My Raspberry Pi configuration
I've been trying to use a Raspberry Pi as small development machine for personal projects. The overall goal is to spend less time on the computer by creating a distraction free machine with limited capabilities.
I use a Raspberry Pi 4 with 8 gigs or ram and an aluminium heatsink.

After a lot of testing I ended using Dietpi. The install experience is poor but compensated by the large amount of tweaks and software proposed. It's probably better to create your own user experience by installing and tweaking the window manager and file manager that suits you.
But what is amazing with Dietpi is how responsive it is considering it's running on a Raspberry Pi. I installed i3 window manager and thunar and almost everything launches instantly. Even an Electron app like Visual Studio Code is usable as there's no lag when typing (but startup and syntax color can be a bit slow).
I use the 32bit version as the 64bit has bugs.

Dietpi installation guide
This guide is mostly for my own use but feel free to use it.
Basic setup
- If you are on Wifi, edit the
dietpi
anddietpi-wifi
files in the boot folder before inserting the sd card, as dietpi will triggerapt update
andapt upgrade
on launch. - Use
dietpi-config
in the command line and activate the sound in the audio options and bluetooth (if needed) in the advanced options (note that activating bluetooth sometimes returns an error, but it's working). - Configure the language, keyboard and locale.
- Using
dietpi-software
from the command line launches a menu with ready to use software install. TheOptimized software
contains the window managers, theadditional software
contains things likegit
,openssh
,vim
and other tools. - If you want to use i3, install
i3
,i3lock
,i3status
andsuckless-tools
. - By default dietpi launches in the terminal. To launch to the window manager, use
dietpi-config
, go toautostart options
. You'll see a list, goDesktops
and press Enter onLightDM Login Mask
, then select the user (probably dietpi) and exit. The next time you'll reboot you will boot on LightDM and will be able to choose your window manager.
Other programs
thunar
as a file manager.chromium-browser
for browsing- Hardware acceleration following this tutorial
blueman
to manager bluetooth devicesmps-youtube
andyoutube-dl
to play youtube music in the terminal. Theyoutube-dl
package is old, you have to update it using pip3:pip3 install --upgrade youtube-dl
and use your own Youtube V3 Api Key. Set it inside mps-youtube withset api_key KEY
.- By default dietpi has no emoji support or foreign languages like Japanese, you might want to install fonts to support them.
- I use
feh
to randomize wallpapers (it's inside my i3 config file)
Chrome extensions
- Ublock original
- Noscript
- Ninja cookie
- 1PasswordX
- h264ify
i3 config file
My config file is available on github.
Generated: May 28th, 2023