Turn your Raspberry Pi into a desktop PC

1. download NOOBS LITE from www.raspberrypi.org/downloads.

2. copy contents of zip folder onto root of SD card.

3. Connect Pi to monitor, keyboard, mouse, power and internet via ethernet.

4. select Arch Linux ARM then install.

5. when installed, login with user ‘root’ and password ‘root’

6. type the command

pacman -Syu

without quotations. Note that the ‘S’ is capital and the ‘y’ and ‘u’ are lowercase. This will update the system.

7. select all default options if/when asked.

8. when installs complete, type command

pacman -S lxde xorg xorg-xinit abiword gnumeric netsurf udisks udiskie p7zip unzip unrar xarchiver apvlv

This will install all necesary programs.

lxde – Desktop Manager

xorg – program for displaying images on screen

xorg-xinit – program for displaying images on screen

abiword – lightweight docx compatible word processor

gnumeric – lightweight spreadsheet program

netsurf – lightweight web browser

udisks – Disk utility

udiskie – Allows auto-mounting of USBs

p7zip – .7z file support

unzip – .zip file support

unrar – .rar file support

apvlv – lightweight PDF viewer

xarchiver – program for unzipping compressed folder/files

9. select all default options if/when asked.

Step 3: Settings

10. when install has completed, type command

echo "exec startlxde" >> ~/.xinitrc

this will allow you to start the desktop with startx

11. type command

nano /etc/profile

and type at the bottom of the document ‘startx’ press CTRL+X, Y then enter to save and exit. This will make the desktop start after logging in. (you may also type ‘wifi-menu’ above ‘startx’ if you a device which allows you to connect to wifi. This will make you choose a wifi network to connect to after logging in and before starting the desktop).