Use your Raspberry Pi as a desktop replacement PC thanks to the increased power of the Raspberry Pi 2
The Raspberry Pi 2’s increased power over its predecessor is well-documented by now. More CPU cores and more RAM making it six times faster is an impressive number, and you can see the actual changes that it makes to the experience.
This power actually enables you to conduct a very simple project that was just out of reach for the original Raspberry Pi: a Raspberry Pi desktop PC.
All the components for it were available, but the Pi was just a little too slow to properly give a fluid desktop experience. Now with the improved resources, many of the restrictions are gone – enough of them to be able to build a Pi desktop. So grab a Pi 2 and we’ll get started.
01 Get Raspbian
We will be using Raspbian for our desktop Pi. Not only is it simple to obtain and easy to use, but it is supported by the Pi Foundation and community, which means it’s going to be the most flexible operating system with the most choices for a desktop. Download it from: www.raspberrypi.org/downloads.
02 Install Raspbian
Once Raspbian is downloaded, you can install it to your SD card. Put the micro SD into an SD card reader and connect it to your main system (a PC or laptop). Open up the terminal, cd to the location of the image and use:
$ sudo dd bs=1M if=raspbian.img of=/dev/[location of SD card]
03 Setup options
On first boot there will be some setup stuff that it is necessary you go through. The most important things to do for this desktop are to first hit ‘Enable Boot to Desktop’ and then to extend the installation to fill the entire SD card. After you have done that, do anything else that you want to do in these menus and then reboot before moving on to the next step.
04 First boot
You will boot into a fresh version of Raspbian with the newer interface and default apps available to use. From here you can start using it as normal if you wish, but it is worth noting that there are a few extra things that you should do to make it truly desktop worthy.
05 Software updates
Our first step is to perform an upgrade on the system to make sure it’s all up to date and working properly. To do this, open up the terminal from the menus and use:
$ sudo apt-get update
… to refresh the software list, followed by the next command to then upgrade to newer software:
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
06 Firmware upgrade
While we’re updating, it’s a good idea to upgrade the firmware on the device. Still in the terminal, you’ll want to activate the firmware upgrade software with:
$ sudo rpi-update
07 Extra configuration
At this point, you might want to tweak the Pi a little further. To bring up the initial configuration screen, you’ll need to go back into the terminal and launch it with:
$ sudo raspi-config
08 Advanced options
From here you can activate some extra options that you might need in the future. Enabling the Pi camera driver is a good first step, and you can even have it boot to Scratch if you want to focus on fun game development. Otherwise, there are also some overclocking options that you can consider if the system starts getting slow for you.
09 Accessorise your Pi
Just setting up the operating system on the Raspberry Pi is only a small part of the process – we also have to consider the hardware surrounding it that will actually make it usable as a desktop replacement.
10 Human input devices
Standard USB keyboards and mice are best suited for this task, much more so than a lot of the wireless keyboard and mouse combos that are popular among Pi users. However, don’t try and save on USB ports by getting a keyboard with USB connections of its own: the Pi cannot power USB hubs, even just two on a keyboard.
11 Monitor to see
The Pi can output a maximum of 1080p, which in normal display terms is 1920 x 1080. While it only outputs in HDMI, a lot of modern monitors do have an HDMI input. If you don’t want to get a brand new monitor though, you can always get a HDMI to DVI or HDMI to VGA adapter.
12 Case for protection
The Pi is pretty sturdy and we’d be lying if we said we didn’t regularly keep ours out of a case, however, it’s not indestructible. While we’re doing a lot of different projects involving accessing different components, a desktop Pi doesn’t require this level of access. We like the Pimoroni Pibow cases, but there are several other secure, protective alternatives.
13 Wireless for Internet
While some people are fine using wired connections, not everyone has that luxury. Wireless dongles are a perfect fit for the Pi, especially now they’re almost no larger than the USB port themselves. However, not just any dongle will work and you’ll have to check against this list to make sure that you get a compatible one: http://elinux.org/RPi_USB_Wi-Fi_Adapters.
14 Anything else?
Our standard desktop PC setup is complete, with one USB port to spare. You can use that single port for USB sticks or portable storage, or you can invest in a powered USB hub to give yourself more connectivity options. Otherwise, investing in a good, 2A power supply will make sure you’re never short on power for anything.
15 Adding extra software
We’re not quite done getting our Raspberry Pi desktop ready just yet. We need to add some extra software to make it feel more like a real desktop. While we already have a browser installed and some of the basics, the first other piece of software we should add is an office suite.
16 Work with LibreOffice
LibreOffice is not installed by default, but as the premier open source office suite, or Linux office suite in general, it is readily available on Raspbian, which is useful. Open up the terminal and install it with the following:
$ sudo apt-get install libreoffice
17 GIMP for photos
This is the big one – while the original Pi was not quite able to handle LibreOffice, it was useless trying to use GIMP. Now GIMP works just fine, although more complex tasks might make it slow down just a touch. Install it with:
$ sudo apt-get install gimp
18 XiX for music
If you need to listen to music while you work, one of the best pieces of software to check out is XiX. It’s available on the Pi Store. It’s a free download and you can find the Pi Store in the Pi menus to install it.
19 Pi for desktop
Now we are set up you can start properly using your Raspberry Pi as a desktop system, while still making use of the educational capabilities when need be. The software repository and Pi Store should contain any other software that you would want or need to make the most of your new Pi system.