Pidora-Headless-Mode

What is headless mode?

Security Warning!
If you are going to use headless mode it is critical that you change the root password as soon as possible, because Pidora is set with a default root password that is publicized.

Headless mode is a system configuration which enables access to a raspberry pi, through ssh on a network, without the use of a monitor or keyboard plugged into the raspberry pi. This mode does require another computer to ssh into the raspberry pi. When this feature is enabled, firstboot is bypassed and disabled.

Additionally, Headless Mode will enable services to read your IP Address through plugged in speakers or headphones. It will also flash the IP Address to you on the Raspberry Pi LEDs.

Enabling Headless Mode on Pidora

To enable Headless Mode, create a file named "headless" inside the boot file system on the Raspberry Pi's SD card. Create this "headless" file before you boot your Raspberry Pi.

On Linux:

Tutorial Video: http://youtu.be/ALUAmw6Mz_o

Insert the SD card into your system, and create a file named "headless" in the filesystem labelled "boot".

On Windows:

Insert the SD card into your system. Only the boot filesystem will be made available, because Windows will not be able to read other partitions on the card. Create a file named "headless" on that partition

Note
If you are using a Windows OS you will need to remove the .txt file extension on the headless file. More information on removing file extensions on eHow

There are two possible configurations for Headless Mode "DHCP" configuration and "Static" configuration.

DHCP Configuration

If you would like to configure the Raspberry Pi to use DHCP, leave the "headless" file empty, and the Raspberry Pi should be assigned an IP Address dynamically.

Static Configuration

If you would like to set a static, non-changing, IP Address on your Raspberry Pi, you will need to modify the "headless" file, adding an IP Address, Gateway, and Netmask, to the file for the configurations to work properly(see samples configs below).

Static Configuration: Required parameters for a Headless Mode static configuration.

IPADDR=[IP Address of Raspberry Pi]
NETMASK=[Mask to define network subnet]
GATEWAY=[IP Address of router/gateway]

Optional Configuration: If "RESIZE" is in the "headless" file, the root filesystem will be expanded to the maximum size of the sd card via the service rootfs-resize. If "SWAP"(requires the value in megabytes) exists in the "headless" file, a swap file will be created of the specified size, and then activated.

RESIZE
SWAP=[Size of swap in megabytes]

Sample Headless Mode Static Configurations

Static Configuration(without rootfs resizing or swap creation):

IPADDR=192.168.1.105
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=192.168.1.1

Static Configuration(with rootfs resizing and swap creation):

IPADDR=192.168.1.105
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=192.168.1.1
RESIZE
SWAP=512

Headless Mode DHCP Configuration -- How do I find my IP Address?

Once Headless Mode has been Enabled, and the Raspberry Pi has finished booting, the IP Address of the Raspberry Pi will be read out through the speakers or headphones that are connected to the Raspberry Pi. Additionally, the IP Address will be flashed through the LED on the Raspberry Pi soon after the IP Address is read through the speakers.

1 - 9 short flashes indicate the digits 1 - 9
10 short flashes indicate the digit 0
a long flash indicates an octet separator (dot)
a brief pause separates digits

For more information about IP Address reading and IP Address flashing, click here

Headless Mode Script Update

Initially there were a few issues with dchp and headless mode since our release the headless script has been updated. It has not been officially added to the updates repo yet but, if you are interested in trying this mode out now you can copy and replace the old headon script with the updated one located at /usr/bin/headon

#!/bin/bash
headless=`ls /boot/headless* 2> /dev/null | head -n 1`
echo "Headless Mode Enabled"
if [ -e "$headless" ]
then
      systemctl enable sshd.service
      systemctl start sshd.service
      systemctl stop firstboot-graphical.service
      systemctl disable firstboot-graphical.service

      headtext=`grep '[0-9]' "$headless"`
      if [ "$headtext"  != "" ]
      then

              ip_address=$(sed -n 's/IPADDR=//p' $headless)
              ip_netmask=$(sed -n 's/NETMASK=//p' $headless)
              ip_gateway=$(sed -n 's/GATEWAY=//p' $headless)
              swap_size=$(sed -n 's/SWAP=//p' $headless)

              cat << EOF > /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
DEVICE=eth0
IPADDR=$ip_address
NETMASK=$ip_netmask
GATEWAY=$ip_gateway
BOOTPROTO=static
ONBOOT=yes
NM_CONTROLLED=yes
EOF

              systemctl restart NetworkManager.service

      else

              cat << EOF > /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
NM_CONTROLLED=yes
EOF

      fi
else
     systemctl stop headless-mode.service
     systemctl disable headless-mode.service
fi

#Check headless file for resize option

#Check headless file for resize and swap option
grep -iE 'resize|swap' $headless

if [ $? -eq 0 -a ! -f /.resized ]
then
       touch /.rootfs-repartition
       touch /.resized
   echo $swap | grep -o '[0-9]*' > /.swap
       reboot
else
#resized already remove resize flag if it exists
       rm -f /.rootfs-repartition
   rm -f /.swap
fi

#read ip address
systemctl start ip-read.service
#flashing ip address
systemctl start ip-flash.service

SSH to the headless Pi

ssh root@{ip_address} Default user: root/raspberrypi