Getting Started

Before pointing your Raspberry Pi internet facing, lets make sure it is up to date and secure.

Lets start by using SSH to access your OctoPi. For Mac and Linux users you can simply open Terminal and type ssh pi@octopi.local. For Windows users you will need to download PuTTY. Open PuTTY and type octopi.local in the Hostname box, then click Open at the bottom of the dialogue box. You will be prompted initially asking if you trust this connection. Click yes, then log in with the default username pi and password raspberry.

Now that you are logged in via SSH lets begin with updating your OctoPi. Use the command:

sudo apt update

Then after that finishes.

sudo apt upgrade

This the upgrade may take some time, so kick back.

Once your Pi is up to date ensure that HAProxy is installed.

Note: The OctoPi image comes with HAProxy pre-installed.

sudo apt install haproxy

Some Other Raspberry Pi Niceties

Although not required I would recommend a couple further steps to get your Octopi all set up. I do this for any install on my Raspberry Pi, not just OctoPi. Use the command

sudo raspi-config

Within this dialogue you will find options to do a couple of things.

First choose Advanced Options and then Expand Filesystem. This will expand your file system to use your entire SD card. By default when you flash your Octopi to the SD card it only uses ~2 GB of the available space, not allowing you to use your SD card to its full capacity. So you see how this can be limiting if you have a 32 GB card installed.

Next choose Change User Password. This is important for any Raspberry Pi, and even more so a Raspberry Pi that you point at the internet. Choose a secure password. This will be the password you use to login via SSH in the future with the username pi.

Under Localisation I usually setup my keyboard layout and timezone. By default these are set to Great Britain. For Keyboard I choose en_US-UTF8. Use the spacebar key to make your selection, and don't forget to use the spacebar to deselect the en_GB-UTF8 above. Hit enter to commit the changes. Do the same for the timezone options.

Next I will go to Advanced Options and choose Memory Split. Memory split defines how much RAM will be reserved for your GPU. Since we are using this in a headless mode is will change this number to 5. If for some reason you are using your pi plugged into a display as well as OctoPi, leave this setting as is.

When you are done choose Finish. It will ask you to reboot, of course allow it, then log in via SSH again using username pi and the new password you just setup.

Next Step: Configuring HAProxy