Raspberry Tips & Tricks & Hacks

General

Change root password : sudo passwd root

Enable SSH before first boot

Recent Raspbian disabled SSH by default.

If you want to enable SSH, all you need to do is to put a file called ssh in the /boot/ directory.

Default user / password : pi / raspberry

Install & Enabling VNC

Install VNC with

sudo apt update
sudo apt install realvnc-vnc-server

You can enable VNC Server with

sudo raspi-config

Navigate to Interface Options and select VNC > Yes

Troubleshooting

Cannot Currently Show the Desktop

Launch sudo raspi-config

Select Interface Options > Resolution and select a lower resolution. And reboot.

Mount a CIFS Share Folder

Execute sudo mkdir /mnt/<LOCALDIRECTORY>: Change <LOCALDIRECTORY > with your folder name.

Execute sudo nano /etc/fstab and add :

//<IPADRRESS>/<DIRECTORY> /mnt/<LOCALDIRECTORY> cifs user=<USERNAME>,pass=<PASSWORD>,uid=<UID>,x-systemd.automount 0 0

Get user uid: id -u <username> Default: pi username.

Mount folder sudo mount -a

Backup: SD Card Image command line

Gzip backup command line. Backup time may take time. About 1 hour for a 32GB card

sudo dd bs=4M if=/dev/<DEVICEID> | gzip > /<LOCALORMOUNTFOLDER>/<BACKUPNAME>.img.gz

Default SD CARD DEVICE ID : mmcblk0

Send an email notification when someone logs in through SSH

/!\ Require sendmail.

1. Create a new folder in /usr

   sudo mkdir /usr/custom
   

2. Create a new script sudo touch /usr/custom/ssh_alert.sh
3. Change permissions

   sudo chmod 0700 /usr/custom/ssh_alert.sh && chown root:root /usr/custom/ssh_alert.sh
   

4. Use your favorite editor to edit the file and copy and paste this file ssh_alert.sh
5. Final step - add this line at the end of /etc/pam.d/sshd

   session required pam_exec.so /usr/custom/ssh_alert.sh