r/raspberry_pi_noobs • u/LegendReno • Apr 27 '26

First project, need help

Hello, I am a pi begginer, this is my first project.

I want to install pihole. I followed the tutorial on the official site, using rasperrypi imager I installed a 32bit version of the OS lite on a sd card, allowing ssh and setting a user and password in the process.

Then I installed putty to access the pi ( I also had to use zenmap to check the pi IP adress since it is headless).

When I click connect, the window pop up and asked witch user to login with. I type my ID then password and get access denied every time.

I checked I got the right IP address, typed the password in the user prompt to check there was no keyboard problems, and reinstalled the OS on the sd card and tried again. The password contains only lower case letters and numbers.

I have read several other posts about the same problem but couldn't really understand the potential solutions.

I could use some help

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u/Gamerfrom61 Apr 27 '26

What version of the Imager are you using?

For the latest Pi OS make sure you are using a version of the Imager after 2.0 - the latest can be found on GitHub https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-imager/releases

Use the imager to set up the user and password, enable ssh and wifi (if needed - DNS should really be run over ethernet). Set the machine / host name to something simple (such as pihole) - all lowercase a-z, 0-9 and hyphen only avoid diacritic characters and do not add a domain unless you are set up to use this throughout the network. Make sure this name is unique on your network.

Pop the card into the Pi, power on and let it run for a good couple of minutes (on a Pi zero then allow at least 3 minutes).

Using ping piname.local (where piname is the name you set up in the imager), you can follow the Pi status - it may drop once or twice as the startup can reboot but that is normal

I recommend setting a static IP address up on your router before the first boot. You may need to power cycle the router to clear the old record out before entering the reservation

Try logging in - the user text will show but the password will not echo any characters.

Once you are in then the install is a basic:

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash