If you are using an HDMI screen and a USB keyboard, ensure they are plugged in before powering the Pi. You will be able to see the boot process on screen and log in using “ubuntu” as both the password and login ID.
If you are running your device headless, you need to connect to it remotely from your laptop. We are going to do so using the SSH protocol.
Insert the SD card into the Pi and power it up (plug in your power supply). After a minute or so, Ubuntu on your Raspberry Pi will have fully booted and connected to the network.
Connect remotely to your Raspberry Pi
To connect to your Raspberry Pi remotely, you need two things (we’ll help you find them):
- Its IP address on the local network
- An SSH client (SSH is a communication protocol between machines)
Determining the Pi’s IP address
To determine the IP address of your board, open a terminal and run the arp
command:
On Ubuntu and Mac OS:
arp -na | grep -i "b8:27:eb"
If this doesn’t work and you are using the latest Raspberry Pi 4, instead run:
arp -na | grep -i "dc:a6:32"
Information
Depending on your version of Ubuntu, you may need to install the net-tools
package. Install it with sudo apt install net-tools
and try the arp
command again.
On Windows:
arp -a | findstr b8-27-eb
If this doesn’t work and you are using the latest Raspberry Pi 4, instead run:
arp -a | findstr dc-a6-32
This will return an output similar to:
? (xx.xx.xx.x) at b8:27:eb:yy:yy:yy [ether] on wlp2s0
Where the x’s are the IP address of any Raspberry Pi connected to the local network. Note it down.
If the command doesn’t return an IP address, you may need to wait a little longer for your Pi to join the network. If you still can’t see it after a few tries, which can happen with some home or office network configurations, we recommend you use a USB keyboard and HDMI screen to interact with your device.
Using an SSH client
On Ubuntu and Mac OS, an SSH client is already installed. Some versions of Windows 10 also include an SSH client too, but if yours does not or you’re unsure, follow these steps to install one.
Open a terminal and run the following command:
ssh ubuntu@<Raspberry Pi’s IP address>
You will be asked to confirm the connection:
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?
Type “yes” to confirm.
Changing the password
When prompted, use “ubuntu” for the password. (The cursor won’t move when you type the password.) The first thing Ubuntu will do is to ask you to change it to a secure password. Once done, you can reconnect again with the SSH command and the new password.
Success! You are now connected to Ubuntu Server running on your Raspberry Pi.