Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
97 lines (59 loc) · 5.63 KB

class-sd-cards.md

File metadata and controls

97 lines (59 loc) · 5.63 KB

Making a class set of SD cards

Begin by downloading and setting up one SD card with all the software you require. This can then become your master image from which you can create more cards.

Format your SD card

It's recommended that you format your SD card on your computer or laptop before copying the NOOBS files onto it or adding the Raspbian image. To do this:

  1. Visit the SD Association’s website and download SD Formatter 4.0 for either Windows or Mac.
  2. Follow the instructions to install the software.
  3. Insert your SD card into the computer or laptop’s SD card reader and make a note of the drive letter allocated to it, e.g. F:/.
  4. In SD Formatter, select the drive letter for your SD card and format it.

Download and image Raspbian

Once you have formatted your SD card, download and install the image directly.

  1. Using a computer with an SD card reader, visit the official Raspberry Pi Downloads page.
  2. Click on Raspbian.

  1. Click on the 'Download ZIP' button under ‘Raspbian Jessie (full desktop image)’, and select a folder to save it to.
  2. Extract the files from the zip.

  1. Visit etcher.io and download and install the Etcher SD card image utility.
  2. Run Etcher and select the Raspbian image you unzipped on your computer or laptop.
  3. Then select the SD card drive. Note that the software may have already selected the right drive.
  4. Finally, click Burn to transfer Raspbian to the SD card. You'll see a progress bar that tells you how much is left to do. Once complete, the utility will automatically eject or unmount the SD card so it's safe to remove it from the computer.

Update and upgrade

It is best to ensure you have the most up-to-date software on your SD card before making copies of it.

  1. Put the SD card into a Raspberry Pi connected to the internet via Ethernet or WiFi, and boot it.
  2. Once the desktop has loaded, open a terminal window by clicking on Main Menu, Accessories and Terminal. Alternatively, you can click on the Terminal icon in the taskbar.
  3. Next, type the following:
sudo apt-get update
  1. Then press Enter on the keyboard.

You will see some text appear very quickly. Simply wait for the progress indictator at the bottom to reach 100% and then you'll be returned to the command line prompt.

Upgrade

Once the update process is complete, and any information about new versions of applications are downloaded, you'll need to install the upgrades.

  1. In a terminal window or on the command line, type:
sudo apt-get upgrade
  1. Then press Y or Enter on the keyboard when asked, and your upgrades will be installed.

Downloading and installing applications on your Raspberry Pi

You can use text commands to download and install extra applications that you may wish to use. In the 'What you will need' section of a Raspberry Pi resource, for example, you may see a piece of software listed that you'll need in order to complete the activity or project. To download and install extra software applications that you want to use on your Raspberry Pi, you'll need to be connected to the internet with Ethernet or WiFi.

  1. From a terminal window or on the command line, simply type sudo apt-get install <name of software> and press Enter on the keyboard.
  2. After searching for the package and downloading it, you will be asked if you want to continue with the installation. Press Y or Enter on the keyboard to continue.

Checking space on an SD card

When running sudo apt-get upgrade, it will show how much data will be downloaded and how much space it will take up on the SD card. It's worth checking with df -h that you have enough disk space free, as unfortunately apt will not do this for you. Also, be aware that downloaded package files (.deb files) are kept in /var/cache/apt/archives. You can remove these in order to free up space, using sudo apt-get clean.

Clone the master SD card to make a class set

One SD card won't be enough for a whole class, so now you need to make a copy of your SD card and clone it to others.

Windows

  1. Open the SD imaging application again and select a location to save your image, using the same part of the application you used to select an image file to load onto an SD card.
  2. Enter the name you want to save it as at the bottom of the file selection window, e.g. my-class-pi-image. Don't save it with the name of another SD card image, or you'll overwrite it!
  3. Click read to start copying the SD card image to your computer.

Mac

  1. Open a terminal window by clicking on Applications, then Utilities and Terminal.
  2. Type diskutil listand press Enter. It will show a list of all filesystems connected to your Mac.
  3. Insert the SD card, type diskutil list and press Enter again. Take a note of the SD card drive; it should read something like /dev/disk3. Take note of the final number (in the example, that was 3).
  4. Finally, use dd to read the image from the SD card to a file by typing sudo dd if=/dev/rdiskX of=~/Desktop/pi.img bs=1m. Note the use of rdiskX instead of diskX. Make sure to replace the X with the number from above (e.g. 3). This will save it to an image file on the desktop called pi.img.

Now you have your master image saved, you can use Etcher like you did in step 2 to burn new SD cards.

What next?