CHIP by Next Thing Co. – Quicker Setup (Headless, without a screen!)

I got my C.H.I.P. computer a little while back, but I found the setup instructions very convoluted, especially for setting it up without plugging it into a screen as I’m used to doing with a Raspberry Pi. So now that I’ve combed through the documentation for entirely too long, I hope I can help others save some time. For simplicity I’m mainly covering use on Windows, as the Linux instructions are actually better documented.

1. If you were a part of the first shipment, you may need to run this Boot Repair Tool to fix the originally shipped firmware.
2. Connect the CHIP to your computer by micro-USB cable (if not already done for the boot repair). The full size USB there might work as well, but I haven’t tried.
3. SSH into the CHIP through the serial connection, as detailed here.
   The Windows instructions using Putty come after the Linux ones. Find your COM port number in the Device Manager, then on Putty connect using:
   
   • Connection type: Serial
   • Serial line: COM[number]
   • Speed: 115200
   • Once it connects, login with:
     • Username: chip
     • Password: chip
     • Alternately, you can log in directly to root with the same password.
4. Now that you’re finally in, connect to Wifi using these instructions. Basically:
   1. Find nearby networks:
      chip@chip:~$ nmcli device wifi list
   2. Connect!
      chip@chip:~$ sudo nmcli device wifi connect '(your wifi network name/SSID)' password '(your wifi password)' ifname wlan0

DONE!

You may want to run a sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade. If, like me, you really don’t have a screen to plug it into, the next step is to get VNC or X11 forwarding set up. Instructions for this will be about the same as any other Linux machine. I followed the instructions for setting this up on Raspberry Pi, here:

1. Install VNC server.
   chip@chip:~$ sudo apt-get install tightvncserver
2. Run it to prompt password setup.
   chip@chip:~$ tightvncserver
   Pay attention to the number it gives the desktop.
   New 'X' desktop is chip:1
3. Find its IP address on your network.
   chip@chip:~$ ip a
   And it will come up with a few devices, but we want the IP under “wlan0”. Something like:
   4: wlan0: [........]
inet 192.168.1.122/24
4. Connect using a VNC viewer from any computer on your network.
   We’ll use the IP address we found, and at the end put the number it gave us when we set up tightvncserver.
   
   And you’re in! No extra monitor required!
5. If you want the VNC server to run automatically on every boot, you’ll need to create the script mentioned at the end of those instructions, here.

And NOW you can finally get to all the fun stuff following the intro steps in the documentation that require GUI usage.

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