Connecting to a network should be as easy as plugging in a cable. The question is, what can we do on the Raspberry Pi after we are connected to the Internet or local network? This is why it is essential to learn about the hardware prerequisites and capabilities of the Raspberry Pi, so that your idea is theoretically possible to accomplish. Also, knowing your hardware will make troubleshooting problems much easier later in the book.

The most common problems are related to power. These problems can cause the Raspberry Pi to restart, or may show up as a rainbow screen during the boot process (if you have an external monitor connected).

This chapter is all about identifying your Raspberry Pi and the peripherals that you are using or may want to use with it. There are three main pieces of information you should know about your Raspberry Pi: Model, PCB Revision, and Revision.

From here on, I will refer to the Raspberry Pi as "Pi" for simplicity.