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Introduction This guide provides a step-by-step process for setting up a Raspberry Pi 4 as a headless server, meaning it will operate without a connected monitor, keyboard, or mouse. Prerequisites Raspberry Pi 4 Model B MicroSD card (16GB or larger recommended) Power supply for Raspberry Pi 4 Computer with an SD card reader Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi network credentials SSH client on your computer (e.g., PuTTY for Windows, Terminal for macOS/Linux) Step 1: Download Raspberry Pi OS Lite Go to the official Raspberry Pi website: https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/operating-systems/ Download the “Raspberry Pi OS Lite” image. This version doesn’t include a desktop environment, which is ideal for a server. Step 2: Flash the OS Image to the MicroSD Card Download and install the Raspberry Pi Imager: https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/ Insert the MicroSD card into your computer’s SD card reader. Open the Raspberry Pi Imager. Click “CHOOSE OS” and select the downloaded Raspberry Pi OS Lite image file (.img or .zip). Click “CHOOSE STORAGE” and select your MicroSD card. Warning: This will erase all data on the card. Click “WRITE” and wait for the process to complete. Step 3: Enable SSH for Headless Setup Once the flashing is complete, do not eject the MicroSD card yet. Open the file explorer and navigate to the boot partition of the MicroSD card (it should be labeled “boot” or similar). Create an empty file named ssh (no file extension) in the root directory of this boot partition. This enables the SSH server on the first boot. Step 4: Configure Wi-Fi (Optional, if not using Ethernet) If you plan to use Wi-Fi, create another file named wpa_supplicant.conf in the root directory of the boot partition. ...