Setting up PLR on a Raspberry Pi#

You can use PLR on any operating system, but Raspberry Pis can be a good choice if you want to run PLR on a dedicated device. They are cheap ($50) and can be left running 24/7. Any user on your network can ssh into it and use a workcell.

Setting up the Raspberry Pi#

  • Use the Raspberry Pi Imager to install the Raspberry Pi OS on a microSD card: https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/.

    • During the flashing, it is recommended to add a hostname and create an initial user so that you can SSH into the Raspberry Pi headlessly.

  • After flashing, insert the microSD card into the Raspberry Pi and boot it up. Connect it to your network using an Ethernet cable.

  • Alternatively, you can use WiFi if you configured it during flashing.

  • SSH into the Raspberry Pi using the hostname and user you created during flashing.

    ssh <username>@<hostname>.local

  • Update the Raspberry Pi:

    sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

  • Make USB devices accessible to users: add the following line to /etc/udev/rules.d/99-usb.rules:

    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", MODE="0666"

Warning

This adds permissions to all USB devices. This is useful when you control the device and don’t want to worry when plugging in new devices, but it could be a security risk if the machine is shared with untrusted users. See udev documentation for more granular control.

Setting up PLR#