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I am quite new to the Raspberry Pi and to get used to it I wanted to start a project with it. The first step is obviously to flash an image (I am using Raspberry Pi Lite since the recommended one is to large to put in my SD- CARD) I don't have monitor for the Raspberry Pi, so I'm doing it headless. I have a Raspberry Pi 4B and this is what I usually do to set up the Raspberry Pi:

  1. I use balena Etcher to flash an image, and I've also used the actual Raspberry Pi Imager
  2. Once is flashed the image I open an empty ssh file with no extension, and I've also tried wireless to test things out, so I created also the wpa_supplicant.conf file with this specifications:
country=MyCountry \
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant \
GROUP=netdev\
update_config=1\
network{\
ssid="MyWifi"\
scan_ssid=1\
psk="MyPassword"\
}

  1. I plug in the power source and try to use this command:

    ping raspberrypi

I tried a lot of variations, I've seen a lot of tutorials and it can't find the IP address, I've even used Angry IP scanner to see if there is a new IP in the network, but nothing worked.

I also know that the Raspberry Pi green LED should make a specific pattern if there is a problem, but mine at the start starts making a lot of light turning in and of the green LED in an irregular way, then the light gets very low and flashes continuously 1 flash at a time, and sometimes for a moment flashes with a lot of light and then it does the same thing.

I don't know if it's one of my silly mistakes that I do very often, or the Raspberry Pi doesn't work.

I am open to any suggestion.

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  • "I am open to any suggestion." -> You are likely to have nothing but headaches until you get an HDMI screen and keyboard you can use to get over the bumps in set-up. "turning in and of the green led in an irregular way, then the light gets very low and flashes continuously 1 flash at a time" -> It probably booted at least semi- successfully then; the green ACT led reflects I/O to the SD card going on (a lot for a few seconds then dies down). In addition, when the pi is running there there may be a regular blink at 1 or 2 Hz (dunno why sometimes there is not).
    – goldilocks ♦
    Apr 3, 2021 at 15:12
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    Another suggestion: Take it in steps. First would have been screen and keyboard. Lacking that, skip to step 2- go wired instead of wireless. get it working with just the ethernet cable and making that ssh file. If you get to that point, you can use vnc even if you don't have a monitor for the pi. From there work on getting it connected to your router. Once that is done, put it all together and get ssh working over the router.
    – Abel
    Apr 3, 2021 at 16:04
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    Shouldn't it be raspberrypi.local?
    – Unsigned_Arduino
    Apr 3, 2021 at 16:38

1 Answer 1

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If you use the latest Raspberry Pi Imager there are advanced options, invoked by the magic key sequence: Ctrl-Shift-X.

These enable you to set many initial options; hostname, password, ssh, WiFi Country Code etc during imaging.

This should enable you to setup a headless system, without any need to edit any files.

I still recommend the suggestions in Comments - use a monitor and try Ethernet for your initial setup.

The headless setup does work - although you need to get everything right - there will be no error messages etc.

NOTE Initial boot still takes some time, and the Pi will boot several times during the process.

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