Raspberry pi 4 install notes

raspberry_pi_4_setup_guide.md

Raspberry pi setup notes

Graphical Login

If you are using gdm3 or lightdm, you can setup graphical login

sudo raspi-config

go to and set

Boot Options -> B1 Desktop/CLI -> B3 Desktop

it can be switched back with

Boot Options -> B1 Desktop/CLI -> B1 Console 

Note that gdm is a service and can be launched manually from the command lines as follows:

sudo systemctl start gdm.service

This is the prefered approach if you are running gnome3 (Wayland by default) and don't want graphical login.

Startx options

Various desktops environments can be targeted in the ~/.xinitrc file, e.g.

# exec startlxde
exec mate-session
# exec cinnamon-session
# exec startxfce4
# exec gnome-session

Note that these are for X11-based launches.

Broken mirrors can cause file download to fail for tasksel options.

If sudo tasksel tasks are failing with error (100), you can verify that the issue is with unavail mirrors by running the task manually and seeing what happens, e.g.

sudo apt-get install task-gnome-desktop

Insert task name as needed above.

If it is unable to download, point the apt sources to a known good mirror, e.g.

sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list

add content similar to the following:

# deb http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/ buster main contrib non-free rpi
# deb-src http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/ buster main contrib non-free rp

# mirrors found here: https://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianMirrors/
deb http://raspbian.mirrors.lucidnetworks.net/raspbian/ buster main contrib non-free rpi
deb-src http://raspbian.mirrors.lucidnetworks.net/raspbian/ buster main contrib non-free rpi

Wayland

• synergy doesn't work

Natural Scrolling

• In gnome3 setting just slide the setting to use natural scrolling

X11

• has issues with audio crackling due to an output plugin for speechd. mute it in cinnamon audio settings or modify the following file:

Natural Scrolling

To setup natural scrolling for touchpads make the following changes:

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "libinput keyboard catchall"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "libinput"
        Option "NaturalScrolling" "true" # <-- HACK: this line added
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "libinput"
        Option "NaturalScrolling" "true" # <-- HACK: this line added
EndSection

This approach does not change the section for pointer and thus normal mice still work without natural scrolling as expected.

Speech assistants getting automatically enabled should be disabled

gnome3

• by default in gnome3 sometimes the screen reader gets enabled. turn it off in settings

gnome2

• be default orca the screen reader can get enabled, remove it with:

sudo rm /etc/xdg/autostart/orca-autostart.desktop