Download & Setup OctoPrint
Guy Sheffer maintains “OctoPi”, a Raspbian (and thus Debian) based SD card image for the Raspberry Pi that already includes OctoPrint plus everything you need to run it:
- OctoPrint plus its dependencies
- MJPG-Streamer for live viewing of prints and timelapse video creation, compatible with various USB webcams and the Raspberry Pi camera
Recommended hardware: Raspberry Pi 3B, 3B+, 4B or Zero 2. Expect print artifacts and long loading times with other options, especially when adding a webcam or installing third party plugins. Setups not using recommended hardware are not officially supported.
Please note that the Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W are not recommended explicitly since severe performance issues were observed, caused by the WiFi interface when bandwidth is utilized (e.g. the webcam is streamed), negatively impacting printing quality. See also here. The Zero 2 however is recommended.
Installing OctoPi
OctoPi is available through the Raspberry Pi Imager, which you can use to download and setup OctoPi. You can install it yourself, or alternatively simply buy one of the available
Installing OctoPi using the Raspberry Pi Imager
Read and follow these instructions precisely. Most importantly, leave the system username as “pi”, do not change it to anything else or OctoPrint won’t work!
If you haven’t already, download and install Raspberry Pi Imager on your computer
Find the OctoPi image under “Choose OS”, by selecting “Other Specific Purpose OS” > “3D printing” > “OctoPi” and then the “stable” version.
Open advanced options by clicking on the button with the gear, or by using the keyboard shortcut ctrl + shift + x and then:
Configure your wifi options: Set your SSID, password and WiFi country: 
Change the system password in “Set username and password” by entering a new password to use for the system user “pi”. This is not the password you’ll use for logging into OctoPrint but one that you’ll have to use to log into your Pi via SSH should you ever need to. Leave the username as “pi”, do not change it to anything else! 
Optionally: Change the configured timezone in “Set locale settings”
Optionally: Change the hostname in “Set hostname”
Install the image to your SD card, then plug everything in to your Raspberry Pi and boot it up. Do not format the SD card after installing, even if prompted to do so. This will break the installation and you will have to start over!
Access OctoPrint from your browser via http://octopi.local or the hostname you chose (if your computer supports bonjour) or http:// . https is available too, with a self-signed certificate (which means your browser will warn you about it being invalid — it isn’t, it’s just not recognized by your browser).
Please also refer to OctoPi’s README, especially the “How to use it” section.
Alternative Initial Setup
If you decide against using the Raspberry Pi Imager, here are some alternative steps to get started:
Flash the image to your SD card through whatever alternative means you’ve chosen.
With the SD card still attached to your computer, set up the Wifi connection using the octopi-wpa-supplicant.txt file on the root of the installed card when using it like a thumb drive. Important: Do not use WordPad (Windows) or TextEdit (MacOS X) for this, those editors are known to mangle the file, making configuration fail. Use something like Notepad++, Atom or VSCode instead or at the very least heed the warnings in the file. If your computer doesn’t see the card right away after flashing, try ejecting and inserting it again. Do not format the SD card after installing, even if prompted to do so. This will break the installation and you will have to start over!
Please also refer take a look at the full WiFi setup guide in the FAQ that also includes troubleshooting tips.
Plug everything into your Raspberry Pi and boot it up
Log into your Pi via SSH (it is located at octopi.local if your computer supports bonjour or the IP address assigned by your router), default username is pi , default password is raspberry . Run sudo raspi-config . Once that is open:
- Change the password via “Change User Password”
- Optionally: Change the configured timezone via “Localization Options” > “Timezone”.
- Optionally: Change the hostname via “Network Options” > “Hostname”. Your OctoPi instance will then no longer be reachable under octopi.local but rather the hostname you chose postfixed with .local , so keep that in mind.
You can navigate in the menus using the arrow keys and Enter . To switch to selecting the buttons at the bottom use Tab .
You do not need to expand the filesystem, current versions of OctoPi do this automatically.
You also do not need to manually enable the RaspiCam if you have one, that is already taken care of on the image as well.
Access OctoPrint through http://octopi.local (if your computer supports bonjour) or http:// . https is available too, with a self-signed certificate (which means your browser will warn you about it being invalid — it isn’t, it’s just not recognized by your browser).
Please also refer to OctoPi’s README, especially the “How to use it” section.
Image Downloads
Raspberry Pi Imager will download the latest version of OctoPi for you, but if you want to download the images yourself you can do so here.
Stable OctoPi
OctoPi Release Candidate
The current OctoPi Release Candidate 1.0.0rc2 can be found here:
OctoPi Nightlies
You can also get the 32bit nightlies here or the highly experimental 64bit nightlies here.
Further resources
- For customizing OctoPi, take a look at CustoPiZer.
- Scripts to build the image yourself can be found in OctoPi’s Github repository.
Octo4a
Filip Grzywok maintains “Octo4a”, an Android app that allows you to use an Android based smart phone as an OctoPrint host. Root is not required!
Check out the Octo4a README for information on how to obtain the app, install and run it.
Video
There’s also a video guide on how to get Octo4a up and running by Thomas Sanladerer.
Docker
There’s also an official OctoPrint Docker image, octoprint/octoprint . It is maintained by Brian Vanderbush and team on GitHub.
Please refer to its entry on dockerhub for more details on usage and configuration.
octoprint_deploy & octoprint_install
octoprint_deploy is a guided script for creating multiple OctoPrint instances. This enables control of multiple printers on a single piece of hardware. It is compatible with OctoPi and also functions as a general Linux installer for OctoPrint, video streamers, haproxy, etc.
The related octoprint_install serves as a single instance Linux installer.
Both are maintained by Paul Paukstelis.
Installing manually
The generic setup instructions boil down to
- Installing Python 3, including pip.
- Creating a virtual environment somewhere: python -m venv OctoPrint
- Installing OctoPrint into that virtual environment: OctoPrint/bin/pip install OctoPrint
- OctoPrint may then be started through ./OctoPrint/bin/octoprint serve or with an absolute path /path/to/OctoPrint/bin/octoprint serve
More specific setup instructions for the most common runtime environments can be found below.
Linux
For installing OctoPrint on Linux, please take a look at the setup instructions for Raspbian on the forum. They should be pretty much identical on other Linux distributions.
Windows
For installing the OctoPrint server on a Windows system, please take a look at the setup instructions for Windows on the forum.
For installing the OctoPrint server on a Mac, please take a look at the setup instructions for MacOS on the forum.
Install OctoPi on Raspberry Pi – OctoPrint Install Guide
OctoPrint is an open-source project that adds a lot more functionality for your 3D printing needs. From remote monitoring and better time estimations to gorgeous time-lapses, OctoPrint is the best tool to use in order to improve your 3D printing experience.
In this article, I will show you in detail how to install OctoPi on Raspberry Pi.
Why install OctoPi ?
OctoPi is a distribution of Raspbian maintained by Guy Sheffer with OctoPrint already installed and configured, made specifically for the Raspberry Pi.
The main reason why you would want to install OctoPi is the possibility of adding a webcam in order to remotely monitor your prints. OctoPrint can be integrated with Telegram or Slack allowing for remote communication with your 3D printer without the need of opening firewall ports and exposing OctoPrint to the internet. Besides this, you also get the web controls for your printer allowing you to move the print head along all axes.
With OctoPi you also get access to the terminal allowing custom GCODE commands to be run on the printer. This feature will help a lot with PID Tuning and extruder calibration.
Another good reason to install OctoPi is the possibility of creating time-lapses with your print with the Octolapse plugin.
A complete feature list is available on the OctoPrint website.
Prerequisites
In order to install OctoPi you will need the following:
- Raspberry Pi (Raspberry Pi 3B, 3B+ or 4 is strongly recommended for best performance).
- 16 GB MicroSD card.
- Good power supply for the Pi – Any adapter works if it’s capable of delivering at least 2.5 A of power
- Webcam for monitoring your prints (optional).
Install OctoPi image on SD Card
Download the OctoPi image and unzip the archive.
Open Win32 Disk Imager, load the .img file unzipped in step 1 and select your SD card drive letter. Click on Write to begin installing OctoPi on the SD card. This process will take a few minutes, depending on the speed of your SD card.
After the OctoPi image has been written to the SD card, you can remove the SD card and insert it in your Raspberry Pi
Power On the Raspberry Pi and wait 5 minutes for the operating system to boot and start listening to SSH connections.
Find the IP of your OctoPi install
In order to connect to your OctoPi install, you first need to find your the IP address your Raspberry Pi received from the DHCP server.
Press Windows Key + R at the same time to open Run.
Type cmd.exe then press Enter to open Command Prompt.
In the Command Prompt window, type ping octopi.local -4 and press enter. This will return the IP of your Raspberry Pi.
Connect to OctoPi via SSH
Now that we discovered the IP of our OctoPi install, we can connect to it via SSH to change the root password and apply updates.
Download Putty , enter the IP of your Raspberry Pi then click Open
In the Login prompt, you need to enter the credentials for OctoPi. The default user is pi and the password is raspberry. Please note that the password will not be shown when typing.
If you enter the credentials correctly, the servers’ SSH fingerprint prompt will show up. Click on Yes.
Now you are in the SSH console of your OctoPi install.
Change OctoPi default password and apply updates
Type sudo raspi-config and press Enter.
In the Login prompt, enter the same password used before – raspberry.
Select Change User Password and press Enter.
You will be asked to enter a new password. Press Enter.
Enter your new password twice.
If the new passwords match, you will receive a confirmation for the password change.
Next. select Localisation Options and press Enter.
Select Change Timezone and press Enter.
Chose your Geographic Area and press Enter.
Select your Time zone and press Enter.
Configure OctoPrint
Open a browser and enter the IP of your OctoPi instance then click Next to begin the OctoPrint Setup.
Enter a username and password to secure your OctoPrint instance, click on Keep Access Control Enabled then click Next.
Choose whether to Enable or Disable Anonymous Usage Tracking then click Next.
Click on Test host & port then clock on Enable Connectivity Check, then click Next.
Choose whether to Enable or Disable Blacklist Processing. I recommend enabling this feature. After selecting an option, click Next.
Enter a name and a model for your printer profile, then click Next.
Enter your print volume according to your printer, then click Next.
Click Finish to complete the OctoPrint setup process.
Octopi setup is complete!
That’s it. Now you can connect your printer to the Raspberry Pi, and click Connect. Your printer will be connected to Octoprint and the Temperature graph will show the values read from the printer.
You can also join the 3DPrintBeginner Forum where there’s a dedicated OctoPrint thread.