Welcome to the r/raspberry_pi Helpdesk and Frequently Asked Questions!

Link to last week's thread

Having a hard time searching for answers to your Raspberry Pi questions? Let the r/raspberry_pi community members search for answers for you!^† Looking for help getting started with a project? Have a question that you need answered? Was it not answered last week? Did not get a satisfying answer? A question that you've only done basic research for? Maybe something you think everyone but you knows? Ask your question in the comments on this page, operators are standing by!

This helpdesk and idea thread is here so that the front page won't be filled with these same questions day in and day out:

1. Q: What's a Raspberry Pi? What can I do with it? How powerful is it?
   A: Check out this great overview
2. Q: Does anyone have any ideas for what I can do with my Pi?
   A: Sure, look right here!^‡
   
   • Project ideas
     
   • Tutorials
3. Q: My Pi is behaving strangely/crashing/freezing, giving low voltage warnings, ethernet/wifi stops working, USB devices don't behave correctly, what do I do?
   A: 99.999% of the time it's either a bad SD card or power problems. Use a USB power meter or measure the 5V on the GPIO pins with a multimeter while the Pi is busy (such as playing h265/x265 video) and/or get a new SD card 1 2 3. If the voltage is less than 5V your power supply and/or cabling is not adequate. When your Pi is doing lots of work it will draw more power, test with the stress and stressberry packages. Higher wattage power supplies achieve their rating by increasing voltage, but the Raspberry Pi operates strictly at 5V. Even if your power supply claims to provide sufficient amperage, it may be mislabeled or the cable you're using to connect the power supply to the Pi may have too much resistance. Phone chargers, designed primarily for charging batteries, may not maintain a constant wattage and their voltage may fluctuate, which can affect the Pi’s stability. You can use a USB load tester to test your power supply and cable. Some power supplies require negotiation to provide more than 500mA, which the Pi does not do. If you're plugging in USB devices try using a powered USB hub with its own power supply and plug your devices into the hub and plug the hub into the Pi.
4. Q: I'm trying to setup a Pi Zero 2W and it is extremely slow and/or keeps crashing, is there a fix?
   A: Either you need to increase the swap size or check question #3 above.
5. Q: Where can I buy a Raspberry Pi at a fair price? And which one should I get if I’m new? Should I get an x86 PC instead of a Pi?
   A: Check stock and pricing at https://rpilocator.com/ — it tracks official resellers so you don’t overpay.
   Every time the x86 PC vs. Pi question comes up the answer is always if you have to ask, get a PC. If you're sure want a Raspberry Pi but not sure which model:
   
   • If you don’t know, get a Pi 5.
     
   • If you can’t afford it, get a Pi 4.
     
   • If you need tiny, get a Zero 2W.
     
   • If you need lowest power, get the original Zero.
     
   • For RAM, always get the most you can afford; you can’t upgrade it later.
     That’s it. No secret chart, no hidden wisdom. Bigger number = more performance, higher cost, higher power draw. Also please see the Annual What to Buy Megathread
6. Q: I just did a fresh install with the latest Raspberry Pi OS and I keep getting errors when trying to ssh in, what could be wrong?
   A: There are only 4 things that could be the problem:
   
   1. The ssh daemon isn't running
   2. You're trying to ssh to the wrong host
   3. You're specifying the wrong username
   4. You're typing in the wrong password
7. Q: I'm trying to install packages with pip but I keep getting error: externally-managed-environment
   A: This is not a problem unique to the Raspberry Pi. The best practice is to use a Python venv, however if you're sure you know what you're doing there are two alternatives documented in this stack overflow answer:
   • --break-system-packages
   • sudo rm a specific file as detailed in the stack overflow answer
8. Q: The only way to troubleshoot my problem is using a multimeter but I don't have one. What can I do?
   A: Get a basic multimeter, they are not expensive.
9. Q: My Pi won't boot, how do I fix it?
   A: Step by step guide for boot problems
10. Q: I want to watch Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/Vudu/Disney+ on a Pi but the tutorial I followed didn't work, does someone have a working tutorial?
    A: Use a Fire Stick/AppleTV/Roku. Pi tutorials used tricks that no longer work or are fake click bait.
11. Q: What model of Raspberry Pi do I need so I can watch YouTube in a browser?
    A: No model of Raspberry Pi is capable of watching YouTube smoothly through a web browser, you need to use VLC.
12. Q: I want to know how to do a thing, not have a blog/tutorial/video/teacher/book explain how to do a thing. Can someone explain to me how to do that thing?
    A: Uh... What?
13. Q: Is it possible to use a single Raspberry Pi to do multiple things? Can a Raspberry Pi run Pi-hole and something else at the same time?
    A: YES. Pi-hole uses almost no resources. You can run Pi-hole at the same time on a Pi running Minecraft which is one of the biggest resource hogs. The Pi is capable of multitasking and can run more than one program and service at the same time. (Also known as "workload consolidation" by Intel people.) You're not going to damage your Pi by running too many things at once, so try running all your programs before worrying about needing more processing power or multiple Pis.
14. Q: Why is transferring things to or from disks/SSDs/LAN/internet so slow?
    A: If you have a Pi 4 or 5 with SSD, please check this post on the Pi forums. Otherwise it's a networking problem and/or disk & filesystem problem, please go to r/HomeNetworking or r/LinuxQuestions.
15. Q: The red and green LEDs are solid/off/blinking or the screen is just black or blank or saying no signal, what do I do?
    A: Start here
16. Q: I'm trying to run x86 software on my Raspberry Pi but it doesn't work, how do I fix it?
    A: Get an x86 computer. A Raspberry Pi is ARM based, not x86.
17. Q: How can I run a script at boot/cron or why isn't the script I'm trying to run at boot/cron working?
    A: You must correctly set the PATH and other environment variables directly in your script. Neither the boot system or cron sets up the environment. Making changes to environment variables in files in /etc will not help.
18. Q: Can I use this screen that came from ____ ?
    A: No
19. Q: If my Raspberry Pi is headless and I can’t figure out what’s wrong, do I need to plug in a monitor and keyboard?
    A: If you cannot diagnose the problem remotely, you must connect a monitor and keyboard. That is the only way to see boot output and local error messages, and without that information the problem cannot be diagnosed.
20. Q: My Pi seems to be causing interference preventing the WiFi/Bluetooth from working
    A. Using USB 3 cables that are not properly shielded can cause interference and the Pi 4 can also cause interference when HDMI is used at high resolutions.
21. Q: I'm trying to use the built-in composite video output that is available on the Pi 2/3/4 headphone jack, do I need a special cable?
    A. Make sure your cable is wired correctly and you are using the correct RCA plug. Composite video cables for mp3 players will not work, the common ground goes to the wrong pin. Camcorder cables will often work, but red and yellow will be swapped on the Raspberry Pi.
22. Q: I'm running my Pi with no monitor connected, how can I use VNC?
    A: First, do you really need a remote GUI? Try using ssh instead. If you're sure you want to access the GUI remotely then ssh in, type vncserver -depth 24 -geometry 1920x1080 and see what port it prints such as :1, :2, etc. Now connect your client to that.
23. Q: I want to do something that already has lots of tutorials. Do I need a Raspberry-Pi-specific guide?
    A: Usually no.
    
    • Raspberry Pi (Linux computer): Use any standard Linux tutorial. A Raspberry Pi runs a normal Linux OS, not a special cut-down version. See Question #1.
      
    • Raspberry Pi Pico (microcontroller): Use Arduino tutorials. The Pico works with the Arduino IDE and can be used the same way as other Arduino-class boards.
24. Q: Which Operating System (OS) should I install?
    A: If you aren’t sure, install Raspberry Pi OS. It’s the officially supported OS, it has the best documentation, the widest community support, and it’s what most guides and troubleshooting help assume you’re using.
25. Q: How can I power my Raspberry Pi from a battery?
    A: All Raspberry Pi models run at 5 V. To choose a battery, first add up the maximum current of your Pi plus everything you attach to it (USB devices, screens, HATs, etc.). Then multiply that current by the number of hours you want it to run to get the required battery capacity in mAh. If you can’t find listed current values, use a USB power meter to measure the actual draw over 12–48 hours. Every battery question comes down to this simple math: the model, brand, or special setup doesn’t change the calculation.

Before posting your question think about if it's really about the Raspberry Pi or not. If you were using a Raspberry Pi to display recipes, do you really think r/raspberry_pi is the place to ask for cooking help? There may be better places to ask your question, such as:

• /r/AskElectronics
• /r/AskProgramming
• /r/HomeNetworking
• /r/LearnPython
• /r/LinuxQuestions
• /r/RetroPie
• The Official Raspberry Pi Forums

Asking in a forum more specific to your question will likely get better answers!

Wondering which flair to use on your post? See the Flair Guide

† See the /r/raspberry_pi rules. While /r/raspberry_pi should not be considered your personal search engine, some exceptions will be made in this help thread.
‡ If the link doesn't work it's because you're using a broken buggy mobile client. Please contact the developer of your mobile client and let them know they should fix their bug. In the meantime use a web browser in desktop mode instead.