Now that I have the NAS mounted, it’s time to use cron to backup the machine nightly using a script that has been developed by another user.

There seems to be a hiccup with the /etc/fstab with Raspbian.

The current workaround is the following code installed into the /etc/rc.local file using sudo nano /etc/rc.local

# mount the synology share /pi directory

sleep 30

sudo mount -t nfs 192.168.1.8:/volume1/pi /media/SYNOLOGY

For those not in the loop, the MOTD is the message of the day that is shown after you login to the Pi.

After some running through the motions on a few things, I was able to customize it to show information that I would like to know when I access the device…

After sitting and coding things out (mostly remembering things like grep, sed and cut…my default motd now looks like this.

So in order to keep life somewhat simple at the moment, I’m not planning to immediately connect the Pi to the network via cable / monitor / keyboard or mouse…that means it’s gonna be headless.

Step 1 download the latest Rasbian LITE image

Step 2 extract the .img file from the file that was downloaded

Step 3 connect the sd card to the computer and use Etcher to flash the sd card to the latest raspian image

Step 4 enable ssh functionality by connecting to /Volumes/boot followed by touch ssh (this created a blank file called ssh)

Step 5 enable wireless functionality by editing /Volumes/wpa_supplicant.conf to reflect the following changes, when complete save the changes and eject the sd card

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
network={
    ssid="YOUR_SSID"
    psk="YOUR_WIFI_PASSWORD"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

Step 6 connect your pi to power and turn it on

Step 7 ping raspberrypi.local to determine your ip

Step 8 ssh raspberrypi.local -l pi with a password of raspberry

Step 9 perform the following tasks

a) sudo raspi-config

b) sudo apt-get update

c) sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

d) sudo reboot

So in my never ending quest for knowledge, and making life better for long car rides…I’ve begun a personal project that I am calling Project Odyssey.

Stage 1 will be to gather a basic understanding of the Raspberry Pi device, and it’s strengths and weaknesses.

Stage 2 will be a prototype, with Stage 3 being a working product that my children may be able to use.

Today my Pi arrived, and in the past 30 minutes I have been able to set it up, get it fired up, and it is presently updating it’s distribution version.

So far, I have to say that I’ve been super impressed.