Chapter 6

The Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool

THE RASPBERRY PI is designed to be as controllable as possible, through the editing of configuration files found in the /boot directory of the SD card. For beginners, these files can seem dauntingly complex—although, with a little time, they soon give up their secrets—but without them some of the more advanced features of the Pi are unavailable.

The Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool, raspi-config, is designed to solve this problem. Offering access to the majority of common configuration tasks through a simple, menu-based interface, raspi-config makes it easy for newcomers to adjust system performance, change the memory split, alter overscan settings or simply change the keyboard layout at the console.

At the time of this writing, raspi-config is exclusive to the Raspbian Linux distribution. Work is in progress to bring the tool’s functionality to other operating systems, but for now it is recommended that beginners stick with the well-supported Raspbian distribution in order to take advantage of this most useful of configuration tools.

Running the Tool

The Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool edits a number of files that are important ...

Get Raspberry Pi User Guide, 3rd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.