Updated on 3/26/2025
The Raspberry Pi Zero 2W draws current (& power) even when it is off. The following table is from reference [4]:
| Off | Idle | Max | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current | 50 mA | 100 mA | 2.5 A |
| Power | 0.25 W | 0.5W | 15 W |
Thus, we need a 5 volt, 15 Watt power supply.
I found the same 802.11n raido as in the Offical Raspberry Pi tutorial, Host a Wi-Fi hotspot with a Raspberry Pi, on Amazon: Superwang Mini USB Wifi Wireless Adapter N for $5.98.
When I connected this adapter to a Zero 2W, the current increased approximately 100 mA. That is it almost doubled!
The Zero 2W does not support network boot.
The Raspberry Pi Zero was introduced in 2015. However, it was not until 2022-02-02, that the 64-bit version of the Rasp Pi OS came out of beta. It is now fully supported in the imager.
You can also download it at:
https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspios_arm64/images/
When it boots up for the first time, it will prompt you to slect a keyboard (US English) and to create a username and a password. Then, it will reboot into the command line, and prompt you for your username and password.
sudo raspi-config
System Options -> Wireless LAN: Enter SSID and passphrase
System Options -> Hostname: the name you enter should be unique
Interface Options -> SSH -> Enable SSH
Localisation Options -> Locale -> en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
Localisation Options -> Timezone -> US -> Eastern
When you exit raspi-config, it will ask you if you want to reboot. Click ok.
The first thing you need to do is upgrade all packages:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Upgrading the packages may take a while (less than 10 minutes).
If you use vi, then you will probably want to install vim:
sudo apt install vim
Optionally, you can create a ".vimrc" (vim runtime configuration) file in your home directory. Mine is:
set showmode
set number
set shiftwidth=3
set expandtab
set autoindent
set wrap
set linebreak
set mouse=a
filetype plugin indent on
let g:html_indent_inctags="html,head,body,style,p"
syntax on
Set a static ip address:
sudo nmcli con mod
Set a gateway and dns servers:
sudo nmcli con mod
What limits the Zero 2W, is that it only has 500 MB of RAM. Web browsers require more than this. However, you can still accomplish a lot with a Pi Zero 2W. For example, it can easly run Pi-hole with its excellent web server interface. You set up and access Pihole's data through a web browser on a another computer and Pihole serves the web page.
In the past Pihole used the webserver "lightpd" and the scripting language "PHP". Newer versions may have moved on to other web servers and scripting languages [6].
Originally, the Raspberry Pi desktop sued Linux ALSA sound to communicate with audio hardware. Then, they switched to PulseAudio, and with Bookworm (10-11-2023) they switched to PipeWire.
I originally tried PipeAudio. It was inconsistance pairing with bluetooth. It took multiple attempts to get it to pair. This was very frustrationg. However, once paired it did work. Well after after a reboot, I did have reconnect ("bluetoothctl connect).
I installed pipewire and pipewire-audio on a clean lite OS:
sudo apt install pipewire pipewire-audio
Then I connected with bluetoothctl:
bluetoothctl scan on
Wait untill the MAC address of your bluetooth speaker appears, and then:
scan off
Copy the MAC address to the clip board, and issue the command:
pair B7:5C:86:74:58:30 # your mac address
It paired the very first time !
trust B7:5C:86:74:58:30 # your mac address
connect B7:5C:86:74:58:30 # your mac address
Pipewire solved all of my bluetooth problems including reconnecting !
To set the default volume of pipewire:
wpctl set-volume @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@ 0.4
To playback a wave file:
pw-cat --playback path/to/file.wav
sudo apt install bluez bluez-firmware bluez-tools
On the Lite 64-bit OS, bluez and bluez-firmware were already installed.
sudo apt install pulseaudio-module-bluetooth
sudo apt install espeak
Originally, the Raspberry Pi desktop sued Linux ALSA sound to communicate with audio hardware. Then, they switched to PulseAudio, and with Bookworm (10-11-2023) they switched to PipeWire.
wpctl set-volume @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@ 0.4
All of th micro sd card readers/writers that came with my Raspberry Pi kits were USB 2.0; ditto for readers/writer that were bundled with micro SD cards orders. I finally order a ScanDisk USB 3.0 reader/writer from Amazon ($10), and what a difference it made.
| USB 2.0 | USB 3.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi Lite | 5:30 | 1:04 |
| Raspberry Pi Desktop |
The following will give you detailed information about the capibilites of your wireless radios.
iw list