Orange Pi Zero: Install OS and Connect to WiFi / network

Top View of Orange Pi Zero

Orange Pi Zero is an open-source single-board computer that can run Ubuntu, Debian or android. This device uses the AllWinner H2 System on Chip (SoC) with 256/512MB DDR3 SDRAM, has an ethernet port, USB 2.0, 26 GPIO, 13 PIN function interface, OTG port, and WiFi module.

1. Download Image OS

There are so many operating systems that support OPi, you can download them from this site, One of them that we will install is armbian that run Ubuntu server, please download the image OS from this site https://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-zero/

2. Flash the OS Using Etcher

Once the image downloaded, we need to flash the image to SD card. The software that we will use to flash the os is Etcher; you can download it from this link https://etcher.io/

• Make sure that your SD card was plugged in
• Open the Ether then select the image OS
• Make sure that you just selected the correct SD card for flashing
• Click the Flash! button
• After flashing finished. Plug the SD card to OPi

3. Login to Orange Pi Zero

Plugged-in the OPi to PC using micro USB to power it. It will take a few seconds until the OS ready. You can use Putty and login use the serial port.

Putty login use serial port

After you connect to the serial port, you will be asked to creating a new user with password. Once the user and password created, you will log in to the OS. This new user and password is your new root.

Orange Pi Zero login

4. Connect to Network

Connect to the network (internet) is so easy, you can connect using the ethernet port or use WiFi module. Connect to the network using ethernet is easy, you just need to plug the ethernet to OPi and router/switch. If you want to connect using WiFi module you can use these commands below:

Use this command below to show the list of available access point near you

$ nmcli d wifi list

Connect to the SSD (name of an access point) using this command below

$ nmcli d wifi connect my_SSD password <password>

for more information about how to configure the WiFi connection using Ubuntu, you can access the documentation from the official site of ubuntu

Check if you already get an IP address from WiFi by using this command below

$ ifconfig

You will see information about the ethernet and wireless LAN as shown as the picture below

The result of Ubuntu ifconfig command

You can also test the connection by using ping command, for example, ping www.google.com

The results of ping command