Terminal and Common Commands

Opening Terminal on Desktop Edition

The terminal traces back to the early days of computing when there was no visual desktop, and most computer operations were performed via terminal commands. Even today, we still use terminals in many scenarios and for debugging. Mastering common Linux terminal commands can greatly boost your development efficiency. (The Server edition only displays this terminal after booting.)

Click the third item "Terminal" in the Launch Bar to open the terminal. Browser, File Manager, Terminal

The first thing you see in the terminal is the prompt, waiting for your input. The prompt looks like this:

pi@WalnutPi:~$

pi indicates the username;

WalnutPi after @ indicates the hostname;

~ indicates the current directory;

$ indicates a non-privileged user.

Let's do a simple terminal test. Type ls and press Enter to see the files and folders listed in the current directory (The Server edition's pi directory has no files by default):

ls

Type cd Desktop and press Enter to see the current directory change to Desktop:

cd Desktop

Opening Terminal via Debug Serial Port

Connect to the Walnut Pi's reserved serial terminal header pins using a USB-to-TTL adapter to your computer, then use terminal software like PuTTY to log in:

The debug serial header pins on the Walnut Pi 2B are labeled T, R, G, corresponding to TXD, RXD, and GND respectively.

Note

You can use this feature to observe boot information when the system fails to boot normally. Note that TX and RX are cross-connected. USB TTL adapters with voltage switching must be set to 3.3V.

Check the COM port number in Device Manager:

Open PuTTY:

Enter the COM port number found for your computer, set the baud rate to 115200, then click Open:

You will then see a login prompt. Enter "pi" for both username and password. If nothing appears, try pressing the Enter key. Upon successful login, the Walnut Pi terminal information will appear.

User Switching

The Walnut Pi system has 2 preset users:

• Normal User (Desktop Edition Default) Username: pi Password: pi
• Root Username: root Password: root

Some terminal commands require root privileges. You can execute them using sudo + command in the terminal. To switch directly to the root account in the terminal, use the su command.

Switch to root: Type su in the terminal, press Enter, then enter the password root when prompted at Password: (the password will not be displayed; pay attention to case). Press Enter again to switch to the root user.

su

Switch to a normal user: Type su followed by the username and press Enter. For example, to switch to the pi user:

su pi

Common Linux Commands

#	Command	Full Name	Function
1	ls	list	List files in the current directory
2	pwd	print working directory	Print the current directory
3	cd	change directory	Change directory
4	mkdir	make directory	Create a new directory
5	cat	concatenate	Display or concatenate file contents
6	rm	remove	Delete files
7	rmdir	remove directory	Delete directories
8	mv	move	Move/rename files or directories
9	cp	copy	Copy files or directories
10	echo		Display input content in the terminal
11	date		Read system date and time
12	grep	global search regular expression and print	Search for a pattern and print matching lines
13	man	manual	Display command manual
14	sudo	super user do	Execute with root privileges
15	chmod	change mode	Change file read/write permissions
16	./program		Run the program executable
17	apt	advance package tool	Install/remove software packages
18	exit		Exit
19	reboot		Reboot
20	poweroff		Shutdown