Raspberry Pi experiments

Connecting a TV

Wow, at last able to get the Rpi's video and audio working on my tv. It was not working even after the config.txt changes to turn off the HDMI. did the following do it ? Or was it just a pin connection issue ? dunno, but happy !

/opt/vc/bin/tvservice
o
/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -c "PAL 4:3"

UPDATE : 13-Nov-17
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I enabled the desktop mode using raspi-config and rebooted.
Did not need to execute above commands for tvservice.
Most importantly, i had to use the RED cable for video, even after using
the TRRS converter for the AV cable

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To connect to pi over ssh using GUI, we do :
ssh
X pi@MyPiHostIP"
then
"pi@raspberrypi:~$ /etc/X11/Xsession"
This will start the X session on ur dektop

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When directly connected to the pi, it usually goes into command-prompt mode, and we can start a GUI session using "startx" command


Accessing the intranet 

Was unable to connect to my Pi from my Linux PC, both being on WLAN using tplink router. it was a router config issue. Under Wireless, Wireless Advanced, we have to turn off "Enable Client isolation" which is on by default.

Pi as a dumb(?) terminal

Using the raspberry pi to connect to VNC server on another machine. this way, one can share a single machine betw multiple people. of course, the pi can itself be used as a standalone computer, and the latest model 3, which is 64 bit, costs only around 3k. so if you are looking for a cheap computer, especially for kids, the pi + keyboard,mouse + monitor may be the way to go, and its GPIO pins can do many other interesting things.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=41845

Raspberry Pi • View topic - VNC Client for RPI

raspberrypi.org

Keyboard

If keys are not working properly on the raspberry pi, esp the special keys, try changing the layout :

sudo vi /etc/default/keyboard
change the XKBLAYOUT propery to us:
XKBLAYOUT="us"