Raspbian

This is the most popular of-the-shelf Linux distro for RasPi.

It might be useful to install Raspbian on a second SD card for comparison.

download

https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

installation

change sdX to your SD card device and adapt the .zip file name and path:

unzip -p 2017-04-10-raspbian-jessie.zip | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=4M iflag=fullblock oflag=direct status=progress

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/linux.md

post-installation

After installation, it is convenient to enable SSH access for network login by creating an empty file named ssh in the root folder of the BOOT partition: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/ssh/ Security advice: Be careful when attaching your RasPi to the internet with SSH enabled. At least: change the default passwords.

first login

Use network login (adapt IPv4 address):

ssh -X pi@192.168.2.119

It's advisable to go through the various configuration options first:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo raspi-config  

For example, you might want to

• extend the filesystem to cover the whole SD card
• change passwords
• extend GPU memory (advanced - memory split)
• update

Further reading:

• build raspbian from sources: https://github.com/RPi-Distro/pi-gen
• http://raspbian.org/