4

Now let’s move on to the next chapter.

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