Raspberry Pi no longer creates and uses pi accounts due to legal requirements

Raspberry Pi OS, the official operating system for single-board computer Raspberry Pi, has long created and used a pi account by default for users to quickly connect. There is such a tradition because there is a default account that allows users to log in directly to the system and configure network connections and software without connecting to a monitor.

Of course, there is no default account and it is not impossible to create other accounts, but the steps will be slightly more troublesome, so the Raspberry Pi has used the default account for a long time. But now the Raspberry Pi cannot continue to use the default account based on legal requirements, some countries or regions have laws that prohibit the use of default credentials for connected devices.

Image: Raspberry Pi Foundation

For a long time, various IoT devices have been scanned and blasted by various hacking tools because they use default accounts and passwords or even hard-coded accounts and passwords. The hardest hit are webcams, most of which used to have default accounts and passwords, and even hard-coded super-admin accounts for maintenance. Based on such security issues, some countries or regions have stipulated that all Internet-connected devices cannot use the default login credentials, and the Raspberry Pi’s approach is illegal.

Because the Raspberry Pi Foundation has decided that subsequent releases of the Raspberry Pi operating system will no longer use the default pi account, the alternative is to create a dedicated account. Now entering the Raspberry Pi system for the first time will automatically log in to the dedicated setup mode, in which the user needs an account and password and other simple configurations before use.