Buy a Raspberry Pi 4B

You can buy the Raspberry Pi 4B board on Amazon, the recommended version is 4 GB. You may also need to buy a SD card, and optional case with fan.

Choose SD Card

Raspberry Pi has no internal storage, relying instead on a removable micro SD card as his primary boot drives. Raspberry Pi 3 doesn’t support UHS mode because it requires 1.8v signaling while Raspberry Pi 3 is fixed at 3.3v. This is technically the upper bound of write speed (25MB/sec) for non-UHS SD cards. Now Raspberry Pi 4B provides a SD card socket runs on DDR50 bus speed mode and a legacy SDIO interface is available on the GPIO pins.

There is a micro-SD performance improvements with Raspberry Pi 4. Raspberry Pi 4 still doesn’t provide good support for A2 SD card, because A2 cards rely on specialized hardware in the host device to work well. The benchmark showed that A1 is the best card to use with Rapsberry Pi 4B and got better result than A2.

Overclock SD Card

DDR50 requires 1.8V signaling, supports frequency up to 50 MHz, sampled on both clock edges and bus speed up to 50 MB/sec per Physical Layer Simplified Specification. However, UHS-I SD card supports a clock frequency of 50 MHz (DDR50), 100 MHz (SDR50) and 208MHz (SDR104) per Physical Layer Simplified Specification. So in theory we can overclock SD card frequency to a higher value, e.g. 100 MHz. However, overclocking only works for Raspberry Pi 3.

SD Card Speed Test

Install the tool to test your SD card speed

sudo apt update
sudo apt install agnostics

my SanDisk Ultra A1 128 GB SD card has the following result

Sequential write speed 25460 KB/sec
Random write speed 1077 IOPS
Random read speed 2642 IOPS

Download Raspberry Pi OS image

Download Raspberry Pi OS Lite or Raspberry Pi OS with desktop from Raspberry Pi official operating system images.

Burn the image to SD card

Download Rufus and unzip the image file you downloaded previously, you will see a single .img file. Select SD card as device and select .img file as Disk or ISO image and then click Start. You may need SD Card Reader USB adapter if your computer doesn’t have SD card slot.

CLI Enviroment Configuration

Boot Raspberry Pi OS Lite

Plug the SD card to your Raspberry Pi and power on the device, follow the instructions to complete the basic setting. You will see the TTY when the boot process finish.

Switch to TTY

You can press Ctrl + Alt + F1/F2/F3/F4/F5/F6/F8/F10/F11/F12 to switch to different TTY console and press Ctrl + Alt + F7 you can switch to desktop environment if you have it installed.

Set Language

Execute sudo raspi-config and then select Localization Options > Locale. This option will execute following commands.

Set Keyboard Layout

Execute sudo raspi-config and then select Localization Options > Keyboard. This option will execute following commands.

For standard US layout you can select Generic 105-key PC (intl.) and then select English US and default layout. We need to sudo reboot to take effect.

Rotate the TTY Screen

In order to rotate the screen in TTY mode you can use following command

echo <rotation> | sudo tee -a /sys/class/graphics/fbcon/rotate > /dev/null

To always rotate the screen at startup you can add following parameter to /boot/cmdline.txt

fbcon=rotate:<rotation>

The <rotation> can be 0, 1, 2, 3 that correspond to 0-degree, 90-degree, 180-degree, 270-degree clockwise rotation.

Connect to Wi-Fi

Configure Wi-Fi country code

In the Raspberry Pi OS, 5 GHz wireless networking is disabled until a Wi-Fi country code has been configured by the user.

Execute sudo raspi-config and then select Localization Options > WLAN Country. This option will execute following commands.

Find SSID

If you don’t know the SSID scan the networks in the area to find the SSID you want to connect to

sudo iwlist wlan0 scan | greo -i ssid

Enter Wi-Fi Credentials Interactively

Execute sudo raspi-config and then select System Options > Wireless LAN. This option will execute following commands.

Enter Wi-Fi Credentials Manually

Create configuration for Wi-Fi

wpa_passphrase <ssid> <password> | sudo tee -a /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

If you are connecting to a hidden network, an extra option scan_ssid in the wpa_supplicant.conf file network section need to be present. You should use tab instead of space when indenting. By default, wpa_passphrase also include the plain text version of your password, but commented out. You should delete this line for extra security. The final network section should look like

network={
    ssid="<your hidden SSID>"
    scan_ssid=1
    psk="<your encrypted 32 byte hexadecimal PSK>"
}

and ensure the following lines are at the top of wpa_supplicant file, you need to double check the country is correct.

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=<2 letter ISO 3166-1 country code>

then reconfigure the interface with

wpa_supplicant -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -i wlan0 -d

Verify the network

You can verify the connection by running following command

ping 8.8.8.8

If you find the network is unavailable, try to wait 2 minutes or reboot, them verify with ping again.

Configure Static IP Address

If you want a static IP address, so each time you restart your Raspberry Pi device or disconnect and reconnect to the network you can find your device with same IP address. You need to add the following lines to /etc/dhcpcd.conf.

interface <your-interface-name>
static ip_address=192.168.0.10/24
static routers=192.168.0.1
static domain_name_servers=192.168.0.1 8.8.8.8

You can find your interface name with ip link, router IP address with ip route show default. You need to ensure the static IP address is outside of DHCP dynamically assigned IP address range, you can verify this information in your router. You can verify your IP address with ip -a address.

Setting up SSH Server

Enable SSH Server

Enter sudo raspi-config in a terminal window. Select Interfacing Options and then SSH. This option will execute following commands

Configure Passwordless SSH Access

Generate new SSH keys using the ssh-keygen command on the client. Copy your public key to your Raspberry Pi. cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh <USERNAME>@<IP-ADDRESS> 'mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys'.

Disable Password Authentication

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and change these options to no

ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
PasswordAuthentication no
UsePAM no

Change SSH Server Port

By default, SSH server listen to 22. Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and change Port to other value e.g. 2222

Disable IPv6 SSH Access

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and change AddressFamily to inet which means IPv4 only.

Listen To Local Network Only

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and change ListenAddress to private network static address that you have configured before. When you specify IP address explicitly in sshd config file, network interfaces must be prepared prior to sshd start. Execute sudo systemctl edit sshd and add following content.

[Unit]
After=network-pre.target network.target network-online.target auditd.service dhcpcd.service

[Service]
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
RestartPreventExitStatus=

Then execute sudo systemctl enable systemd-networkd-wait-online.

Apply Latest SSH Configuration

Restart the ssh system with sudo service ssh reload.

Firewall Configuration

sudo apt install ufw
sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing
sudo ufw allow in on eth0 from 192.168.0.0/24 to 192.168.0.10 port 2222 proto tcp
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status numbered verbose

Disable Wi-Fi & Bluetooth

Add these 2 lines to /boot/config.txt

dtoverlay=disable-wifi
dtoverlay=disable-bt

Here you can find the documentations of disable-wifi and disable-bt.

Configure Fan

When you buy a Raspberry Pi 4B you can also optionally buy a case with fan e.g. the official Raspberry Pi 4 Case Fan. You can simply connect the fan wires to 5V and ground pin but Raspberry Pi support advance fan control base on temperature. Run sudo raspi-config, select Performance Options then select Fan, introduce the GPIO that will be enabled when temperature exceeds the limit you introduced. You need to reboot after the configuration change. Run the command pinout to find the location of GPIO and connect it to base gate of a transistor, connect negative wire of fan to ground. If you are using NPN transistor then connect emitter gate to positive wire of fan and 5V to collector gate of transistor. If you are using PNP transistor then connect collector gate to positive wire of fan and 5V to emitter gate of transistor. You can use protoboard to arrange the wires. You can verify current temperature using command vcgencmd measure_temp.

NAS with Samba and External Disk through USB 3.0

Mount External Disk

Attach the external disk to the USB 3.0 port and run following to ensure the device is recognized

sudo blkid
sudo fdisk -l

If your disk is NTFS file system then we need to install following package

sudo apt install ntfs-3g

Once you know where the drive is located, run following command, the type argument might be different depending on your drive file system

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/shared
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/<what you have found in previous step e.g. sda1> /mnt/shared

To permanently mount at startup, add the following line to /etc/fstab

/dev/<what you have found in previous step e.g. sda1>    /mnt/shared   ntfs    default  0  0

Setup Shared Folder on Raspberry

Installing Samba Support with following commands

sudo apt update
sudo apt install samba samba-common-bin cifs-utils

Sharing a folder is easy

sudo useradd -M -s /sbin/nologin samba
sudo passwd samba
sudo chmod 700 /mnt/shared
sudo chown samba /mnt/shared
sudo smbpasswd -a samba

Edit the Samba configuration file /etc/samba/smb.conf and add the following lines

[shared]
    path = /mnt/shared
    read only = no
    guest ok = no
    security = user
    valid users = samba
    writable = yes
    vfs objects = recycle
    recycle:repository = .recycle/%U
    recycle:touch = yes
    recycle:keeptree = yes
    recycle:versions = yes

In the same file change these two properties to

interfaces = 192.168.0.10/24 eth0
workgroup = <your workgroup name here - you find it in Windows client machine System Properties - Computer Name>

Apply the change

sudo service smbd reload

Allow the Samba traffic through firewall

sudo ufw allow in on eth0 from 192.168.0.0/24 to 192.168.0.10 app Samba

Mount Samba Shared Folder

net use Z: \\192.168.0.10\shared /SAVECRED /PERSISTENT:YES

It will ask for username and password, you should introduce samba as username.

Remove Samba Shared Folder

net use  Z: /delete

NAS Backup with Dropbox and Rclone

Get your own Dropbox App ID

Install Rclone

sudo apt update
sudo apt install rclone

Configure Rclone

rclone config

Follow the instructions until you need to visit an URL, you will need to use SSH local forward

sudo ufw default allow FORWARD
sudo service ufw restart
ssh -p 2222 -N -L 127.0.0.1:53682:127.0.0.1:53682 sgao@192.168.0.10

Open the link that is mentioned in following workaround to avoid expiration issue. You can verify that refresh token is present

cat ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf

Rollback the ufw configuration

sudo ufw default deny FORWARD
sudo service ufw restart

Backup with Dropbox

We first verify the setup is correct

rclone lsd dropbox:

Then sync from Dropbox to a local folder

mkdir -p /mnt/shared/Dropbox
rclone copy dropbox: /mnt/shared/Dropbox

Finally, keep the folder synchronized with Dropbox

rclone sync /mnt/shared/Dropbox dropbox:

Keep Dropbox Synced With Local

Install the inotify-tools

sudo apt update
sudo apt install inotify-tools

Save following commands to ~/dropbox-sync-from-local-to-remote.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Execute first time after the machine is boot
rclone sync /mnt/shared/Dropbox dropbox:
inotifywait -m -q -r -e create -e modify -e move -e delete --format '%w%f:%e' /mnt/shared/Dropbox | \
while read; do \
    path=$(echo $REPLY | cut -d ":" -f 1); \
    event=$(echo $REPLY | cut -d ":" -f 2); \
    echo "$path was changed because of event $event"; \
    echo "Skipping $(timeout 3 cat | wc -l) further changes"; \
    rclone sync --delete-during /mnt/shared/Dropbox dropbox:; \
done

We need to add execute permission to the script file

chmod +x ~/dropbox-sync-from-local-to-remote.sh

Create a Cron job at boot time by executing crontab -e and then add following line to the task list

@reboot sleep 10 && ~/dropbox-sync-from-local-to-remote.sh >> ~/dropbox-sync-from-local-to-remote.log 2>&1

Keep Local Synced With Dropbox

Save following commands to ~/dropbox-sync-from-remote-to-local.sh

rclone sync dropbox: /mnt/shared/Dropbox --backup-dir /mnt/shared/Dropbox-Backup --suffix .$(date +"%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S")

Create a Cron job by executing crontab -e and then add following line to the task list

*/5 * * * * ~/dropbox-sync-from-remote-to-local.sh >> ~/dropbox-sync-from-remote-to-local.log 2>&1

Upgrade Raspberry Pi OS

Modify the file /etc/apt/sources.list and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list and replace every occurrence of the word buster to bullseye.

sudo apt update
sudo apt -y dist-upgrade
sudo reboot

Remove Unused Software After Upgrade

sudo apt purge geany thonny
sudo apt autoremove

Desktop Environment Configuration

Raspberry Pi OS provides desktop environment, and we can also upgrade from lite version to desktop version, but it is recommended that if you need to use desktop environment, download the desktop version directly.

Install Desktop Environment from Lite Version

sudo apt install -y lightdm raspberrypi-ui-mods rpi-chromium-mods
sudo apt install -y arandr # https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=265472#p1613632
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends xinit

After the installation you can enter the desktop environment using startx from TTY console.

Boot Raspberry Pi OS with desktop

If you boot with a desktop image, you will see a GUI windows that guide you through the initial setup, e.g. configuring the country, language, keyboard, Wi-Fi.

Configure Display Setting

Edit /boot/config.txt and ensure following parameters has the following values:

hdmi_drive=2 # https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/computers/configuration.html#troubleshooting-your-hdmi-2
hdmi_group=2 # https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/computers/config_txt.html#hdmi_group
hdmi_mode=82 # https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/computers/config_txt.html#hdmi_mode

Rotate your Display in GUI

You can check you available display with:

xrandr -q

Then use the name of display you get previously to rotate the screen

xrandr --output [name of display e.g. HDMI-1] --rotate left

Reference

• raspi-config
• Samba Wiki: Setting up Samba as a Standalone Server
• How can I have a Trash/Recycle Bin for my Samba shares?
• Command-Line Reference: Net use
• Enabling Recycle Bin like functionality in Samba
• Samba VFS recycle bin
• Rclone: Simple two-way dropbox sync