If you’re new to the world of Raspberry Pi, you should check out the page about Raspberry Pi tips and tricks. The page has all of the things that I did to configure Raspberry Pi and get started with the operating system, Raspbian Wheezy.

One of the most important things you should do is to configure the operating system for your geographic location or “locale”. The Raspbian Wheezy image is configured for the United Kingdom (UK). Therefore, the operating system and other software formats the data, time, and money for the UK. If you’re living somewhere else, you’ll want to set things to local convention. That’s where the locale comes into play.

Run the raspi-config program to change settings:

sudo raspi-config

The program implements a simple quasi-GUI where you navigate using the arrow keys. The space bar makes selections and the enter key confirms selections, etc.

Of course, you should set the timezone using the change_timezone option. Use the change_locale option to set your locale.

You would think that change_locale would set the keymap for your keyboard, but no! You need to change the keymap (keyboard layout) using the configure_keyboard option. If you type a key like “|” and you get a different character, you probably need to change the keymap to match your keyboard. Raspian Wheezy will build the new keymap when it reboots the next time (a step that takes a little time to execute).

Finally, you should know how to properly shut down the operating system and Raspberry Pi. I use the shutdown program:

sudo shutdown -h now

The -h option tells the processor to halt after shutdown, allowing you to safely pull the adapter plug from the wall. Use the -r option if you want to reboot instead. Don’t forget to do this since the OS may need to update information in permanent storage, thereby avoiding file system corruption.

Hey, don’t forget to have fun with your new system!