Raspberry Pi - Basic Setup

This is the initial setup and configuration I use for Raspberry Pi's. It isn't an all encompassing How-To, more a simple task list to jog my memory along the way:-

• Download the latest debian based image; Raspbian Latest
• Write the image to a SD Card.
• Boot the Raspberry Pi.
• Run through the raspi-config script that runs automatically.
• After the Raspberry Pi has booted customize the required elements below.

IP Addressing, change from dynamic to static in /etc/network/interfaces.
  iface eth0 inet dhcp  iface eth0 inet static
    address 192.168.0.10
    netmask 255.255.255.0

    gateway 192.168.0.1

Setup your own user account:
  sudo adduser fred

Enable sudo access on your new account and delete it from pi account:
  sudo visudo

  pi All=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

  fred All=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL


Logout as the pi user and log back in as your new use defined above. Once logged back in as your new user remove the pi account if you wish.
  sudo deluser pi

If preferred you can just lock the pi account:
  sudo passwd -l pi


Name Resolution, configure DNS if desired in /etc/resolv.conf you only really need 1 or 2 nameserver entries, the multiple addresses are there for my reference only.

  domain localdomain.com         # Whatever domain name you wish to use
  search localdomain.com         #
  nameserver 8.8.4.4             # Public DNS provided by Google
  nameserver 8.8.8.8             # Public DNS provided by Google
  nameserver 208.67.222.222      # Public DNS provided by opendns
  nameserver 208.67.220.220      # Public DNS provided by opendns
  nameserver 192.168.0.111       # Private hosted DNS server

Finally update using:
  sudo apt-get update

  sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

At this point, I usually shutdown the PI and take a backup of the SD card before moving on to more specific installation and configuration.