raspberry-pi-wireless-bootstrap

Ever wanted to set up a Raspberry Pi without a screen, nor a router to plug it into?

This utility allows you to flash an SD card with an OS image, which will span a WiFi hotspot when booted with a Raspberry Pi. You can then connect to this Wifi hotspot and reach the Raspberry Pi via SSH.

Currently, the image being flashed is hard-coded to be Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit).

Usage

1. Download and install Raspberry Pi Imager on your PC: https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/
2. Insert an SD card into your PC (you can use a USB adapter, if you don't have a hardware slot).
3. Flash the SD card via the CLI. Here's an example call:

   ./raspberry_pi_wireless_bootstrap --storage=/dev/mmcblk0 --wifi-country=DE --wifi-name=my-opendut-pi-01

   Use --help for additional information.
4. Put the SD card into a supported Raspberry Pi and power it on.
5. After it has booted, connect to its WiFi hotspot.
6. Log into the Raspberry Pi via SSH like so:

   ssh pi@10.42.0.1

7. Configure the Raspberry Pi, so that you can login without the hotspot. Then run /opt/raspberry-pi-wireless-bootstrap-complete.sh to disable the WiFi hotspot.

Hardware Support

Tested to work with:

• Raspberry Pi 3B+
• Raspberry Pi 4B

Does not work with:

• Raspberry Pi 3B (WiFi hotspot appears, but cannot connect to it)