Great! The new MoodleBox 4.5.0 image is released. The new version comes with two images ... one image is specially for the "Raspberry Pi Imager" and the other image seems to be the normal version. I download both to see the differences.

First I try the new version for the "Raspberry Pi Imager". I start with the Raspberry Pi Imager app on my iMac. I choose the item "Own image" and then moodlebox-4.5.0-rpi-imager.img.bz2. I choose the microSD card as the target and the copy process begins. No, for my first experiment I set no parameter on the settings page. The copy process is finished. I put the microSD card into the Raspberry Pi and start the boot process.

Using my iPad I connect to the MoodleBox. I get the start page and I can login as user moodlebox. Everything seems to be normal. But there is a difference.

I can't connect with the iPad via ssh because ssh is disabled. And I can't enable the ssh connection from outside the MoodleBox. The only way to do this is to put a monitor and a keyboard directly to the MoodleBox. The MoodleBox is still waiting to get a new user. My new user is "test" and he gets the password "test". In the next step I am logged in. No, I still can't use ssh from the ipad because ssh is still disabled. I must type "sudo raspi-config" to get the Raspberry Pi configuration tool. With the item "Interface Options" I can enable ssh. Now the user "test" can connect from the iPad using the terminal app.

Okay, in my first experiment I must learn that using the Raspberry Pi Imager means to configurate some parameters on the settings page. This should happen in my second experiment.

For my second experiment I take a new microSD card and I do the same first steps as before. But now I set some parameters on the settings page. These parameters will be set to start the Raspberry Pi headless which meens without a monitor and without a keyboard. Yes, the following parameters are working fine. Enable ssh, add the user "moodlebox" with the password "Moodlebox4$", set time zone to Europe/Berlin and the keyboard to german.

The MoodleBox starts fine and I can login via ssh from the iPad. I don't need to use a monitor or a keyboard with the MoodleBox.

My next step is to see the MoodleBox dashboard. Oh, there is set CH as the wifi regulatory country. The MoodleBox could know that I'm sitting in Germany when I setup the german keyboard and the time zone Europe/Berlin ;-)

Yes, it seems to be a safety feature to set my own user with his own password. With this feature it should be a little bit harder to go through the back door to the operating system and into the Moodle database.

For my third experiment I go back to the first microSD card. Remember ... the operating system user is "test" with his very secret password "test". I want to see if I can change this password to a stronger one using the MoodleBox dashboard. I set the MoodleBox password to "test1234".


The MoodleBox dashboard says that everything runs fine. The password should now be "test1234". No, it isn't. It is still "test". Also the main user for the database is not "test" and he hasn't ether the password "test" nor the password "test1234". The main user for the database is "moodlebox" and his password is "Moodlebox4$" as usual.

This means the the dashboard can't set the main user password the the main user is not "moodlebox". And the dashboard should show an error if this happens. If the dashboard should be able to change the main users password then it should also for the main user's name. But also in this case the main user of the database will not be changed.

Okay, there is a fourth experiment. Here I want to see if the second image moodlebox-4.5.0.img.bz2 has all features of the former versions. Great!

Yes, the MoodleBox can be copied without any parameter setting. For beginners this would be the better way to do. Users will find all MoodleBox credentials listed on https://moodlebox.net/en/help/moodlebox-credentials/

The most useful security setting for beginners is to change the Moodle password so students can't hack the Moodle.
The second security setting will be the change of the main user password. But why should we change the main user name?

Nicolas, thanks you very much for the new MoodleBox 4.5.0.