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Running Programs Automatically on Your Tiny Computer
Learn how to start a script on boot on common GNU/Linux systems.
by Brennen Bearnes
Projects built on a system like the Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone Black often need a good way to run scripts or services at boot time, and ensure that they stay running. We'll walk through two widespread solutions to this problem, one old and one new.
Using Zapier with Adafruit IO
Connect your IO account to a wide range of services and APIs with Zapier.
by Brennen Bearnes
Zapier is a service for bridging the gap between services and applications with web APIs. You can use it to easily watch for events on one service and publish them to another. We've added basic support for Adafruit IO to Zapier; this guide offers a quick walkthrough for two simple use cases.
An Introduction to Collaborating with Version Control
Learn the basics of sharing work with collaborators (like Adafruit!) using Git and GitHub.
by Brennen Bearnes
In recent years, version control has become nearly mandatory for serious technical work, git has become the de facto standard for version control software, and GitHub has become the de facto standard for sharing version-controlled work. This guide covers the basics of what all that means, why you should care, and how to participate.
A NeoPixel Blinkendisc
Customize a Flashflight or other suitable flying disc, and throw blinky programs at your friends.
by Brennen Bearnes
Light-up Frisbee-like discs have been on the market for quite a while, by now, and that's all well and good, but what fun is a blinkenlight if you can't write programs for it? And why would you stop at one blinkenlight? With these questions firmly in mind, we'll explore adding a Gemma-controlled 24-LED NeoPixel ring and a vibration sensor to the Flashflight Disc-O.
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A Sillier Mousetrap: Logging Mouse Data to Adafruit IO with the Raspberry Pi
How to outfit a simple live trap with sensors and data-logging, and quantify the vermin in your life.
by Brennen Bearnes
I live in an older building, and sometimes mice get inside. Lately, they've been especially annoying, so I've decided to ...
Kali Linux on the Raspberry Pi with the PiTFT
Install Kali Linux on your Pi, and add a kernel that supports Adafruit's PiTFT display.
by Brennen Bearnes
Kali is a security and penetration testing distribution, preloaded with a wide range of network tools and other utilities. If you'd like to use it on a Raspberry Pi with the PiTFT display, there's only one real problem: It uses a custom kernel which doesn't presently include all the stuff you need to use the PiTFT as a touchscreen. We'll go over the basics of an install and remedy the kernel situation.
Using an External Drive as a Raspberry Pi Root Filesystem
Quickly set up your Pi to boot with a USB stick or external hard drive as main storage.
by Brennen Bearnes
One of the more noticeable limitations of the Raspberry Pi is using an SD card for its main storage. This guide details hooking up an external drive, copying your root filesystem to it, and configuring the kernel to treat the external drive as root. It includes a helper script which automates most of these steps.
RasPipe: A Raspberry Pi Pipeline Viewer, Part 2
An exploration of network communication from the shell using Pygame and the PiTFT.
by Brennen Bearnes
Extending our PiTFT text visualizer Using netcat (a command-line utility for easily pushing traffic around a network), Node.js (a fast, capable server-side JavaScript implementation with a bunch of useful library code available) and Flask (a fast and easy Python web application framework.)
RasPipe: A Raspberry Pi Pipeline Viewer, Part 1
An exploration of standard IO, Unix filters, and simple graphics with Python and Pygame.
by Brennen Bearnes
In part 1 of this project, we'll learn how to use Pygame on a Raspberry Pi with Adafruit's PiTFT to build miniature visualizers for Linux shell pipelines.
A Quick Linux VM on Windows with Vagrant
Use Vagrant to quickly spin up a virtual Linux systems on your Windows PC.
by Brennen Bearnes
In combination with VirtualBox and msysGit, Vagrant is an easy way to configure and run Unix & Linux virtual machines on a Windows system - a useful way to experiment with operating systems.
An Illustrated Guide to Shell Magic: Typing Less & Doing More
A look at wildcards, aliases, custom scripts, and other force multipliers in the shell.
by Brennen Bearnes
A survey of techniques by which the shell user can express more without getting bogged down in tedious repetition, and tie together various tools within the GNU/Linux environment.
An Illustrated Guide to Shell Magic: Standard I/O & Redirection
An introduction to pipelines, redirection, and other such incantations in the shell.
by Brennen Bearnes
With a sampling of core utilities and other commands established, we begin to explore the concepts that make the command line reusable and composable.
A DigitalOcean droplet in 10 minutes
A quick and easy path to a virtual machine running GNU/Linux in the cloud.
by Brennen Bearnes
DigitalOcean is a friendly way to get a small, remotely-hosted Linux VM up and running for $5-10 a month. This walkthrough explains how, step by step, and provides some guidance on basic configuration for your new system.
An Illustrated Shell Command Primer
A fast, simple overview of basic shell commands, with pictures.
by Brennen Bearnes
Now that we've established what the command line is and how to get a shell, we'll introduce a set of commands fundamental to doing useful work on the GNU/Linux command line.
What is the Command Line?
An introduction to the interface at the heart of Linux & Unix systems.
by Brennen Bearnes
Modern GNU/Linux systems offer graphical desktop environments both simple and sophisticated, but at the heart of the Unix tradition is a more fundamental abstraction: Text. We'll sketch out the origins of the command line, and set the stage for an exploration of its unique abilities.
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What is this "Linux", anyhow?
A gentle introduction to the world's most popular free OS.
by Brennen Bearnes
Linux is everywhere, as the operating system that drives countless devices from the tiny to the gigantic. We'll explain what that actually means, tell you how you can get ahold of your own Linux computer, and set the stage for an overview of the fundamentals of day-to-day use.