Ubuntu MATE 18.04 Beta 1 for Raspberry Pi

We are preparing Ubuntu MATE 18.04 (Bionic Beaver) for the Raspberry Pi. With this Beta pre-release, you can see what we are trying out in preparation for our next (stable) version.

Ubuntu MATE 18.04 Beta 1 is available for Raspberry Pi Model B 2, 3 and 3+, with separate images for armhf (ARMv7 32-bit) and arm64 (ARMv8 64-bit). We have done what we can to optimise the builds for the Raspberry Pi without sacrificing the full desktop environment Ubuntu MATE provides on PC. High-level features of these images are:

• Ubuntu kernel, fully maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel and Security teams.
• Automatic online filesystem expansion.
• Ethernet & WiFi (where available)
• Bluetooth (where available)
• Audio out via 3.5mm analog audio jack or HDMI
• Video out via Composite or HDMI
• GPIO access via GPIO Zero, pigpio and WiringPi.
• Support for Python Wheels for the Raspberry Pi.
• Support for USB Booting.
• Hardware acceleration:
  • fbturbo driver is pre-installed but limited to 2D accelerated window moving/scrolling on Raspberry Pi (using the BCM2835 DMA Controller).
  • VLC has hardware assisted video decoding.
  • ffmpeg has hardware assisted video decoding and encoding.
  • The experimental VC4 driver can be enabled via raspi-config.
  • Please note, the arm64 images do not feature any VideoCore IV hardware acceleration.
• Additional software:
  • A port of raspi-config for Ubuntu is pre-installed.
  • Steam Link is available for install.
  • Minecraft: Pi Edition is available for install.

Supported Raspberry Pi

• These images will work on:
  • Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
  • Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
  • Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (recommended)
• These images kind of work on:
  • Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ (not recommended)
    • Fails to complete the first boot setup due to insufficient memory.
    • If you have completed the setup on another Pi that card can be inserted in a Pi 3 Model A+ and it will work.
    • Due to only having 512MB RAM the arm64 is not recommended. The armhf version can be very tight on resources.

Unsupported Raspberry Pi

• These images will not work on any Raspberry Pi model using an ARMv6 instruction set:
  • Raspberry Pi 1 Model A+
  • Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+
  • Raspberry Pi Zero
  • Raspberry Pi Zero W

Recent Changes

Ubuntu MATE 18.04.2 Beta 1 - March 24th, 2019

• Fixed EGL/GLES/OpenVG libraries for VideoCore IV.
• Fixed Raspberry Pi features in Ubuntu MATE Welcome.
• Added hardware accelerated VLC (armhf only).
• Added hardware accelerated ffmpeg (armhf only).
• Enabled piwheels.
• Reduced boot time, after the initial first boot setup has been completed, by ~3 seconds.
• Uploaded SteamLink (armhf only) to the archive, not pre-installed.
• Uploaded Minecraft Pi Edition (armhf only) to the archive, not pre-installed.
• Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ confirmed working, kind of.

Ubuntu MATE 18.04.2 - March 5th, 2019

• Fixed HDMI audio quality.
• Fixed USB booting.
• Fixed font caches.
• Added pre-seeded snaps.
• Added miscellaneous Raspberry Pi utilities.
• Added EGL/GLES/OpenVG libraries for VideoCore IV.
• Enabled splash screen.
• Improved window manager responsiveness.
• Reduced idle RAM consumption by ~30MB on arm64 and ~10MB on armhf.
• Switched to the CFQ scheduler.

Ubuntu MATE 18.04.2 Alpha 1 - March 2nd, 2019

• Initial Ubuntu MATE 18.04.2 images made available for private testing.

Feedback and Improvements

Thse images are not official Ubuntu products and are community supported by the Ubuntu MATE team. Please post feedback and issues on the dedicated community forum.