Raspberry pi network over usb

Question

Hi I am very new to the Raspberry pi but I have experience with the beaglebone.

I am just wondering if its possible to do something like network-over-USB like on beaglebone , but for the raspberry pi using the micro usb power connector. Since it would be much easier to connect to SSH and power up the board in one go.

Answer 1

I don't know about beaglebone, but it is possible to network the Pi using ssh or VNC. ssh used to require configuration in raspi-config, but I believe is now on by default. VNC requires installation

sudo apt-get install tightvncserver

You can't use the micro USB connector as the data is not connected (only power pins).

Answer 2

The Pi's power connector is power-only, so it can't be used for networking purposes. A couple other things to try:

1. Set up the Pi to connect to a hotspot created by (say) an Android phone, connect your laptop as well, then ssh over the phone's local network. This is how I used my Pi headless for quite a while.
2. Connect an ethernet cable directly between your pi and your laptop. (The Pi automatically detects if it's connected directly to a computer, and plays nice if it is!) You'll need to configure both the Pi and the laptop to use a static IP address over the ethernet network, but then you can SSH over the ethernet cable quite easily.