Raspberry Pi Config Editor

The Raspberry Pi is very easy to install. Insert a SD card, create a image, connect power and everything is running. Everything great? Mostly yes, but if you have to manage special settings, it’s a journey back to the 80s: config files!

Config.txt

The Raspberry is running very well with the normal default settings. With the graphical setup app it has become even easier to set up the Pi. For normal applications, this is usually sufficient.

If you use the Raspi for crafting with other components, such as displays or the camera you need additional drivers or specific settings. This is controlled by the textfile config.txt in the folder /boot. Over time, many options have been added here by the Pi foundation.

Welcome to the 1980s

This file can only be changed with a text editor. Leafpad is still a friendly choice here. Real professionals prefer to use the shell application nano, of course. That's just right for real hobbyists and hackers, but for the rest of us that means: Welcome to the 1980's.

If you use, like I do, several installations and SD cards you have to changed or extended the config.txt.

The config.txt offers a little help. Some possible options are already commented out.

For specific questions, is that no solution: how was again the setting to turn off the camera LED? How do I increase the power of the USB ports? How can I turn off the flash alert icon?

The only help is to google it and hope that you'll not find the solution at the end of an article.

How could it be?

I would like to have a tool in which I can, as in a guided configuration, click through various themed dialog pages and make my settings. If I want to know more about something, there should be a click on the corresponding page on raspberrypi.org.

The tool should work with Microsoft Windows too, because I create SD card images on a Windows PC and want to do the changes directly after creating the SD card.

RPiConfigEdit

So this was the motivation to code my own editor. I chose Lazarus as the programming language. Lazarus supports Windows and Linux with the same code.

For some impressions of my editor, see the following screenshots in the gallery.

Highlights:

• Linux and Windows support
• Optional visual settings or text editor
• Coloring of known and unknown options
• Language German / English switchable

Meanwhile, the editor can already edit many settings visually, but not all. But I'm working on it.

It's best to just try it. It needs no installation, no setup, no internet connection.

You can download it from my blog (https://techpluscode.de/rpiconfigedit-en/) or from my github repository.

Maybe it will help you as much as it does for me and simplifies the installation a little more.

If you want to know more about the development, you can subscribe to my blog. I'll keep you up to date. With the next version you can download the source code too.

But I'm also happy about your ideas or suggestions for improvement.

Have fun with it!