Raspberry Pi Zero Headless Setup ssh access over usb cable

Question

I am currently trying to set up my brand new raspberry pi zero using just a usb cable, an sd card, and a computer. I followed this tutorial when trying to connect to the raspberry pi. I downloaded the latest Raspbian image: Raspbian stretch with desktop and etched it onto an sd card, then did everything the tutorial asked up to step 9, which I could not complete. some of the things I did are below:

Append dtoverlay=dwc2 into the config.txt file.

Add modules-load=dwc2,g_ether to the cmdline.txt file in the specified location

Created an empty file titled ssh. I also installed bonjour and PuTTY, however when I try to connect to the pi via ssh on putty by typing in raspberrypi.local in the Host Name(or IP address) text field and opening the connection, the following message comes up:

"Unable to open connection to raspberrypi.local Host does not exist"

image of error message

This is my first time using a raspberry pi, can someone please tell me why this is happening, and how I should fix it so I can connect to the pi and set it up?

Answer 1

I ran into this problem - I found that Windows misidentified my Pi Zero as a COM device - as this article said it might. So check your device manager for a 'USB Ethernet/RNDIS Gadget' - or something similar. If it's not present, here's what I had to do;

Go to this Microsoft Update Catalog, and download 'Acer Incorporated Other hardware - USB Ethernet/RNDIS Gadget' driver (make sure to pick the Windows 7, 8 or later version).

Use Windows Explorer or 7-zip or something similar to open the downloaded file and extract the contents into a folder.

Find your Pi as a COM device in Device Manager - then right-click, select Properties, Driver, Update Driver, Select from installed drivers, let me pick from a list, have disk.

In the file dialog, pick the folder you extracted to earlier, and install the driver. Then disconnect & reconnect your Pi, and it should show up as an ethernet device now.

Answer 2

I had the same problem, try to connect to [email protected] as host name using PuTTY instead of raspberrypi.local (it solved the problem for me).