Can’t ssh into raspberry Pi Zero

[NeoGirl101]

Hello, everyone...

I have been trying to ssh into the (original) Pi Zero, but without any success.
I have tried all of the following:
Following some headless setup tutorials, none of which worked.
Putting an empty ssh.txt file on the sd card before putting in the Pi. I have done this every time I’ve tried to get it working.
Connecting to the Pi’s USB port instead of power.
Using the recommended Windows software for formatting the sd card and etching the .img file to the card.
Waiting until the image has booted.

As for my hardware, I have:
A few data cables,
A Windows 8.1 computer,
SanDisk 16GB SDHC cards with adapters,
And the Pi Zero itself.

I desperately need help, and I am grateful for any help you can give. Thank you very much in advance.

[Ernst]

Hello, everyone...

I have been trying to ssh into the (original) Pi Zero, but without any success.
I have tried all of the following:
Following some headless setup tutorials, none of which worked.
Putting an empty ssh.txt file on the sd card before putting in the Pi. I have done this every time I’ve tried to get it working.
Connecting to the Pi’s USB port instead of power.
Using the recommended Windows software for formatting the sd card and etching the .img file to the card.
Waiting until the image has booted.

As for my hardware, I have:
A few data cables,
A Windows 8.1 computer,
SanDisk 16GB SDHC cards with adapters,
And the Pi Zero itself.

I desperately need help, and I am grateful for any help you can give. Thank you very much in advance.

Can you explain what you did to try to connect to the Pi Zero ? What I mean is how did you prepare the card, what cables are plugged in where, how do you connect your Windows computer to the Pi. Please try to give an accurate and extensive description.

Update: I suspect that this thread https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... p?t=202498 might be what you need.

[deepo]

Hello, everyone...

I have been trying to ssh into the (original) Pi Zero, but without any success.
I have tried all of the following:
Following some headless setup tutorials, none of which worked.
Putting an empty ssh.txt file on the sd card before putting in the Pi. I have done this every time I’ve tried to get it working.
Connecting to the Pi’s USB port instead of power.
Using the recommended Windows software for formatting the sd card and etching the .img file to the card.
Waiting until the image has booted.

As for my hardware, I have:
A few data cables,
A Windows 8.1 computer,
SanDisk 16GB SDHC cards with adapters,
And the Pi Zero itself.

I desperately need help, and I am grateful for any help you can give. Thank you very much in advance.

The file should be named ssh, not ssh.txt
See section 3:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... /README.md

/Mogens

[NeoGirl101]

Thank you for your replies.

This is how I’m doing it:

I put the sd card (in its adapter) into my computer and reformat it completely with “SD Card Formatter” (I do not use the formatter that comes with Windows). Then I use Balena Etcher to etch the Raspbian image onto the card, and afterward had tried changing the config text file and adding an empty ssh file (I simply name it “ssh”). I also had tried adding a wpa_supplicant.conf file (which, in hindsight, was kinda foolish of me since the original Pi Zero doesn’t have WiFi. I don’t even need WiFi). When all of that’s done, I eject the card by right-clicking on boot and clicking “eject”. Then I take out the adapter, remove the sd card and place the sd card into the Pi Zero.

Then I plug a cable into both the USB port of the Pi and the computer’s USB port. Finally, I try using PuTTy to ssh into the Pi with pi@raspberrypi.local... which always fails.

Right now it seems like the USB cables I’m using might be the problem, as they may be power-only cables instead of data cables. I’ll get back to you all on that, but I would also like to hear any other suggestions you might have in the meantime.

Thanks again for your help.

[rpdom]

You can test the cables by removing the SD card from the Pi Zero and then connecting the Pi to your PC. If a new device called something like "BCM2835" shows up, then the cable is working.

Have you done the configuration to enable the Pi to appear as a USB network adaptor on the PC and configured the network?

[B.Goode]

Thank you for your replies.

This is how I’m doing it:

.....

If that is a complete summary, what you are doing is not sufficient to enable networking via the usb port of your RPi Zero.

[NeoGirl101]

Aah, I was missing something!

I’ll check the cable type.

I’m not sure that I was configuring my Pi correctly, and I just don’t know how to configure the network.
I must confess that my Zero is the first Raspberry Pi I’ve ever had.

I’ll look for a Raspberry Pi Zero setup tutorial on this site.

[drgeoff]

The file should be named ssh, not ssh.txt
See section 3:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... /README.md

/Mogens

FYI. ssh.txt also works.

That was done because so many people had file extensions set to 'not shown' in Windows File Explorer and did not realise the file they had created was ssh.txt.

[313Alf]

When I set up my Pi4b recently I created the blank SSH file then ran raspi-config to enable SSH so I could use PuTTY:

Code: Select all

sudo raspi-config

5. Interfacing Options, P2. SSH, Enable SSH server.
I did use monitor, keyboard and mouse plugged into the Pi to do this on Buster, so not sure if you can do the same. I'm waiting for adapters to arrive so I can try my first Pi Zero setup soon.

[rpdom]

I’m not sure that I was configuring my Pi correctly, and I just don’t know how to configure the network.
I must confess that my Zero is the first Raspberry Pi I’ve ever had.

On most of my Zeroes I use a USB ethernet interface and just connect them to my router the same as I do for any other computer.

[NeoGirl101]

I’ll have to look into using the router! I was trying to do this headless, but at this point I don’t have to. And thankfully, I do have a router.

Thank you for giving me more things to try!