Configure Your Raspberry Pi After Installation – Beginner’s Guide, Part 3

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In Part 2 you wrote Raspberry Pi OS to your card with Raspberry Pi Imager and booted the Pi for the first time. If you filled in the customisation settings along the way, most of the setup is already done. To configure Raspberry Pi OS from here, you only need to install updates, check the language and know where to change settings later. This guide reflects Raspberry Pi OS as of November 2026, with raspi-config 20261026 and Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0.

What Part 2 has already taken care of

What’s set up on first boot depends on whether you filled in Imager’s customisation settings or went through the setup wizard on the desktop instead. The table covers both cases and shows where to change each setting later.

Setting	With Imager customisation	With the setup wizard (desktop, no customisation)	Change it later
User and password	yes	yes	Control Centre → System, raspi-config S3, passwd
Hostname	yes	no, stays raspberrypi	Control Centre → System, raspi-config S4
Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi country	yes	yes	Wi-Fi icon in the taskbar, raspi-config S1 and L4, nmcli
SSH	yes, if you turned it on	no, stays off	Control Centre → Interfaces, raspi-config I1
Time zone and keyboard	yes	yes	Control Centre → Localisation, raspi-config L2 and L3
Language	no, stays British English	yes	Control Centre → Localisation, raspi-config L1
Updates	no	yes, if the Pi is online	sudo apt update and sudo apt full-upgrade

Codes like S3 or L1 are menu entries in raspi-config, which the next section introduces. If you skipped customisation and run Raspberry Pi OS Lite with a monitor and keyboard, the Pi asks for a username and password on the console the first time it boots. You then set everything else using the options in the last column. Without a monitor, there’s no user account yet, and without one you can’t log in over SSH either. Enable SSH on Raspberry Pi explains how to fix that without a monitor in its section on setting up without Imager. For the updates, the Pi needs an internet connection.

Two tools: the Control Centre and raspi-config

You can change these settings with one of two programs. On the desktop, the Control Centre is the easier option. In a terminal, over SSH or on Raspberry Pi OS Lite, which has no desktop, you use raspi-config. Both change the same settings.

The Control Centre on the desktop

Click the Raspberry Pi icon in the taskbar and open Preferences → Control Centre. Three of its tabs matter here: System for your password and hostname, Localisation for language, time zone, keyboard and Wi-Fi country, and Interfaces for the SSH, VNC, SPI and I2C switches. The tab list is longer than the window, so use the arrows at the top and bottom to scroll through it. There’s no OK button; you close the window with Close. On systems from before October 2025, the same tabs live in a program called Raspberry Pi Configuration.

raspi-config in a terminal or over SSH

raspi-config is a menu that runs in the terminal. It needs admin rights and quits straight away without sudo:

sudo raspi-config

You control it entirely with the keyboard. The arrow keys move through the menu and Enter opens an entry. Tab jumps to the buttons at the bottom: Select and Back in the submenus, Select and Finish in the main menu. Esc takes you back one level from a submenu. The menus are always in English, whatever language the system uses.

Always leave raspi-config with Finish. After some changes, such as a new hostname, it then asks whether you want to reboot. Pressing Esc in the main menu closes raspi-config immediately and skips the reboot prompt.

You’ll need three of the main menus here: 1 System Options, 3 Interface Options and 5 Localisation Options. For everything else, including how to use raspi-config in scripts without the menu, see our raspi-config guide.

Step 1: Update the system

If you let the setup wizard install updates on the desktop, your system is already current and you can skip this step. If you used Imager’s customisation, run the updates yourself in a terminal or over SSH. On the desktop, click the Terminal icon in the taskbar to open one. The first command fetches the latest list of available packages:

sudo apt update

The second one installs the updates. apt shows you what’s going to change first; press Y and Enter to go ahead:

sudo apt full-upgrade

Raspberry Pi recommends full-upgrade over plain apt upgrade, because upgrade holds back any package that would need another package installed or removed. The first run can take a while, depending on how many updates there are and how fast your connection is. When it’s done, reboot so that things like a new kernel get loaded:

sudo reboot

How often to update, and what to watch out for when moving to a new Raspberry Pi OS release, is covered in Update Raspberry Pi OS.

Step 2: Check language, time zone and keyboard

Imager sets the time zone and keyboard layout, but not the language. Unless you went through the setup wizard, Raspberry Pi OS stays on its default, British English. That suits plenty of readers, but if you’re in the US you’ll probably want US date formats and spelling. Two commands show what’s currently set. The first lists the language settings:

locale

If the LANG line says en_GB.UTF-8, the system is set to British English. The second command shows the time and time zone; the Time zone line should show your own zone, for example America/New_York:

timedatectl

If you’re at the Pi, check the keyboard by typing a few symbols such as @, " and # in the terminal. If anything other than what’s printed on the keys shows up, the layout is wrong.

Change the language

Only change the language if you want menus and messages in something other than British English. If that suits you, skip this part.

On the desktop, open the Localisation tab in the Control Centre, click Set Locale… and pick, for example, en under Language and US under Country.

In raspi-config, go to 5 Localisation Options → L1 Locale. The list is long, so type a letter to jump ahead. Highlight en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8, press the space bar until an asterisk appears next to it, then press Enter. On the next screen, choose en_US.UTF-8 as the system default. Or skip the menu and do it all with one command:

sudo raspi-config nonint do_change_locale en_US.UTF-8

Then reboot with sudo reboot. raspi-config won’t prompt you here, but the new language only applies everywhere after a restart.

Change the time zone and keyboard

You only need this if the values from Imager are wrong. On the desktop, the Localisation tab has Set Timezone… and Set Keyboard… buttons; in raspi-config, use 5 Localisation Options → L2 Timezone and L3 Keyboard. In the terminal, this lists every time zone name:

timedatectl list-timezones

Then set yours, here using New York as an example:

sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/New_York

And this switches to the US keyboard layout:

sudo raspi-config nonint do_configure_keyboard us

Changing settings later

Every setting can be changed on the desktop or in raspi-config. For your password and Wi-Fi there’s also a quick command, and for SSH there’s the command to connect.

Change your password

There’s no default password you need to change: since April 2022, you create your own user and password during setup. It’s still worth changing if you picked a weak one, especially with SSH turned on, or if you bought the Pi second-hand or with the system already installed.

• On the desktop: Control Centre, System tab, Change Password…
• In raspi-config: 1 System Options → S3 Password
• In the terminal: passwd. It asks for your current password, then for the new one twice. Nothing shows up on screen while you type; that’s normal.

Forgot your password? Raspberry Pi default passwords and password reset walks you through getting back in.

Change the hostname

The hostname is the name your Pi shows up under on the network, for example in your router’s device list. Without Imager customisation, it’s raspberrypi. You can use the letters a to z, digits and hyphens, but a hyphen can’t come first or last, and spaces or other characters aren’t allowed. Sticking to lowercase is the safest choice, for example homeserver.

• On the desktop: Control Centre, System tab, Change Hostname…
• In raspi-config: 1 System Options → S4 Hostname. When you leave with Finish, raspi-config offers to reboot; choose Yes.

After a reboot, you can reach the Pi on your home network by its new name followed by .local, such as homeserver.local.

Change the Wi-Fi network

On the desktop, click the Wi-Fi icon in the taskbar, pick the network and enter the password. In raspi-config, go to 1 System Options → S1 Wireless LAN and enter the network name (SSID), then the password. raspi-config only asks for the Wi-Fi country if none is set yet, and Imager’s customisation already sets it.

In the terminal, network connections are handled by NetworkManager, which you control with nmcli. This shows the Wi-Fi networks in range:

nmcli device wifi list

This connects the Pi to a network. Put in your own network name and Wi-Fi password:

sudo nmcli device wifi connect "MyNetwork" password "MyPassword"

The connection is saved and comes back after every reboot. To see your saved connections:

nmcli connection show

Keep in mind that this way your Wi-Fi password ends up in the terminal’s command history. If you’d rather avoid that, use raspi-config. Hidden networks and troubleshooting are covered in Set up Wi-Fi on Raspberry Pi.

Turn on SSH and connect

SSH lets you control the Pi over the network from a terminal window on your computer. If you didn’t turn it on in Imager, you can do it now. On the desktop, open the Control Centre’s Interfaces tab and switch on SSH. In raspi-config, choose 3 Interface Options → I1 SSH and answer Yes to “Would you like the SSH server to be enabled?”. SSH starts right away; there’s no need to reboot.

On your computer, open PowerShell (Windows) or Terminal (macOS, Linux) and connect with your own username and the Pi’s hostname:

ssh username@hostname.local

The first time you connect, SSH asks whether you trust the Pi (“Are you sure you want to continue connecting”). Type yes and press Enter. Then enter your password; nothing shows up on screen while you type.

If your computer can’t find the name, use the Pi’s IP address from your router’s device list instead, for example ssh username@192.168.1.50. If you’re sitting at the Pi, hostname -I shows the address. More options are in Find your Raspberry Pi’s IP address.

On your home network, a strong password is enough. Logging in with an SSH key is safer, and if the Pi is reachable from the internet, you should turn off password logins altogether. Enable SSH on Raspberry Pi shows you how to do both.

Interfaces for electronics projects: SPI and I2C

Many sensors, displays and other parts you wire to the GPIO pins talk to the Pi over SPI or I2C. Both interfaces are off by default. Turn them on in the Control Centre’s Interfaces tab, or in raspi-config under 3 Interface Options → I4 SPI or I5 I2C. They work straight away and stay on after a reboot.

This command tells you whether SPI is running. You should see /dev/spidev0.0 and /dev/spidev0.1:

ls /dev/spidev*

For I2C there’s a tool called i2cdetect. It comes with the desktop version; on Raspberry Pi OS Lite, install it first:

sudo apt install i2c-tools

This then prints a grid with the address of every device connected to the I2C pins:

sudo i2cdetect -y 1

Wiring and Python examples are in Enable SPI and I2C on Raspberry Pi.

Remote access: which option for what

There are three ways to reach your Pi from another computer, each with its own setup guide.

What for	Option	How to turn it on	Guide
Terminal on your home network	SSH	raspi-config I1, or the SSH switch in the Control Centre	Enable SSH on Raspberry Pi
Desktop on your home network	VNC with the preinstalled wayvnc server, TigerVNC on your computer	raspi-config I3, or the VNC switch in the Control Centre. The Pi has to boot to the desktop.	Part 4: Set up VNC
Desktop or terminal in your browser, from anywhere	Raspberry Pi Connect, with a free Raspberry Pi ID	raspi-config I2 RPi Connect	Set up Raspberry Pi Connect

Connect can only share the screen on the standard Raspberry Pi OS desktop. On Raspberry Pi OS Lite you get the terminal in your browser, but no desktop.

Optional: automatic security updates

If your Pi runs around the clock, say as a small home server, it can install security updates on its own. That’s the job of the unattended-upgrades package, which doesn’t come preinstalled on Raspberry Pi OS. Two commands install it:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install unattended-upgrades

Installing the package already turns on daily automatic updates. To double-check, run the next command and answer Yes when it asks about automatic updates:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
SSH says “Connection refused”	The SSH service is off	Turn on SSH in the Control Centre (Interfaces) or under 3 Interface Options → I1 SSH; no reboot needed
Wi-Fi won’t connect, or raspi-config shows “There was an error running option S1 Wireless LAN”	Wrong password, the Pi is out of range, or the Wi-Fi country is missing or wrong	Check the password, including upper and lower case, move the Pi closer to the router, and set the country under 5 Localisation Options → L4 WLAN Country
“sudo: unable to resolve host …” after changing the hostname	The hostname was changed with hostnamectl, and /etc/hosts still has the old name	Set the hostname again in raspi-config under 1 System Options → S4 Hostname, which fixes /etc/hosts
Wrong language or date format	The system is still on the default locale, en_GB.UTF-8	Change it under 5 Localisation Options → L1 Locale or in the Control Centre, then reboot. raspi-config’s own menus are always in English.
Wrong time	Wrong time zone, or the Pi isn’t online: it sets its clock over the internet	Check the time zone with timedatectl and make sure the network connection works
hostname -I shows no IP address	The Pi isn’t connected by cable or Wi-Fi	Check the network cable or set up Wi-Fi again (S1 or nmcli)
“raspi-config: command not found”	The Pi is running a different operating system, such as Ubuntu	raspi-config only exists on Raspberry Pi OS; details in our raspi-config guide

Conclusion and what’s next

After Imager’s customisation from Part 2, you’re down to two jobs: installing updates and, if British English isn’t what you want, switching the language. Everything else you change as needed in the Control Centre or in raspi-config. In the next part, you’ll control the Pi’s desktop from your computer: Part 4: Set up VNC. If you also want to reach the Pi when you’re away from home, Raspberry Pi Connect in your browser is the alternative.

Further reading

• raspi-config guide: every menu option and the nonint mode for scripts
• Update Raspberry Pi OS: routine updates and moving to a new release
• Enable SSH on Raspberry Pi: every method, including without a monitor, plus key-based logins
• Set up Wi-Fi on Raspberry Pi: connections, hidden networks and troubleshooting
• Default passwords and password reset: login details and what to do if you’re locked out
• Raspberry Pi commands cheat sheet: the essential terminal commands, including system diagnostics
• Beginner’s Guide Part 2: Preparation: install Raspberry Pi OS with Imager
• Beginner’s Guide Part 4: Set up VNC: the next part of the series