If you don’t know how to, then don’t worry – we’ll show you how with this handy guide!
Command Line
If you prefer to use terminal commands, there are several options to do so.
In fact, for many Linux users, terminal commands are the preferred way to do many things. They’re often the most convenient way too, as Linux GUI tools are rarely as good as those on other operating systems.
Rebooting the Raspberry Pi through the command line is exceptionally easy! All you’ll need is access to a terminal window. You can do this directly on the machine itself, or remotely through SSH.
As you may have guessed, this tells the Raspberry Pi to shut down immediately.
Pull the Plug
Disconnecting the power cable will turn off the Raspberry Pi instantly. You should always shut down your Raspberry Pi safely.
Pulling the power cord out of your computer could corrupt your SD card or damage your hard disk drive. If you need to power the Raspberry Pi off by pulling the cord, be aware that it could result in data loss and corruption of your OS.
You likely won’t;t have to worry about any physical damage to the Raspberry Pi itself, but it’s always something to think about.
Therefore, you shouldn’t really ever pull the power cord from the device without making sure that you’ve shut the system down properly beforehand.Desktop GUI
You can easily reboot your Raspberry Pi by using the desktop guide too. Simply use the mouse to click on the Raspberry Pi logo in the bottom left of the screen. It’ll be where the Windows/Start menu is on Windows.
Click this, then click “Shutdown”. A menu with three options will appear: Shutdown, Reboot, and Logout. To reboot the Raspberry Pi, simply select the reboot option!
For many people, using the GUI might well be the easiest way to reboot their Raspberry Pi. If you use the GUI, you’ll need to have physical access to the Raspberry Pi, so that you can use a keyboard and mouse. Of course, this is also possible to do remotely over VNC!
How To Turn Raspberry Pi On
A Raspberry Pi can be turned off by unplugging it from the power supply. Plugging it back in when you are ready to turn it on will put it back online.
What Is A Raspberry Pi?
Raspberry Pi is a credit card sized computer that plugs into your TV or monitor via HDMI cable.
It has a single USB port and a micro SD slot. The board comes preloaded with the Linux operating system. It is very cheap (about $35) and ideal for beginners who want to get started with programming.
How Do I Install Raspbian On My Raspberry Pi?
You will need to have an account at raspberrypi.org, but it’s free.
When you first boot up the device, there are some setup steps where you choose language etc., then you come to a menu where you select “Start Raspbian”.
This starts downloading the OS image onto the microSD card. Once this finishes, you’ll be able to log in to the desktop by entering username “pi” and password “raspberry”.
How Do I Update Raspbian?
To update Raspbian, simply open a terminal window and type:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y.
How Do I Connect My Raspberry Pi To The Internet?
There are many ways to connect your Raspberry Pi to the Internet.
The easiest way is to plug it directly into your router using its Ethernet port. If you don’t have access to your router’s settings, you may need to download a network configuration utility such as NetworkManager.
How Do I Configure My Raspberry Pi?
The default username and password for logging into the Raspbian desktop is ‘pi’ and ‘raspberry’. You can change these if you wish.
How Do I Use My Raspberry Pi As A Server?
If you’re looking to set up a web server, you could try Apache HTTPd. Type:
sudo apt-get install apache2.
Then edit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default and add a line like:
ServerName www.example.com.
Save the file, and restart the service by typing
sudo service apache2 start.
Now visit www.example.com in your browser.
How Do I Control My Raspberry Pi Remotely?
Remotely controlling your Raspberry Pi from another computer requires two things: SSH and VNC.
To enable SSH type sudo raspi-config. Select Interfacing Options and check Enable SSH. Next, go back to the main menu and select Reboot. After rebooting, you should see a login prompt when you power on your Raspberry Pi.
VNC is a remote desktop protocol used to view the graphical interface of your Raspberry Pi over the network. To install VNC type sudo apt-get install tightvncserver. Run vncviewer from a Windows machine to connect to your Raspberry Pi.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Other Commands Can Turn Off The Raspberry Pi?
Use any of the above commands to turn off the RPi correctly: $ sudo halt $ sudo poweroff $ sudo shutdown -h now $ sudo shutdown -h 10 # after 10 minutes $ sudo init 0 Once the shutdown process is complete, the green LED on the Raspberry Pi board will blink a few times. It is then safe to disconnect the power cable.
What Is SIGTERM?
When RPi (or any other UNIX-like system) shuts down or reboots correctly, using commands from the terminal or their GUI equivalents, it first tries to shut down all gracefully processes by sending them a SIGTERM signal, which notifies them to save data and shut down.
What Is Command Line Interface?
A command line interface allows you to type in commands, which are then executed by the OS.
This can be useful if you need to perform repetitive tasks on multiple files at once.
For example, you could use it to change all the file extensions from.mp3 to.ogg. You would simply enter one command to do this, followed by another command to verify that everything worked as expected.
Conclusion
Hopefully this article has helped you to learn how to shut down your Raspberry Pi correctly!
As a tech enthusiast from a young age, it was inevitable that I'd find my way to the humble, yet brilliant Raspberry Pi. With this site - I aim to build out a knowledge base that will give you everything you need for your own Raspberry Pi journey!
