Setting up a Raspberry Pi

Thread Starter

Sparky49

Joined Jul 16, 2011
833
Hi everyone,

I'm settling into uni now, and have thought I could start playing about with my raspberry pi, perhaps do a bit of programming, turn it into a webserver, etc.

However, I have straight away hit an obstacle. I have no TV. :eek:

I have tried connecting the hmdi with that of my laptop, alas, it seems the hdmi on my laptop is only hdmi output.

I was going to try ssh, by taking into the computing labs and using a monitor with hdmi input to set everything up, take it back to my room and use it. But in that case, the IP address would change.

Does anyone have any ideas that might work? I have two ethernet connections in my room, indeed ethernet connections on both my pi and laptop, but I would really like the pi to be able to connect to the internet, so I could experiment with it as a web sever, for example.

Anyhow, many thanks for your time.

Sparky
 

hgmjr

Joined Jan 28, 2005
9,027
If you are buying a monitor, you may want to go ahead and get one that has HDMI. That will give you the full benefits of the HDMI interface from the RPi.
 

Thread Starter

Sparky49

Joined Jul 16, 2011
833
I was just thinking, could I take the raspberry pi hdmi output, and view it on my laptop through the usb? Via a hdmi to USB converter.
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,714
I don't think so.

See if you can find a spare monitor. One with an HDMI input would be nice. Otherwise you can use an HDMI to VGA cable and use a VGA monitor (I think, I will have to double check).
 

Markd77

Joined Sep 7, 2009
2,806
Presumably the lab and your room are both using DHCP and you need to know the LAN address in your room.
It's quite likely that if you plug a laptop into your room, note down the address, and then change to the Pi, that the address will not have changed.
I don't actually know to do this but you could somehow set the pi up to send the output of ifconfig to email or FTP when it boots.
 

MagicMatt

Joined Sep 30, 2013
117
A second user 15 or even 17 inch monitor with DVI is probably going to be cheaper than an HDMI to VGA converter.

Don't forget you can use any old screen if it has a composite video input (ie old TVs etc.) - people are often giving away old style CRT TVs - big, bulky, but a potential free stop-gap until you have a better solution.

Personally I'd buy a nice screen with DVI and VGA inputs.
 

shooking

Joined Sep 29, 2013
1
Or a crossover cable between laptop and pi having configured both for 192 network say. Then as previously suggested try VNC or even, if this is available for Pi, XDMCP ... Careful this is insecure but if on your own wire it should be OK.

Regards
Steve H
 

panic mode

Joined Oct 10, 2011
2,715
I strongly suggest getting TV or monitor with HDMI input. I was using VNC over Ethernet and while it does work, it is slower. plus to set it up and get to that point, you need to see what you do. I am away this week but when I return home, I will lookup my notes on how to set this up. you may try to set this up at friends home for example (assuming he/she has TV or monitor).
 
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