Where you go next is entirely up to you and what your plans are. However, it's a good idea to start by running a system update first. Connect to the pi via ssh and run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Both commands may take a while to complete. Raspbian Lite is a pretty minimal install, so your next steps are probably to install a bunch of packages. By running the above first, you will make sure to bring in the most up to date versions.

System Configuration

General system configuration is done by running the raspi-config utility.

sudo raspi-config

This will bring up the main menu.

This is a good time to change the password to something other than the default.

You can also do other things like change the time zone, keyboard layout, hostname, etc.

Enable SPI and I2C

These are both used in a lot of projects but are disabled by default. It's a good idea to enable them now so you don't waste time later wondering why it's not working.

SPI

I2C

This guide was first published on May 17, 2017. It was last updated on Sep 03, 2021.

This page (Suggested Initial Setup) was last updated on Apr 22, 2017.

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