SSH or RDP into Raspberry Pi – The Art of Lazying

Table of Contents

1. Username and Password

The default Raspberry Pi username is pi, and the default password is raspberry.

To enable SSH without connecting a monitor or keyboard, create a file named ssh and place it in the boot partition of the SD card.

Raspberry Pi OS checks for this file during boot. The file content does not matter; it can be empty.

After the Pi boots, you can connect from another computer on the same network:

ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

If raspberrypi.local does not resolve on your network, find the Pi’s IP address from your router or with a network scan, then connect with:

ssh pi@<raspberry-pi-ip-address>

To connect to the Raspberry Pi desktop through a graphical remote session, install the XRDP server on the Raspberry Pi:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install xrdp

After installation, use an RDP client from Windows, Linux, or macOS to connect to the Raspberry Pi’s hostname or IP address.

For example, on Windows, open Remote Desktop Connection and connect to:

raspberrypi.local

or:

<raspberry-pi-ip-address>