Guide - Content Server Guide - Raspberry Pi

What is provided in this guide?

The guide will provide you with the information and instructions on how you can set up a Raspberry Pi with a Content Server on a generic Apache server

What is the benefit of this?

The goal of the document is that you will be able to create a Content server easily. The further instruction will provide you to convert your Raspberry Pi into a Wireless Access Point (WAP) which you can use to sync with your Rumie Tablet or device where you do not have WiFi capability. Using this process you will be able to sync Rumie Tablets in remote conditions where the standalone network is provided by the Rasberry Pi and you can perform LAN Sync

The guide will consist of 3 parts:

Configuring the Raspberry Pi. Headless Setup with WiFi and SSH enabled
Setting up the Apache server and Loading your Rumie Project to the server
Setting up a Rasberry Pi as an access point in a Standalone Network (NAT)

1. Raspberry Pi Headless Setup

The Raspberry Pi is an awesome little computer that can do just about anything. It’s around $35 USD for the 3B+ model, which is the one we have used and configured the steps for. It comes with WiFi and Bluetooth onboard. This post will go over how to install Raspbian, configure WiFi, and enable SSH (all without using a monitor, mouse, or keyboard attached to the Pi).

Before you do the configuration, you will need

Laptop
Wifi available for the first configuration
SD Card preferably more than 4gb
Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (You can also have a different model)**
Putty installed on your laptop

**If you have purchased a different model other than 3B+ then please know that there will be few changes in the configuration steps. The replication process will not be the exact same**

The first thing to do is to write the Raspberry Pi operating system to a SD card.
Please go to the following link https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/ and download the Raspberry Pi imager for whatever OS you are using on your laptop (Windows/ Mac/ Ubuntu)
I have a windows OS running so I downloaded the executable file for that. Click on the executable and install the Raspberry Imager. Once successfully installed it will launch automatically.
Insert the SD card into your laptop. Once done select the “Choose SD Card” and select the SD Card
Select “Choose OS”. While it is recommended to use NOOBS for beginners, NOOBS uses a graphic interface which cannot be displayed in headless mode. Thus, I will go for Raspbian, which is a version of debian running on Raspberry Pi.
1. Select Raspberry (Other)
2. Then select Raspberry Lite. This will the OS that you will be installing
Once you select the OS, the “Write” button will be enabled. Please click on “Write” to install the OS on the SD Card. It will verify the installation and then prompt you that the installation is complete.
Once this is done, still leave your SD Card plugged in your laptop
Go to the SD card, there you should see ONLY ONE folder boot. This is the root directory.
You will have to create a file named ssh under the root directory. By default, the current version of Raspbian has SSH disabled. We're going to enable it here. Within the boot directory, Right-Click > New > Text Document and rename the document ssh. Make sure that the file has no file extension, i.e. remove the .txt if you created the file by selecting New > Text File.
Then open Notepad or any other text editor and paste the given lines in it. Insert your SSID and WiFi password. Rename the document to wpa_supplicant.conf.
```
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=CA

network={
    ssid="wifi ssid"
    psk="wifi password"
}
```
Once done, save this file as wpa_supplicant.conf.
Your boot folder should contain these two files. Eject your SD card from the laptop
Insert it into Raspberry Pi board. Connect power onto mini USB port of Raspberry Pi board.
Once it is powered, a red light will show up on side of Raspberry Pi board. The green light indicates the reading of the SD card.
Install an IP Scanner or access your Router to get the IP of the Raspberry Pi. I have used Advanced IP scanner. Easy to use and implement.
Once it detects the IP, launch putty and under the Host Name enter the IP for the Raspberry Pi. Then click on Open
It will start with a warning, click “YES” and enter the user name and password. This is by default
```
username: pi
password: raspberry
```
Once signed you will see a screen like this

Once logged in follow these commands

passwd
#you should change your password from the default one 

sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade 
#this will update the software

11. Once you have done, you have completed the first step in this configuration. You have successfully configured a headless Raspberry Pi 3B+ and connected to it via your WiFI and SSH.

Continue to Part 1 (Headless Setup)