Tutorial-Raspberry-Pi-cam-gps-andmore.github.io

Guide: Hosting a Simple Markdown Wiki on Your Raspberry Pi

This guide will walk you through setting up a lightweight, file-based wiki on your Raspberry Pi. The wiki runs from a single Python script using the Flask framework, making it very easy to manage.

Part 1: Setup and Dependencies

Open a terminal on your Raspberry Pi and navigate to the directory where pi_wiki.py is located.
Create a virtual environment. This creates a folder named venv that will hold your project’s libraries. You only need to do this once.
```
python3 -m venv venv
```
Activate the virtual environment. You must do this every time you open a new terminal to work on the project.
```
source venv/bin/activate
```
Your prompt will change to show (venv).
Install the required libraries. With the environment active, use pip to install Flask and Markdown. They will be installed inside the venv folder, not globally.
```
pip install Flask markdown
```

Part 2: The Python Script

The script pi_wiki.py has been created for you. It contains everything needed to run the wiki.

How it Works: The script is a small web server. When you access it from a browser, it reads Markdown files (.md) from a folder named wiki_pages, converts them to HTML on-the-fly, and displays them. It also provides a web interface for creating and editing these files.
File-Based: Every page on your wiki is a simple text file in the wiki_pages folder. This makes it incredibly easy to backup or manually edit your content.

Part 3: Running the Wiki

Find Your Pi’s IP Address: You will need this to connect from another computer. Run this command in the terminal:
```
hostname -I
```
Your IP address is the first set of numbers that appears (e.g., 192.168.1.35).
Run the Script:
- Navigate to the directory where pi_wiki.py is saved.
- Activate the environment (if you haven’t already):
```
source venv/bin/activate
```
- Execute the script:
```
python pi_wiki.py
```
Access Your Wiki:
- On another computer on the same network, open a web browser.
- Go to the following address, replacing <your_pi_ip> with the address you found in step 1:
```
http://<your_pi_ip>:8080
```
- You should see the “Welcome to your Pi Wiki!” homepage.

Part 4: Using Your New Wiki

Editing Pages: Click the “Edit this page” link. This will open a text box with the raw Markdown content. Make your changes and click “Save Page”.
Creating New Pages: The easiest way to create a new page is to type its name in the browser’s address bar. For example, to create a page called “Shopping_List”, navigate to:
```
http://<your_pi_ip>:8080/view/Shopping_List
```
Since the page doesn’t exist, you will be taken directly to the edit screen. Write your content, save it, and the page will be created.

Part 5: (Recommended) Run the Wiki as a Service

Running the script from the terminal is fine for testing, but if you want your wiki to always be available (even after a reboot), you should run it as a systemd service.

Create a Service File:
- Use nano to create a new service file.
```
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/pi-wiki.service
```

Paste the following content. You must change the User and the paths to match your setup.

Find your username with whoami.
Find your project’s absolute path with pwd (run this in the same folder as pi_wiki.py).

[Unit]
Description=Pi Wiki Server
After=network.target

[Service]
User=YOUR_USERNAME
WorkingDirectory=/home/YOUR_USERNAME/path/to/your/project
ExecStart=/home/YOUR_USERNAME/path/to/your/project/venv/bin/python /home/YOUR_USERNAME/path/to/your/project/pi_wiki.py
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

CRITICAL: The ExecStart path must point to the python executable inside your venv folder.

Enable and Start the Service:
- Reload the systemd daemon to recognize the new file:
```
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
```
- Enable the service to start automatically on boot:
```
sudo systemctl enable pi-wiki.service
```
- Start the service immediately:
```
sudo systemctl start pi-wiki.service
```

Your wiki is now running as a background service. You can check its status anytime with sudo systemctl status pi-wiki.service.