Raspberry Pi for Secret Agents

Let's break down exactly what's happening here. The sox command accepts an input file and an output file, in that order, together with a myriad of optional parameters. In this case, -t alsa plughw:1 is the input file and -d is the output file. -t alsa plughw:1 means ALSA card number one and -d means default ALSA card, which is the Raspberry Pi sound core. The status line that is continuously updated while sox is running provides many helpful pieces of information, starting from the left-hand side

Type in the following command to install SoX and an add-on for dealing with MP3 files:
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo apt-get install sox libsox-fmt-mp3
Now type in the following command to start what we call a monitoring loop:
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sox -t alsa plughw:1 -d

We can check if ALSA has detected our new audio device and added it to the list of cards using the following command:
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ cat /proc/asound/cards

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ speaker-test -c2 -t wav

amixer cset numid=3 1: Sets the audio out to the 3.5 mm analog jack.
amixer cset numid=3 2: Sets the audio out to the HDMI cable

It's time to make some noise! Let's start up the AlsaMixer to make sure the volume is loud enough for us to hear anything, using the following command:
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ alsamixer

Type in the following command to list the contents of the asound directory:
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ ls -l /proc/asound
The black/white names are files that you can output with cat. The blue ones are directories and the cyan ones are symbolic links, or symlinks , that just point to other files or directories. You might be puzzled by the total 0 output. Usually it'll tell you the number of files in the directory, but because /proc/asound is a special information-only directory where the file sizes are zero; it appears empty to the ls command

Type in the following command to view a list of all connected audio devices that ALSA knows about:
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ cat /proc/asound/cards
The cat command is commonly used to output the contents of text files, and /proc/asound is a directory (or "folder" in the Windows world) where ALSA provides detailed status information about the sound system

The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA), is the underlying framework responsible for making all the sound stuff work on the Pi. ALSA provides kernel drivers for the Pi itself and for most USB gadgets that produce or record sound. The framework also includes code to help programmers make audio applications and a couple of command-line utilities that will prove very useful to us.

Before we can use the script, we need to install Git, a version control system used by the Raspberry Pi firmware developers, with the following command:
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo apt-get install git-core
Notice how easy it is to download and install new software packages from the Internet using apt-get.
Now, whenever you want to check for firmware updates, type sudo rpi-update and reboot once the script says it has updated your system successfully

sudo apt-get update: To fetch information about what packages have been updated.
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade: Proceed to install the updated packages. Answer yes when prompted

Open up a Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities on the Mac).
Type in the following command, but replace [IP address] with the particular IP address of your Pi that we found out previously:
ssh pi@[IP address]
If your network provides a convenient local DNS service, you might be able to type raspberrypi instead of the IP address, try it and see if it works.
The first time you connect to the Pi or any foreign system over SSH, you'll be prompted with a warning and a chance to verify the remote system's RSA key fingerprint before continuing. This is a security feature designed to ensure the authenticity of the remote system. Since we know that our Pi is indeed our Pi, answer yes to continue the connection.
Type the password of the user pi that you chose earlier with Raspi-config.
You're now logged in as the user pi. When you've had enough pranking for the day, type exit to quit your SSH session

The next thing that needs to happen is for the router to assign an IP address to the Pi using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). DHCP is a common service on network equipment that hands out unique IP addresses to all computers that want to join the network

free -h
Displays memory usage information

df / -h
Displays the amount of disk space available on your SD card

sudo su
Become the root user. Just be careful not to erase anything by mistake

sudo shutdown -h now
Prepares the Pi to be powered off. Always type this before pulling the plug!

sudo shutdown -h now
Prepares the Pi to be powered off. Always type this before pulling the plug

sudo reboot
Reboots the Pi.

sudo raspi-config
Starts Raspi-config, which lets you reconfigure your system