It is a bit like adjusting the BIOS settings on a PC, once you have things right, you probably won't need it again. We will start with the options that are most important and then look at some of the other options that you may wish to configure.
It is a bit like adjusting the BIOS settings on a PC, once you have things right, you probably won't need it again. We will start with the options that are most important and then look at some of the other options that you may wish to configure.
Using the Whole SD Card
Once you do that, there will be some screen flashing as a script is run and then you will see the following confirmation.
Using the Whole Screen
This is not true of all TVs and monitors, but if it's happening for you then selecting the option to Disable Overscan may fix this for you.
If after disabling overscan, you cannot see the left edge of the screen then see the section 'Running Raspi_Config After Booting'.
Changing Timezone
Booting into Desktop
The final configuration that you definitely want to make, unless you don't like windowing environments is to change the boot behaviour so that it automatically starts the windowing system and logs you in.
Other Options
The options described above are those which could pretty much be considered essential when running your Raspberry Pi for the first time. There are some other options listed that are worth describing briefly.
- configure_keyboard – as it implies allows you to chose from a long list of keyboard layouts.
- change_pass – allows you to change the system password for the user 'pi' the default user on the system. By default, this password is 'raspberry' so those preoccupied with security may wish to change the password.
- change_locale – For non-English speakers, you can select which locales should be available on the system and which should be the default for the operating system.
- memory_split – allows you to adjust how much of the shared system memory is available for graphics and how much for the main processor. If you plan to run graphics hungry games, or video playback, then you may decide to alter these settings.
- ssh – in a later tutorial we will look at remote controlling your Pi from another computer using ssh. This option allows you to enable ssh so that you can do that.
- update – this option tries to find a newer version of Raspi_Config and download it. It is possible that new options will be added to the system in the future, so you may wish to do this.
Running raspi-config After Booting
You can run raspi-config any time you like, if you find that there are some settings that you need to make.
Click on the desktop icon 'LXTerminal' to open a terminal session.
Then enter the following command and hit return:
sudo raspi-config
Test & Configure
Reboot your Pi – click the icon bottom right – and this time you should boot straight up into the windowing environment.
In the next tutorial, we will look at configuring WiFi and finding the IP address of your Pi.
This guide was first published on Dec 04, 2012. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.