This page is part of a collection of notes that I am making on useful commands for Raspberry Pi OS, formerly know as Raspbian.

Execute the configuration script:

    $ sudo raspi-config

Get system information:

    $ uname -a

The result should be similar to this:

    $ uname -a
    Linux raspberrypi 4.9.35+ #1014 Fri Jun 30 14:34:49 BST 2017 armv6l GNU/Linux

The uname command has different options that allow printing specific bits of information, -a prints all information.

Another way to get system information:

    $ cat /etc/os-release

The result should be similar to this:

    $ cat /etc/os-release
    PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)"
    NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
    VERSION_ID="8"
    VERSION="8 (jessie)"
    ID=raspbian
    ID_LIKE=debian
    HOME_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/"
    SUPPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianForums"
    BUG_REPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianBugs"

You can also use the hostnamectl command:

    $ hostnamectl

The result should be similar to this:

$ hostnamectl
   Static hostname: raspberrypi
         Icon name: computer
           Chassis: n/a
        Machine ID: 2e7311d7868244978f314762db251c8e
           Boot ID: 7d5a2512534d4beabacae8d5fb9400df
  Operating System: Raspbian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)
            Kernel: Linux 4.9.35+
      Architecture: arm

Get the Raspberry Pi model:

    $ cat /proc/device-tree/model

The result should be similar to this:

    $ cat /proc/device-tree/model
    Raspberry Pi Model B Rev 2

Reboot the system:

    $ sudo reboot

Get the process list, CPU, memory usage:

    $ htop

Get the system temperature:

    $ vcgencmd measure_temp

This command has many other options, please check: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/raspbian/applications/vcgencmd.md

Checking or installing software on Raspebrry Pi OS

Before installing new software it is always good to make sure the system is up to date, for that follow the instructions in page Update Raspberry Pi OS System.

Check if a package is installed:

First check the list of available packages. This uses the package list from the last system update so it might not be up to date.

    $ apt-cache search ntfs

Then query if the particular package is installed or not:

    $ dpkg-query --status ntfs-3g

Install a package, in this example we’re installing Midnight Commander (mc), a powerful tool for managing files and directories:

    $ sudo apt-get install mc

To install git:

    $ apt-get install git