Configuring Raspberry Pi for Headless Boot

If a wpa_supplicant.conf file is located in the /boot directory of a freshly flashed Raspbian SD card, it will be copied into /etc/wpa_supplicant when the Pi is booted. This wpa_supplicant.conf file can be created and placed on the SD card using the same system you used to copy the Raspbian image to the SD card, allowing you to boot up a Raspberry Pi for the first time and have it automatically connect to your wifi network.

This wpa_supplicant.conf should look something like this:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US

network={
    ssid="my_wifi_ssid"
    psk="my_password_in_plaintext"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

Of note, ctrl_interface= is required for command-line utilities to communicate with wpa-supplicant. Without this, you're apt to get errors like "Could not connect to wpa_supplicant."

You also have to make sure that SSH is enabled on first boot to actually access your newly minted Pi over wifi. To do this, put an empty file named ssh into the same /boot directory of the SD card. Raspbian will detect this file on boot, enable SSH and remote login, and then delete this file.

From this point, you can use something like Ansible to configure the Raspberry Pi without having to plug in a keyboard, mouse, or monitor. Just be sure to change the default login/password, since anyone who can ssh to the Pi will be able to log in using the pi user account.