You could use a cross-over ethernet cable - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable

Assuming your RPi is a DCHP Client, then best to run a simple DHCP server on your notebook to assign the RPi an IP address.

You don't need a cross-over cable. You can use a normal network cable since the Raspberry Pi LAN chip is smart enough to reconfigure itself for direct network connections. Cheers

Configure static ip for your laptop and raspberry pi. On the rapberryPI configure it as following.

pi@rpi>sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

Then configure following as required to connect to your laptop.

iface eth0 inet static


address 192.168.1.81


netmask 255.255.255.0


broadcast 192.168.1.255

configure static ip on the raspberry pi:

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

and then add:

iface eth0 inet static
address 169.254.0.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 169.254.0.255

then you can acces your raspberry via ssh

ssh pi@169.254.0.2

It's a solution for Ubuntu (the idea also works for Windows or Mac) I just tried today and it works like a charm.

Material

1. a cross-over Ethernet cable (the name is fancy but it's just a normal Ethernet cable)
2. a laptop (ubuntu)
3. a Raspberry Pi (I have the Pi2)

Prerequisites on your ubuntu

6. Install network-manager

   $sudo apt-get install network-manager

7. Install nmap

   $sudo apt-get install nmap

Edit Wired connection on your laptop (Ubuntu)

8. Change IpV4 settings to "Share to other computers"
9. Save the setting
10. Reboot your laptop

Share WiFi connection of your laptop via Ethernet crossover cable

11. Hook up your RPi with your laptop using the Ethernet cable

12. Look up the broadcast address of the Ethernet connection (Laptop),

$/sbin/ifconfig eth1 | grep "Bcast" | awk -F: '{print $3}' | awk '{print $1}' 10.42.0.255

1. Use this address to find out the IP address of your RPi, it's 10.42.0.96 in my case because 10.42.0.1 is my laptop

   $nmap -n -sP 10.42.0.255/24

  Starting Nmap 6.40 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2016-02-20 23:07 CET
Nmap scan report for 10.42.0.1
Host is up (0.00031s latency).
Nmap scan report for 10.42.0.96
Host is up (0.0023s latency).
Nmap done: 256 IP addresses (2 hosts up) scanned in 2.71 seconds

2. Login to your RPi from your laptop (-Y with X-forwarding)

   $ssh -Y pi@10.42.0.96

3. Lo and behold! Now your RPi is connected to your laptop and RPi can share the WiFi connection.

   pi@raspberrypi ~ $

Share display & keyboard of your laptop with RPi

4. Install vncserver on Raspberry Pi

   $ sudo apt-get update

   $ sudo apt-get install tightvncserver

5. Install vncviewer on your laptop by downloading RealVNC (it supports multiple platforms) http://www.realvnc.com/download/vnc/

6. To be able to copy & paste from VNC server <--> VNC viewer, you need to install autocutsel on your RPi.

$sudo apt-get install autocutsel

If this site doesn't work, try to download the .deb directly from a mirror site, e.g. mirror.hmc.edu/debian/pool/main/a/autocutsel/autocutsel_0.10.0-1_armhf.deb
and install it

$sudo dpkg -i autocutsel_0.10.0-1_armhf.deb

7. Start vncserver on your RPi (You have to restart vncserver after installing autocutsel, you can issue $vncserver -kill :1)

   $vncserver :1

8. Add autocutsel -fork to /home/pi/.vnc/xstartup

 #!/bin/sh
xrdb $HOME/.Xresources xsetroot -solid grey
autocutsel -fork
#x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &
#x-window-manager &
# Fix to make GNOME work
export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1
/etc/X11/Xsession

9. Start vncviewer on your laptop

   $vncviewer

10. A vncviewer window will pop up and type in the IP address of your RPi (given by your laptop) followed by port 1, which is your VNC server. for example: 10.42.0.96:1 in my case.

11. Connect it to the vncserver hosted on your RPi by typing in a password (set up a password yourself)

    12.Now you can see the desktop of RPi on your laptop, and I opened my browser to show the shared WiFi connection is working as well.

See Raspberry Pi desktop on your ubuntu

Here are the instructions for Windows users on connecting to a RPi by using just an Ethernet cable and a DHCP server. There is no need for a cross over cable, as the RPi can handle it. I have a blog post that documents this with pictures here which may be easier to follow.

Downloads

Download the DHCP Server for Windows (download link is here). Unzip the zip file and open the dhcpwiz application, which will configure the DHCP server.

DHCP Server Configuration

Hit next on the first screen.

On the second screen, look for a "Local Area Connection" row and verify its IP address is 0.0.0.0 and its status is enabled. Connect the Ethernet cable from the RPi to your laptop, and turn on the Pi. Hit refresh on this screen until the IP address changes to 169.254.*.*. If it is anything else then you should alter your network settings for the Local Area Connection (make sure it is not a static IP/DNS). Click on this Local Area Connection row and hit next.

Check HTTP (Web Server). This makes it much more easy to locate the RPi's IP address. Hit Next.

Take the defaults and hit Next until you get to the Writing the INI file screen. Check Overwrite existing file and hit the Write INI file button. Then hit Next.

On the final screen, check Run DHCP server immediately and hit `Finish.

DHCP Server and Obtaining the IP Address of your Raspberry PI

This launches the actual DHCP server, using the configuration you just created in the previous wizard. Click the Continue as tray app button, and the DHCP server will be minimized to your system tray.

Anywhere from 1 second to 5 minutes from now you will see an alert on the system tray with your laptop and your RPi's new IP address. This alert is really quick and you will probably miss it. Normally your RPi's IP is 169.254.0.2, but it could be *.01 or even something else. It is easier to access the DHCP server's web UI at http://localhost/dhcpstatus.xml. This will list the hostname as "raspberrypi" with its IP address.

Now you can putty or remote desktop into your RPi, and configure its wireless settings or whatever you want to do.

Trouble shooting

This can be somewhat finicky. I've had my connection appear to drop and have been unable to SSH back in using the IP address. Normally, I can restart the Pi and get the IP address again. Sometimes I have to restart both the RPi and the DHCP server. Sometimes I have to do this multiple times. At one point when I wasn't getting a connection for 15 minutes, I copied all of the files in the dhcpsrv2.5.1 folder to a new folder and tried again; it immediately worked.

Yes, you can connect the raspberry direct to your PC without router. For this is necessary that the raspberry and your computer are on the same subnet, and they both have a static ip configured (And an Ethernet cable connected between the two devices).

An ideal configuration would be the following:

Raspberry on eth0: IP: 192.168.1.10 SubNet: 255.255.255.0

Your PC: IP: 192.168.1.11 SubNet 255.255.255.0

To set a manual IP on raspberry you can follow this guide

In your PC you can set a manual IP in the network adapter settings,and the procedure depends on your operating system.

When you have configured the two static IP, you can connect to the raspberry via SSH using the IP set (192.168.1.10).

Another simpler method is to attach on GPIO a button to turn off the raspberry! Take a look here!

No router + no screen + regular Ethernet cable + RPI 2 + Raspbian Lite 2018-11-13 + Ubuntu 18.10

First we must enable the SSH server on the Pi, which is disabled by default for security.

If you already have a shell on the Pi through a non-SSH method such as screen + keyboard or UART (see below), just run:

sudo systemctl enable ssh
sudo service sshd start

as explained at: https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/58478/ssh-not-working-with-fresh-install This persists across boots.

Otherwise, insert he SD card on your host, and create a magic empty file named ssh file in the boot/ partition.

On Ubuntu hosts, it gets mounted automatically and you can do just:

sudo touch /media/$USER/boot/ssh

which you can confirm with:

lsblk

which contains:

mmcblk0     179:0    0  14.4G  0 disk
├─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0  43.9M  0 part /media/ciro/boot
└─mmcblk0p2 179:2    0  14.4G  0 part /media/ciro/rootfs

If you don't enable the SSHD daemon on the Pi then SSH connection will fail with:

ssh: connect to host 10.42.0.160 port 22: Connection refused

when we try it later on.

After enabling the SSH server

Next, boot the Pi, and link an Ethernet cable from your laptop directly to the Pi:

On Ubuntu 17.04 to work around this bug as mentioned on this answer you first need:

sudo apt-get install dnsmasq-base

On the host, open the network manager:

nm-connection-editor

And go:

1. + sign (Add a new connection)
2. Ethernet
3. Create
4. IPv4 Settings
5. Method: Shared to other computers
6. Set a good name for it
7. Save

Find the IP of the Pi on host:

cat /var/lib/misc/dnsmasq.leases

outputs something like:

1532204957 b8:27:eb:0c:1f:69 10.42.0.160 raspberrypi 01:b8:27:eb:0c:1f:69

10.42.0.160 is the IP, then as usual:

ssh pi@10.42.0.160

I also have the following in my .bashrc:

piip() ( cat /var/lib/misc/dnsmasq.leases | cut -d ' ' -f 3; )
pissh() ( sshpass -p raspberry ssh "pi@$(piip)"; )

From inside the Pi, notice that it can access the internet normally through your host's other interfaces:

ping google.com

For example on my laptop, the Pi takes up the Ethernet, but the host is also connected to the internet through WiFi.

The crossover cable is not required if the host network card supports Auto MDI-X. This is the case for most recent hardware, including for example the 2012 Lenovo T430 I tested with, which has an "Intel® 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection" which documents support for Auto MDI-X.

Now you can also:

• access the Internet from the PI through your Ubuntu's Wifi connection
• open a VNC to get rid of the display as well: https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/14611/how-to-set-up-raspberry-pi-without-a-monitor/54393#54393

UART serial USB converter

This is an alternative to SSH if you just want to get a shell on the Pi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_port

This does not use SSH or networking itself, but rather the older, simpler, more direct, more reliable, lower bandwidth, lower distance serial interface. The Pi won't have access to the Internet with this method.

Desktop computers still have a serial port which you can connect directly wire to wire with the Pi, but these are hidden in most laptops, and so we need to buy a cheap USB adapter. Here I've used a "DSD TECH USB to TTL Serial Converter" https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B072K3Z3TL See also: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/307390/what-is-the-difference-between-ttys0-ttyusb0-and-ttyama0-in-linux/367882#367882

First plug the SD card on the host, and edit the config.txt file present in the first partition to add:

enable_uart=1

as explained at: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=141195

This first partition contains the bootloader, its configuration files and the (Linux / your) kernel, config.txt being one of them. The second partition contains the actual Linux root filesystem.

Now connect your computer to the Pi as:

You only need to attach 3 cables:

• Ground to Ground
• Tx on Pi to Rx on the USB to serial port
• Rx on Pi to Tx on tye USB to serial port

This is also documented at: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/gpio/README.md

Be careful not to link the Ground to the 5V, I've already burned 2 UART to USB chips and a RPI UART by doing that!

You don't need to connect the 5V to the 5V at all. I think you can power your Pi like that, but I've read that this is a bad idea, just use the usual USB power source.

Finally, plug the USB side of the connector to your host computer, and get a shell with:

sudo apt install screen
sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER
screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

Exit with Ctrl-A \.

Here is a video by Adafruit showing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUBPeoLW16Q

See also

Similar question on RPI SE: https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/3867/ssh-to-rpi-without-a-network-connection

I've just implemented and test this successfully. Same situation with my project, want to connect to a Raspberry Pi with no router or wifi. Just a simple ethernet cable.

Using ssh putty program put the address as

raspberrypi.local

Log and in and you can access the terminal.

Alternatively if VNC server is setup, use VNC server and put

raspberrypi.local:1

In the server address. input your VNC server password and you've now got GUI access to do what you want.

In may case it was run scripts in a remote location. In the posters situation, safely shutdown the Pi. Simples Pimples.

What worked for me was a combination of the answers from Nicole Finnie and Ciro Santilli along with some answers from elsewhere.

Setting up the pi

We will need to do two things: activate ssh on the pi, and configure the pi to use a static ip.

Activating ssh

Add a file called ssh in the boot partition of the sd card (not the /boot folder in the root partition). This is well documented other places.

Static ip

Open /etc/dhcpcd.conf on the pi's SD-card, and uncomment the example for a static ip (starts around line 40). Set the addresses to

# Example static IP configuration:
interface eth0
static ip_address=10.42.0.182/24
static routers=10.42.0.1
static domain_name_servers=10.42.0.1 8.8.8.8 fd51:42f8:caae:d92e::1

Setting up your laptop

First, make sure you have networkmanager (with GUI) installed on your laptop. Then, make sure dnsmasq is not running as a service:
systemctl status dnsmasq
If this command prints that the service is stopped, then you're good.

Next we have to config networkmanager. Open /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf and add the following two lines at the top:

[main]
DNS=dnsmasq

Then reboot. This step might not be necessary. It might be sufficient to restart the NetworkManager service. Now go to the NetworkManager GUI (usually accessed by an icon in the corner of the screen) and choose Edit Connections... In the window that pops up, click the + icon to create a new connection. Choose Ethernet as the type and press Create.... Go to the IPv4 Settings tab and select the method Shared to other computers. Give the connection a good name and save.

Connect the Raspberry Pi and make sure your laptop is using your new connection as its ethernet connection. If it is, your pi should now have an ip given to it by your pc. You can find this by first running ifconfig. This should give you several blocks of text, one for each network interface. You're interested in the one that is something like enp0s25 or eth0. It should have a line that reads something similar to
inet 10.42.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 10.42.0.255
look at the broadcast address (in this case 10.42.0.255). If it is different than mine, power off the pi and put the SD card back in your laptop to change the static ip_address to something where the first three numbers are the same as in your broadcast address. Also change the static routers and the first of the domain_name_servers to your laptop's inet address. Power the pi back on and connect it. Run ifconfig again to see that the addresses have not changed.

ssh into the pi

ssh pi@10.42.0.182
If you get connection refused, the pi isn't running an ssh server. If you get host unreachable, I'm sorry.

Hope this helps someone!