OctoPrint

The no fluff super simplified version of how I installed OctoPrint on a Pi 3B running Raspbian (Debian 12 Bookworm)

Raspberry Pi Imager is used to flash the SD card with PiOS lite as we don’t need a desktop environment, make sure to setup the network settings unless a LAN cable will be used and enable SSH.

Using the terminal of your choice ssh into the pi

Installation

Python3 should be pre-installed with Raspbian check that with:

python --version

It is recommended to install octoprint within a virtual environment to prevent possible conflics or something:

cd ~
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3 python3-pip python3-dev python3-setuptools python3-venv git libyaml-dev build-essential libffi-dev libssl-dev
mkdir OctoPrint && cd OctoPrint
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

Once installed and within the virtual environment use pip to install OctoPrint:

pip install --upgrade pip wheel
pip install octoprint

To exit the virtual environment enter type deactivate.

Add the user ‘pi’ (change this to whatever your username on the pi is) to tty and dialout group so the serial port (also maybe usb) works:

sudo usermod -a -G tty pi
sudo usermod -a -G dialout pi

Time to test if the install worked:

~/OctoPrint/venv/bin/octoprint serve

This will host a website at http://<pi's ip:5000> but it is no good to have to ssh into the pi each time it boots to run this command.

Automatic start up

Use the text editor of your choice to create the file /etc/systemd/system/octoprint.service and place the following making sure to note that your username may not be pi

[Unit]
Description=The snappy web interface for your 3D printer
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Environment="LC_ALL=C.UTF-8"
Environment="LANG=C.UTF-8"
Type=exec
User=pi
ExecStart=/home/pi/OctoPrint/venv/bin/octoprint serve

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Make this service run on boot by enabling it

sudo systemctl enable octoprint.service

This serice can now be started/stopped by using

sudo serice octoprint {start|stop|restart}

Restart/Shutdown in OctoPrint’s web interface

In the UI, under Settings > Server > Commands, configure the following commands:

• Restart OctoPrint: sudo service octoprint restart
• Restart system: sudo shutdown -r now
• Shutdown system: sudo shutdown -h now