If you are ssh-ing into your Raspberry Pi, it can be a real pain to find and remember the IP address for the machine. This shortcut makes it easy, because you no longer need to remember!

On the computer you use to ssh into the pi, use: nano ~/.ssh/config to open the config file in your ssh directory. (If you don’t have one of these use touch ~/.ssh/config to create one, and then use nano to edit it.)

Use the following:

Host myPi2
        Hostname 192.168.2.45
        User pi

You can use either the hostname of the Pi or the IP address for the hostname (use: hostname in the terminal of your Pi to find the hostname or PiFinder to find the IP address).

You’ll use whatever username you usually use to log in for User.

You can swap myPi2 with whatever shortcut you’d like to use to ssh in. For the above example, I would use: ssh myPi2 to gain access to the pi, and I would then be prompted for my password.

Questions? Tweet me!

I decided to play around with running C# on a Raspberry Pi for a variety of reasons. First and foremost: I’ve been wanting to branch out into another language for a while. JavaScript is great, and it will always be my true love. But I have been feeling pretty limited lately about what I can accomplish knowing only one language. And I’ve always heard that learning the second language is much easier than learning the first.

But why C#? The honest reason is that C# is really popular around OKC. Lots of companies use it, and in an effort to be competitive, I figured I would pick it up too. Plus I know a lot of people who know C# whom I could ask for help.

But once I selected C#, a problem arose. I use a Mac, and that doesn’t jive with C#. There were some solutions I found including getting Parallels and installing Windows on a VM and writing the C# in my Windows VM. But even typing that sentence just now made my head spin. I was looking for something simple that would allow me to lean on what I already know as much as possible.

Enter: My Raspberry Pi.

I was able to set up my Raspberry Pi to run C# apps without much trouble. This solved a few problems. I’m able to remote into my Pi from my Mac, and I didn’t have to install anything on my Mac. I wasn’t too worried about breaking my Raspberry Pi, because it was only $35. It would be far easier to replace than my Mac, and if anything were corrupted it would likely be as simple as replacing the SD card. Easy-peasy. Also the set up to be able to run C# apps was incredibly easy. I joke around about things taking 5 minutes, but this literally took less than 5 minutes.

** I should note here that this process assumes you are already able to ssh into your Raspberry Pi. Or learn how to set up a pi from scratch. **

1. ssh into your Raspberry Pi using the terminal

Pretty easy: ssh username@pi and then enter your password.

2. Install Mono

Mono is an implementation of the .NET framework that can be installed on Linux. Since the Pi is running a flavor of Linux, this is what we’ll use to run our apps.

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install mono-complete

And that’s all you need!

3. Get a text editor && write your app!

Usually I prefer to use an IDE, but since I was writing a super simple Hello World app, I didn’t think I needed one. I chose nano, but you can use whichever terminal text editor you like. I just liked nano because it comes with bash, which is already on the Pi. Also, a side note: writing your app might take more than 5 minutes. Don’t @ me.

Use this command to create and edit a file: nano yourFileName.cs.

If you aren’t familiar with nano, it can be a little confusing. The thing I always fumble for is saving my work and closing. This is done with cmd-X. You’ll get a prompt to save and get kicked back into the directory the file lives in. If you want to see the contents of a file, you can use: cat yourFileName.cs.

** Remember to use the .cs extension since we’re writing C# apps! **

4. Compile to .exe

This is where Mono comes in.

Use this command: mcs yourFileName.cs

That will create: yourFileName.exe in the same directory. Pretty cool, right?

5. Run it!

To run the program use this command: mono yourFileName.exe. Just make sure you target the .exe and not the .cs file.

Extra credit:

Let’s pretend for a moment that you don’t like writing apps in the terminal. (It’s ok, I don’t either!) There must be a way to write the app in an IDE and then run it, right? You’re in luck!

There are two options. First, you could simply plug your Pi into a monitor and download Visual Studio Code. VS Code is compatible with Linux (at least, according to the VS Code website) and you can write C# with it. This keeps you in the Pi 100% of the time.

However, I was looking for another solution. I’m very comfortable writing code on my Mac and wanted to stay there. Solution: Use VS Code for C# apps, and transfer the files to the Pi via scp. Scp comes included with bash, and is very easy to use.

scp /path/to/your/local/file remoteUser@some_address:/home/remoteUser/Documents

And there you have it! You’re ready to write C# apps and run them on a Raspberry Pi. Happy hacking! Be sure to let me know what cool projects you come up with!

Questions? Tweet me!