While enabling SSH, we also enabled VNC. VNC is a tool that enables remote viewing of the Raspberry Pi desktop. Because VNC is already enabled on the Raspberry Pi, download and install VNC viewer (https://www.realvnc.com/download/viewer/). VNC viewer is available for all operating systems:
- Log in is very simple. Just enter the Raspberry Pi's username and password:
- It should take you directly to the Raspberry Pi's desktop.
SSH via USB OTG port
We came across this nifty trick at https://gist.github.com/gbaman/975e2db164b3ca2b51ae11e45e8fd40a. This is helpful when you do not have a USB Wi-Fi adapter and a USB OTG converter. We can connect the Raspberry Pi's USB-OTG port directly to the USB port of a computer (using a micro-USB cable) and access it via SSH. This is enabled due to the fact that the USB OTG port of the Raspberry Pi Zero enumerates as a USB-over-Ethernet device when connected to a computer:
- Once the micro SD card is flashed with the Raspbian Jessie OS, open the SD card's contents and locate the file config.txt.
- At the end of the file, config.txt, add the following line to the file: dtoverlay=dwc2.
- In the file, cmdline.txt, add modules-load=dwc2,g_ether after rootwait. Make sure that each parameter of this file is separated by a single space.
- Save the file and insert the SD card into your Raspberry Pi Zero.
- On a command-line terminal, log in using ssh pi@raspberrypi.local. This should work on Mac/Ubuntu environment. In a Windows environment, Bonjour protocol drivers are necessary (https://support.apple.com/kb/DL999?locale=en_US). In addition, RNDIS Ethernet drivers are also necessary (http://developer.toradex.com/knowledge-base/how-to-install-microsoft-rndis-driver-for-windows-7).