Work with Raspberry without Key board, Mouse or Monitor

Probably you might wondering how this could do. But it is possible if you have computer with DHCP enabled wired Ethernet. However this can only do in Raspberry devices which has RJ45 Ethernet port. So compute module and Model A+ away from this. But still you can prepare and configure SD card using Model B/B+ and then can use it with A+ without an issue.

So what we need:

1. Raspberry Pi with Ethernet port
2. Latest Raspbian Wheezy image (http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian_latest)
3. Win32DiskImager (http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/files/latest/download)
4. Ethernet cable
5. DHCP enabled Ethernet network with internet connectivity (Probably it is your broadband router)
6. Advanced IP Scanner (http://www.advanced-ip-scanner.com/)
7. Bitvise SSH Client (http://dl.bitvise.com/BvSshClient-Inst.exe)

Now extract the downloaded Wheezy image and insert your SD card to your computer. And then run Win32DiskImager.exe. It should find your SD Card drive or if not select it.  Select the file '#.img' image file you wish to use and then press write.

Once it completes, we are ready to go, insert your SD card into the Raspberry Pi. And the connect your Raspberry to Ethernet network and give power to Raspberry. Then it starts booting and you can see green status indicator is blinking. Be patient for minute and Run Advanced IP Scanner. You could see IP address of your Raspberry device. If your device is not listed, try to enable all resources in Advanced IP Scanner, options and try again.

Now get IP of Raspberry and connect with Raspberry using bitvise SSH client. By default Raspbian OS came with user pi and password raspberry. Once you prompt for Host Key, click accept and save.

Once you connected with the Raspberry, you can configure your raspberry using "raspi-config" tool. This tool should be execute with super user privileges. So use "sudo raspi-config" to start configurations. With that tool you are able to expand your file system, enable Raspberry camera firmware and can do several other configurations. In here you must enable boot to desktop function. Otherwise you won't be able to connect to desktop remotely as explained in this post later.

After you are finishing the configurations, you might ask to reboot. After rebooting, bitvise will connect you with Raspberry automatically. Then open a terminal session and you can update your system with "sudo apt-get update"

Still we don't have any GUI from raspberry. So now we can install xrdp server in raspberry pi to access its GUI over a remote desktop connection. To install xrdp server, use "sudo apt-get install xrdp". Then you will asked to download and install xrdp server, and press "y" and enter to install.

Now its time to connect to your raspberry desktop via remote desktop connection. Before you start go to "Remote Desktop" tab in bitvise and remove tick in "use ssh login credentials". Now provide user name as "pi" and password as "raspberry".

To connect with remote desktop, just click on "New Remote Desktop" option in bitvise client. Then you asked to connect with Raspberry pi over the remote desktop connection and just click connect button. You can maximize screen to get full screen view.

Anyway if you spend much long time in terminal you might only get a black screen, in that case, close remote desktop connection and restart raspberry using "sudo reboot". And try to connect again with remote desktop after device connected with bitvise.