How to restart Pwnagotchi

Restarting your Pwnagotchi can help resolve issues or apply new configurations. There are a few ways to do this, depending on your situation.

Using SSH to restart Pwnagotchi

The most common way to restart your Pwnagotchi is via SSH.

1. Connect via SSH: Open your terminal and connect to your Pwnagotchi. Replace your_pwnagotchi_ip with your device’s IP address. The default password is raspberry if you haven’t changed it.

ssh pi@your_pwnagotchi_ip

If you didn’t change the default settings and followed the official tutorial, this is the SSH command:

ssh pi@10.0.0.2

2. Restart the service: Once connected, you can restart the Pwnagotchi service using systemctl. This is the recommended way as it gracefully stops and starts the service.

sudo systemctl restart pwnagotchi

3. Check if Pwnagotchi is running

sudo systemctl status pwnagotchi

Using pwnkill to Stop and Start

If you want to explicitly stop and then start the Pwnagotchi service, you can use pwnkill. This command is often used for debugging or ensuring a clean restart.

1. Connect via SSH: First, connect to your Pwnagotchi via SSH as described above.

2. Restart the service:

sudo pwnkill

3. Check if Pwnagotchi is running

sudo systemctl status pwnagotchi

If SSH is not available

If for some reason you cannot access your Pwnagotchi via SSH (e.g., the network is down, or the device is unresponsive), you have a few options:

1. Physical Reboot (Power Cycle)

The simplest method is to unplug the Pwnagotchi from its power source, wait a few seconds, and then plug it back in. This performs a hard reboot. While effective, it should be a last resort as it doesn’t gracefully shut down the system.

2. Connect a Screen and Keyboard

If your Pwnagotchi setup allows, you might be able to connect a mini HDMI display and a USB keyboard directly to the Raspberry Pi. This will give you a console interface to log in and troubleshoot or restart.

Once you see the login prompt, enter your username and password.

Then, you can use the sudo systemctl restart pwnagotchi command as described above.

Important

Remember to be careful when power cycling your device, as improper shutdowns can sometimes lead to SD card corruption.