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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 running on the Raspberry Pi 3+

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:

More Information

Find out more about Ubuntu MATE for Raspberry Pi Model B 2, 3, and 3+

Read more

Supported Raspberry Pi

  • These images will work on:
  • 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

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.

Download

Run Ubuntu MATE on your Raspberry Pi Model B 2, 3 or 3+ today.

Download

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.

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