Stage 6 of 6 · Room D-221 · logistics, evidence, homework
Lab & hand-in
Two computers share one desk. A clear convention for which screen, keyboard and drive belong to which machine prevents most of the confusion in a Raspberry Pi lab. This page also says exactly what to submit and what to do before Week 3.
The station
| Lab PC | Raspberry Pi | |
|---|---|---|
| Screen | Left | Right (switch its input to HDMI from the Pi) |
| Keyboard and mouse | Left set | Right set (Pi 400: built-in keyboard, plus the right mouse) |
| Storage | The College's internal disk. Never the target in Imager. | Your labelled boot drive: microSD in the card slot, or SSD in a blue USB 3 port |
| Network | College network | Class Wi-Fi or Ethernet, per the board |
| Used for | Imager, this hub, ssh and scp to the Pi, Omnivox upload | First boot, configuration, terminal practice |
Your boot drive is on loan
- The teacher hands out one labelled boot drive per team at the start of class (a microSD card or a USB SSD; cards are compact, SSDs are faster, the pages work identically with either) and collects it at the end. It stays in D-221; it does not go home.
- Your installation persists on it between weeks. Week 3 (updates, SSH keys, firewall, VNC) and every lab after that continue on the same drive, so treat it as your computer, not as a scratch disk.
- If you want the same environment at home, buy your own microSD card or USB SSD and repeat the Imager steps; the outline lists the equipment for home use.
- Anything not pushed to GitHub exists in exactly one place: on that drive. Push early.
The two hours
| Minutes | You do | Checkpoint before moving on |
|---|---|---|
| 0–10 | Kit inventory. Identify the Pi model and the boot-drive label out loud. Read the five rules. | Partner can name every connector on the board. |
| 10–35 | Imager on the lab PC: device, OS, storage, customisation, write, verify. | Both Write and Verify succeeded. Settings written down. |
| 35–45 | While Imager verifies: read the header page, answer the hardware quiz. | You can say why the ESP32 reads the photocell. |
| 45–60 | Wire the station with power unplugged; teacher or partner inspects; power last; first boot with its automatic reboot. | Desktop or login shows your username and hostname. |
| 60–80 | Prove the boot device, update with apt, fix locale or Wi-Fi if needed, enable VNC if wanted. | findmnt shows the device you wrote; apt full-upgrade finished. |
| 80–100 | Terminal practice: evidence folder, nano, scp to the lab PC. ssh from the lab PC. | Evidence folder is on the lab PC. |
| 100–115 | Upload the evidence to Omnivox. Answer the exit ticket. Clean shutdown. | Green LED stopped; teacher watched one shutdown per team. |
| 115–120 | Pack up, return the drive, leave the station as you found it. | Drive back in the teacher's box, screen input restored. |
Work as a pair
Operator
Hands on the keyboard and the hardware. Says each decision out loud before making it: "Storage is Samsung T7, 238 GB, label 07."
Verifier
Reads the page, checks the operator's statement against the screen and the label, and says "confirmed" or "stop". Records settings and evidence.
Swap roles at first boot. Each of you must have made at least one irreversible decision and typed at least one command. The Week 3 assignment demo and the term project both assume both team members can operate the Pi.
What to hand in
One upload per team on Omnivox before the end of class: the evidence folder from the terminal practice (as a zip) or a single text file containing the same content. Name it week2_lastname1_lastname2.zip.
| File | Command that produced it | Shows that |
|---|---|---|
station.txt | typed in nano | Station number, Pi model, boot-drive label, both names |
root-device.txt | findmnt -no SOURCE / | Linux is running from the drive you wrote |
lsblk.txt | lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,MOUNTPOINTS,MODEL | The drive's model or size matches the label |
hostname.txt | hostnamectl | Unique hostname, 64-bit kernel |
os.txt | head -n 3 /etc/os-release | Current Raspberry Pi OS release |
ip.txt | hostname -I | The Pi is on the network |
throttled.txt | vcgencmd get_throttled | 0x0: no power or heat problem |
This hand-in is part of "completion of in-class work" in the outline. It is not graded on its own, but it is the starting point for the Week 3 in-class demonstration, and the same evidence habit is expected in the term project reports.
Exit ticket
Answer without looking at the hub. Write the answers at the end of station.txt if the teacher asks for them.
- Which physical device holds Raspberry Pi OS right now?
- Which command proved that the root file system came from that device?
- If your drive is an SSD, why the blue port? If it is a microSD card, why must an SSD user's card slot stay empty?
- Why can the ESP32 read the photocell while the Raspberry Pi cannot?
- What exactly must happen before the Pi's power cable is disconnected?
Packing up
Homework and next week
Released today
Assignment 1: Git and GitHub (10 %)
Create the assignment repository, invite the teacher as a collaborator, and document the process in a Markdown file that you revise and commit in stages. Full instructions on Omnivox. Demonstrated in class on Monday September 14; work not demonstrated is marked late. GitHub's basic writing and formatting guide covers the Markdown you need.
Week 3 · September 14 (no class September 7)
Secure the installation
On the same drive: updates, SSH key-based login, the UFW firewall, VNC, and installing new modules and packages. Re-read the apt and sudo sections; you will use both constantly. Bring the same kit; the breadboard can stay home one more week.