I have seen a lot of guides to configure headless operations without attached display, keyboard, and mouse - all of which seem to be out of date. Maybe it's because that Raspbian has evolved or something else. Anyways, this technote is based on Raspbian Stretch or Stretch-Lite circa September 2017.
I got this Raspberry Pi Zero "W" for USD 5.00 by walking into a local store (http://www.microcenter.com/product/486575/Zero_W) in the Dallas/Fort Worth Texas USA area. That price is for one. If you want more, then the unit price goes up - sort of a volume "anti-discount" 
. They also have a USD 5.00 price on the "official" Pi zero case. Unfortunately, you have to walk-in as I was told. There must be other stores around the 3rd rock that offer comparable discounts (UK? Hong Kong? Rotterdam?).
I'll assume that the reader has just created a MicroSD Raspbian installation in the usual manner on the workstation. Make sure no writes are pending. If the 2 Stretch partitions are not yet automounted, pull out the caddy and push it back in. This should cause an automount of the 2 Stretch partitions of the MicroSD.
On my Linux system, `sudo blkid` shows the following after creating the Raspbian boot MicroSD:
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="boot" UUID="E5B7-FEA1" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="020c3677-01"
/dev/sdc2: UUID="b4ea8e46-fe87-4ddd-9e94-506c37005ac5" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="020c3677-02"
with corresponding mounts
/media/USER-NAME/boot/
/media/USER-NAME/b4ea8e46-fe87-4ddd-9e94-506c37005ac5/
Enable SSH on the first Raspbian power-up
cd /media/USER-NAME/boot/
touch ./ssh
Assuming that you are using Wifi, enable the connection. The following is an example on my Linux system for the USA using WPA-PSK security.
cd /media/USER-NAME/b4ea8e46-fe87-4ddd-9e94-506c37005ac5/etc/wpa_supplicant
sudo vi wpa_supplicant.conf
Replace the existing contents of wpa_supplicant.conf with the following:
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US
network={
ssid="Your network SSID"
psk="Your WPA/WPA2 security key"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
I highly recommend setting up a static IP address; this is very convenient for headless SSH operation.
Assuming that:
- You are using Wifi and your wireless device is named wlan0
- The desired IP address for the Raspberry Pi = 192.168.1.104
- The router IP address = 192.168.1.1
- The primary DNS server is also at 192.168.1.1
append to /etc/dhcpcd.conf the following:
interface wlan0
static ip_address=192.168.1.104/24
static routers=192.168.1.1
static domain_name_servers=192.168.1.1 8.8.8.8
Adjust IP addresses as necessary for your environment.
Note that if you are using wired Ethernet instead of Wifi and its device name is eth0, then specify this interface instead:
interface eth0
Be sure to sync; sync; sync changes to the MicroSD before removing it from the USB port.
Insert the MicroSD into the Raspberry Pi and power up.
From your workstation, connect to the Pi
ssh -X pi@PI-IP-ADDRESS # -X allows me to invoke X GUI programs like the Gnu text editor (`gedit`)
Change the root password to something that you'll remember, just in case
Configure the Pi
sudo raspi-config
- Change password for user pi
- Localisation - Language and Regional settings
- Timezone - Where are you?
- If you already have a Raspberry Pi with host name "raspberrypi", you will probably want to change this Pi Zero W's host name to something else.
- Reboot
On your workstation, I would enter the host name and static IP address for the Raspberry Pi in /etc/hosts (assuming the workstation is Linux or Unix).
From your workstation, connect to the Pi
ssh pi@PI-HOST-NAME
Got an NFS file server that the user "pi" needs access to on a permanent basis? Permanently mount "/mnt/bigtree.nfs"
1. I'll assume that your NFS server is set-up and you know how to manage it. Practical overviews of NFS set-up can be found here:
Be sure to read the comments too. All of us have learned NFS at the "School of Hard Knocks" but it is worth it.
2. Set up a local mount location:
cd /mnt; sudo mkdir bigtree.nfs; sudo chown pi:pi bigtree.nfs
3. Append the following to /etc/fstab; adjust per your local requirements:
# Mount bigtree.nfs using NFS
# NFS-SERVER is the host name as specified in /etc/hosts (static IP address).
# This NFS server has "bigtree" rooted directly under mounted file system "/data4188".
NFS-SERVER:/data4188/bigtree /mnt/bigtree.nfs nfs rw,bg,auto,noatime 0 0
4. Test (In general, always test immediately after making system changes!):
sudo mount -a
touch /mnt/bigtree.nfs/xx
rm /mnt/bigtree.nfs/xx
Got a SAMBA file server that the user "pi" needs access to on a permanent basis? Permanently mount "/mnt/bigtree.samba" as follows:
1. I'll assume that your SAMBA server is set-up and you know how to manage it.
2. Set up a local mount location:
cd /mnt; sudo mkdir bigtree.samba; sudo chown pi:pi bigtree.samba
3. Append the following to /etc/fstab:
# Mount bigtree using SAMBA
# SAMBA-SERVER is the host name as specified in /etc/hosts (static IP address).
# This SAMBA server has a share named "bigtree".
//SAMBA-SERVER/bigtree /mnt/bigtree.samba cifs auto,owner,rw,credentials=/root/bigtree.credentials,uid=pi,gid=pi 0 0
4. Create /root/bigtree.credentials for the login to the SAMBA server (read and write access):
username=SAMBA-USER-ID
password=SAMBA-USER-PASSWORD
5. Test mounting changes (In general, always test immediately after making system changes!):
sudo mount -a
touch /mnt/bigtree.samba/xx
rm /mnt/bigtree.samba/xx
Now is a good time to update your system
sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get -y autoclean
sudo apt-get -y autoremove
sudo reboot
That's it
Find any bugs? Suggestions for improvement?
Richard Elkins
Dallas, Texas, USA, 3rd Rock, Sol