Log on to the Raspberry Pi

When it is first powered, the Pi will scroll lots of text up the screen. This is normal, and represents the Pi setting itself up. After a minute the text will clear and a blue screen will appear. This is the Raspi-config menu, which allows certain settings to be changed. For now, these settings can be safely ignored, so just press the Tab key on the keyboard until the Finish option at the bottom is selected then press Enter to leave the menu.

When the Pi has finished loading, a text-based screen will appear asking for a username. For the Raspbian operating system, this is simply ‘pi’ – so type in pi, press the Enter key, then type raspberry as the password and press Enter again.

At this point, you’ll find yourself in a part of the Raspbian operating system known as the console, a text-based interface that isn’t very friendly. To launch a more familiar graphical interface, similar to that used in the Windows or Mac OS X operating systems, type startx and press Enter. After a few moments, the Raspbian desktop will appear.

More in the Raspberry Pi series:
Download an operating system
Install Raspbian
Raspberry Pi hardware
Choose a display for the Raspberry Pi
Connect peripherals to the Raspberry Pi
Connect the Raspberry Pi to the internet
Explore Raspbian
Build or buy a case