Precision Pendulum Assembly: Software management

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Software management

The Raspberry Pi computer interfaces the experiment micro-controller and the lab servers. Without it, no remote access is possible. It's, therefore, essential it is properly setup and configured to ensure high reliability and safety.

Operating System Installation

Should you start with a blank SD card, the first task is to install the Operating System (OS). There are several OSes supporting the Raspberry Pi (RPi) available and, in theory, any of those supporting the needed software can be used. However the use of Raspbian is highly recommended. It's the official OS from the Raspberry Pi Foundation for all RPi models, it has a wide selection of supported software available on the official repositories and tutorials and guides abound, online and in other mediums.

Instructions below this point assume that Raspbian is being used. Other Oses may have different configuration methods.

When creating a new SD card, the latest version of the OS should be installed. This ensures that the system is going to run with all the available security and performance fixes available. The latest version of Raspbian can be downloaded from this link. Three versions are available:

• The lite version contains the minimal amount of software needed to boot the RPi. No extra software is included. This implies the lack of a graphical user interface (GUI), meaning that, if connected to a display, the RPi will show only a command line (as pictured).
• The desktop version contains the same software as the lite version plus the software needed to use a GUI. When connected to a display, the RPi will show a GUI (pictured).
• The desktop and recommended software version contains the same software as the desktop version plus some preselected software and utilities.

The same software is available for installation on all versions, meaning that one can start with a lite version and later install all the software included in the desktop and recommended software version. If the RPi is being prepared to run solely as a server for the experiment, it's recommended that the lite or desktop version is chosen, as having an OS with only the needed software is safer, improves performance and maintainability.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation provides installation instructions for the Raspbian OS here.

After Installation

After installing the OS, the SD card is now ready to be used to boot the RPi. However, before inserting the SD card on the RPi, one needs to consider how to interface it the RPi. It's possible to do so through two different methods.

Operating System Configuration

After installation, the OS needs to be configured. The first task is to create a new user and delete the default user. Since all fresh Raspbian OS installs have the same default user and password, keeping them available on the OS is a very serious security vulnerability. Anybody that knows this is free to try to login into your RPi and, if successful, take control of your system.