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computer-rpi-setup

Dec 14, 20246 min read

Raspberry Pi Setup

This guide will outline the steps taken to setup the baseline software on the Raspberry Pi 4.

Requirements

This project recommends using a Raspberry Pi with at least 4GB of RAM. Compiler issues have been encounter with the 2GB variant.

  • Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5 (4GB)
  • 64 GB Micro SD Card
  • Micro SD Card Reader

Setup OS Installation

  1. Install Raspberry PI Imager https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/
  2. Select Raspberry PI OS (64-bit) Debian Bookworm
  3. Select at Storage option of at least 64 GB
  4. Select gear for advance option to specify the following form fields.
    1. Check the Set hostname box.
      1. hostname: rpi4
    2. Check the Set username and password box ^rpi-os-config
      1. username: bot
      2. `password: bot
    3. Check the Enable SSH box
      1. Select the Allow public-key authentication only radio button
      2. Open a terminal and enter the following. You may skip this step if you already have performed it. ^rpi4-ssh-key
        1. ssh-keygen -C "user@hostname" -f ~/.ssh/samsung-rpi4
        2. cat ~/.ssh/samsung-rpi4.pub
      3. Copy the output the last command and paste it into the Set authorized_keys for the 'bot': form field.
    4. Check the Configure wireless LAN box and enter the required form fields.
    5. Select Save
  5. Flash Raspberry PI OS 64-bit to the Micro SD Card
    1. Alternatively setup NVMe boot with NVMe hat
  6. Once the flashing is successful install the Micro SD card into the rpi4, hook up a monitor, mouse, and keyboard and power on the device.

Setup Raspberry Pi SSH config

NOTE

There are two ssh keys involved for this project each for specific access. The key naming pattern used is LocalMachineHostname-RemoteMachineHostname understood as “We log in from Local Machine (the computer in front of us) to the Remote Machine (computer elsewhere)“.

  1. /home/user/.ssh/samsung-github provides GitHub repo access to push commits to the repo
  2. The contents the of the public key samsung-github.pub is copied to Github via https://github.com/settings/keys
  3. /home/user/.ssh/samsung-rpi4 provides access to Raspberry Pi 4
  4. The contents the of public key samsung-rpi4.pub is copied from the local machine to the /home/bot/.ssh/authorized_keys file of the remote Raspberry Pi 4. ^rpi4-ssh-config

The following notes will guide you setting up the ssh keys such that you may conveniently develop and commit code changes all entirely remotely (i.e Within a Docker Container that is running on the Raspberry Pi)

  1. From your local machine (non-rpi4) open up a terminal and perfrom the following.
  2. Test ssh access ssh <user>@<rpi-local-ip> Use the password you configured in the ^rpi-os-config step
  3. Reserve a static local IP address for within the router’s configuration
  4. Reboot the pi On host machine: ssh -t <user>@<rpi-local-ip> "reboot"
  5. Test ssh access with machine name ssh <user>@<hostname>
  6. Add ssh config to host machine ^rpi4-ssh-config
    1. On host machine: xdg-open ~/.ssh/config
    2. Copy-paste the following, this project is using rpi4 as the config-name. Note the identity field uses the key we create earlier ^rpi4-ssh-key
Host <config-name>
	HostName <local-reserved-static-ip>
	User bot
	IdentityFile ~/.ssh/samsung-rpi4.pub
	ForwardAgent yes 
	ForwardX11 yes
	ServerAliveInterval 120
  1. Test ssh ssh <config-name>

Install Docker on Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) Debian Bookworm

CAUTION

Installing Docker for Raspberry PI OS (64-bit) Debian Bookworm is not as straight forward at the time this note was authored (2024-11-1). The convenience script for Debian get-docker.sh will not be applicable and manual installation with need tweaking for the targeted OS. The following notes are based on https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/debian/#install-using-the-repository

  • Open a ssh terminal on the Raspberry Pi 4
ssh <username>@<hostname>
  • Update APT repos and upgrade packages
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
  • Uninstall all conflicting packages
for pkg in docker.io docker-doc docker-compose podman-docker containerd runc; do sudo apt-get remove $pkg; done
  • Add GPG keys
# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
  • Add the bookworm repository to Apt sources.

CAUTION

Note $VERSION_CODENAME is NOT applicable as it’s used in the official Docker install for Debian. So we replace it with bookworm

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "bookworm") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update
  • Install the Docker Packages
# Install the Docker packages.
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Attention

  • If you previously added and updated an incorrect Apt sources (didn’t replace $VERSION_CODE with bookworm) you may get the following error when you attempt to sudo apt install docker packages. See section ^bookworm-apt
The following packages have unmet dependencies: 
 docker-ce : Depends: iptables but it is not installable
             Recommends: pigz but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
  • This can be corrected by removing the updating the list and retrying the previous sudo apt install command.
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*`
sudo apt-get update
  • Run the docker hello-world image:
sudo docker run hello-world

Post install steps to manage Docker as a non-root user

These next steps maybe necessary for docker to work it VS Code remote development click here for more info

  • Create the docker group.
sudo groupadd docker
  • Add your user to the docker group.
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
  • Activate the changes to groups.
newgrp docker
  • Verify that you can run docker commands without sudo.
docker run hello-world

Setup GitHub ssh keys

NOTE

For alternate authentication methods see Sharing Git credentials with your container

  1. Create private-public key pairs on your local machine (non-rpi4) and add public key to GitHub via https://github.com/settings/keys
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "<youremail>" -f ~/.ssh/<private-key>
  1. Test credentials
ssh -T -i ~/.ssh/<private-key> git@github.com
  1. Configure global settings
git config --global user.email "youremail@yourdomain.com"
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
  1. Retrieve the fingerprint of the key just created
ssh-kengen lf ~/.ssh/<private-key>
  1. Add key to ssh agent
ssh-add ~/.ssh/<private-key>
  1. Verify key finger print is present in the ssh-agent
ssh-add -l

Setup VS Code and ROS2 Workspace Repository

  1. Open a ssh terminal on the Raspberry Pi 4
  2. Install Visual Studio Code on the pi
sudo apt update
sudo apt install code
  1. Clone the ros2 workspace repo into the Raspberry Pi’s home directory for the current user
git clone git@github.com:digitalhabitat/bot2_ros2_workspace.git

Setup VS Code Remote Development

  1. Install VS Code on your host machine
  2. Open VS Code on host machine
  3. Install the remote Remote Development extension pack more info about remote development here
  4. Connect to the rpi4 via VS Code on your host machine
    1. With VS Code open press Ctrl + Shift + P and enter “Connect to Host”
    2. You should be prompted with a drop down menu of the known host that was configured in ^rpi4-ssh-config step
  5. Open bot2_ros2_workspace workspace folder
    1. With VS Code, Select File, Open Folder, /home/bot/bot2_ros2_workspace/ then click okay
  6. Make sure the repo is currently on the humble branch
    1. Check that the bottom left hand corner reads humble
    2. if not, on VS Code press Ctrl + Shift + P and enter “Checkout to… ”
    3. Select “origin/humble”
  7. Open Docker the Humble ROS2 container
    1. on VS Code press Ctrl + Shift + P and enter “Rebuild and Reopen in Container”
    2. Check out the readme for the workspace to get started. Click hereto read a blog about this ROS2 workspace template

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