What’s New for the Raspberry Pi?

July 4th 2021 - 22.04

• Refreshed images based on Ubuntu MATE 22.04.
• Enabled 1GiB zswap (using lz4) by default.
• Enabled the VC4/V3D Full KMS driver by default. (See Known issues below)
• Enabled window manager compositor by default.
• Drop /usr/local/sbin/adduser.local helper.
• Optimise image size.

Known issues

• The Pi 2 and Pi 3 will boot to a black screen with the 32-bit ARM (armhf) build 😭
  • Simply change dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d to dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d in config.txt to remedy the issue.
  • 22.04.1 is due in August 2022 and this issue will be fixed in those refreshed images.

    6 November 2021 - 21.10

• Refreshed images based on Ubuntu MATE 21.10.

30 October 2020 - 20.04.1 & 20.10

• Ubuntu MATE 20.10 is capable of USB boot.
• Compute Module 4 support.
• The gpio, i2c, input and spi groups are pre-created.
  • The user created using the first-boot wizard is automatically added to the groups above.
• cloud-init is completely removed; file system expansion is handled by cloud-initramfs-growroot and the x-systemd.growfs mount option.
• Snaps are initialized while the first-boot setup wizard runs.
• Plymouth splash screen is displayed correctly during first-boot.
• Serial console is disabled by default.
• gpu_mem configured for 128MB by default.
• hdmi_drive now defaults to DVI mode.

13 August 2020 - 20.04.1 Beta 2

• Re-based on Ubuntu MATE 20.04.1.
• Fixed WiFi on first boot during the initial setup wizard.
• Dropped gpu_mem from config.txt as the defaults should be sensible.

12 July 2020 - 20.04 Beta 1

• Re-based on Ubuntu MATE 20.04.
• Added support for Raspberry Pi 4.
• Enabled the VC4/V3D (fkms) driver by default.
• Firefox uses Basic rendering by default.
  • Based on community feedback and our testing the OMTC (OpenGL) compositing video playback is choppy by comparison.
• Added rpi-eeprom.
• USB Booting is work in progress.
• Dropped raspi-config; we have something else in the works…

06 April 2019 - 18.04.2 Beta 2

• Added Raspberry Pi specific applications to the Software Boutique.
  • Minecraft: Pi Edition
  • Steam Link
• Disabled WiFi Power Management.
• openssh-server no longer pre-installed.

24 March 2019 - 18.04.2 Beta 1

• 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.

05 March 2019 - 18.04.2 Alpha 1

• 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.

02 March 2019 - 18.04.2 Alpha 1

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

16 February 2017 - 16.04.2 Release for Raspbery Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3

• Performance optimised.
  • Added automated first boot partition resizing.
  • Optimised partition offset calculations
  • Optimised filesystem features.
  • Disabled unnecessary services to reduce CPU cycles and RAM requirements.
• Forked and adapted raspi-config to Ubuntu.
  • Added pi-top brightness and power-off support.
• Backported MATE Desktop 1.16.1.
• Backported BlueZ 5.41.
• Backported ffmpeg 3.2 including Raspberry Pi hardware acceleration for MMAL decoding and OMX encoding.
• Backported i2c-tools and python-smbus 3.1.2.
• Updated raspberrypi-firmware to 1.20161215-1.
• Updated pi-bluetooth to 0.1.2 including failsafe systemd units.
• Updated gpiozero to 1.3.1. A simple API for controlling devices attached to the GPIO pins.
• Updated omxplayer to 0.3.7-git20160923-dfea8c9.
• Updated nuscratch to 20160915+2.
• Updated picamera to 1.12. Pure Python interface to the Raspberry Pi’s camera module.
• Updated pigpio to 1.130. Library for Raspberry Pi GPIO control.
• Updated python-sense-hat to 2.2.0. Sense HAT python.
• Updated raspberrypi-sys-mods to 20170208, which completely replaces raspberrypi-general-mods
• Updated raspi-gpio to 0.20170105. Dump the state of the BCM270x GPIOs.
• Updated rpi.gpio to 0.6.3-1. Python GPIO module for Raspberry Pi.
• Updated rtimulib to 7.2.1-3. Versatile C++ and Python 9-dof, 10-dof and 11-dof IMU library.
• Updated sonic-pi to 2.10.0.
• Updated xserver-xorg-video-fbturbo to 1.20161111~122359.
• Updated Xorg via the LTS Enablement Stack.
• Added cap1xxx; A python library designed to drive various Microchip CAP1xxx touch ICs.
• Added drumhat; A python library designed to control Drum HAT.
• Added envirophat; A python library designed to control Enviro pHAT.
• Added explorerhat; A python library designed to control the Explorer HAT and pHAT.
• Added microdotphat; A python library designed to control Micro Dot pHAT.
• Added mote; A python library designed to control Mote.
• Added motephat; A python library designed to control Mote pHAT.
• Added pantilthat; A python library designed to control Pan-Tilt HAT.
• Added pianohat; A python library designed to control Piano HAT.
• Added piglow; A python library designed to drive Piglow.
• Added rainbowhat; A python library designed to control Rainbow HAT.
• Added scrollphat; A python library designed to control Scroll pHAT.
• Added sense-emu; A client library for the Raspberry Pi Sense HAT emulator.
• Added sn3218; A python library to help control the SN3218 18-channel PWM LED driver.
• Added st7036; A python library to help control the ST7036 LCD driver.
• Fixed first boot configuration. Ubiquity now prompts to join available WiFi networks.
  • #1572793
• Disabled SSH by default.
  • SSH can be enabled via raspi-config or creating a file named ssh in the /boot partition.
  • sshguard is also automatically enabled when you enable SSH.
• Reduced the image size to 5GB, down from 8GB.

24 April 2016 - 16.04 Final Release for Raspbery Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3

• Added OpemMAX IL hardware accelerated video playback to VLC.
  • To enable hardware accelerated video playback go to Tools -> Preferences -> Video and select OpenMax IL.
• Added MMAL hardware accelerated video playback to ffmpeg.
  • To use hardware accelerated video playback with ffplay you must specify the h264_mmal codec - ffplay -vcodec h264_mmal video.mp4
• Increased the minimum microSDHC card size to 8GB.
• Removed tboplayer.

05 April 2016 - 16.04 Beta 2 for Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3

• Updated to Ubuntu MATE 16.04 including the new Welcome which comes with Raspberry Pi specific features.
• Updated BlueZ 5.37 with patches to support the Raspberry Pi 3 integrated Bluetooth.
  • Ubuntu MATE 16.04 now supports the on-board Raspberry Pi 3 Bluetooth and Wifi.
• Updated to Linux 4.1.19.
• Updated to raspberrypi-firmware 1.20160315-1.
• Updated to omx-player 0.3.7~git20160206~cb91001.
• Updated to wiringpi 2.32.
• Updated to nuscratch 20160115.
• Updated to sonic-pi 2.9.0.
• Migrated configuration tweaks to raspberrypi-general-mods and raspberrypi-sys-mods.
• Experimental hardware accelerated OpenGL can be enabled, if you know how ;-)

27 February 2016 - 15.10.3 for Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3

• Added support for Raspberry Pi 3 integrated Wifi.
• Updated BlueZ 5.35 with patch to support the Raspberry Pi 3 integrated Bluetooth.
  • Support for the integrated Raspberry Pi 3 Bluetooth is not working but we hope to have an update that addresses this soon.

26 February 2016 - 15.10.2 for Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3 (internal testing build)

• Added support for Raspberry Pi 3 Model B.
  • No Raspberry Pi 3 integrated Wifi or Bluetooth support.
• Updated to Linux 4.1.18.
• Updated all packages to the current version in the Ubuntu 15.10 archive.
• Fixed an issue where the SSH host keys were not correctly regenerated on first boot.

21 December 2015 - 15.10.1 for Raspberry Pi 2 Update

• Migrated the build to Ubuntu Pi Flavour Maker project.
• Images are now XZ compressed, to save bandwidth and make them compatible with GNOME Disks.
• Added python-gpiozero and python3-gpizero 1.0.0 as packages.
• Updated Scratch to 20151111.
• Updated to Linux 4.1.15.
• Reverted change to /boot/config.txt so audio is not forced to output over HDMI because this introduced more compatibility issues that it solved.

22 October 2015 - 15.10 for Raspberry Pi 2 Final Release

• Added OMXPlayer GUI.
• Added YouTube Downloader.
• Added fake-hwclock.
• Added python-spidev and python3-spidev.
• Added python-codebug-tether and python3-codebug-tether.
• Added python-codebug-i2c-tether and python3-codebug-i2c-tether.
• Added file system integrity checking on first boot.
• Optimised first run of MATE Menu.
• Optimised LibreOffice icons.
• Reinstated oem-config, which has been patched for the Raspberry Pi 2.
  • Now includes the Ubuntu MATE slideshow.
• Fixed udev rules and groups for accessing spi.
• Fixed Scratch, it now runs via a sudo wrapper.
  • Simliar to how Raspbian does it except only Scratch can be executed with elevated privileges, not everything.
• Removed Compiz.

14 October 2015 - 15.10 for Raspberry Pi 2 Release Candidate

• Fixed framebuffer so it now uses 32-bit colour depth.
• Added Minecraft Pi Edition 0.1.1-4.
• Added Scratch 20150916.
• Added Sonic Pi 2.7.0-1.
• Added essential Python 2.7.x and Python 3.4.x libraries.
• Added raspi-gpio.
• Added python-rpi.gpio and python3-rpi.gpio.
• Added python-serial and python3-serial.
• Added python-picamera and python3-picamera.
• Added python-sense-hat and python3-sense-hat.
• Added python-astropi and python3-astropi.
• Added python-pygame and python3-pygame.
• Added udev rules for gpio, input, i2c, spi, vchiq.
• Added /usr/local/sbin/adduser.local hook to automatically add new users to the adm, gpio, i2c, input, spi and video groups.
• Added openssh-server with first-boot host key regeneration.
• Added graphical a utility to disable/enable the MATE desktop environment for easily creating a headless “server”.
• Updated to Linux 4.1.10.
  • Now using the kernel, firmware and drivers from Raspberry Pi Foundation and includes rpi-update to easily update the kernel and firmware.
• Updated /boot/config.txt so it is now fully documented.
• Updated to raspi-copies-and-fills (high performance memcpy and memset) 0.5-1.
• Updated to xserver-xorg-video-fbturbo (an accelerated x.org driver) 0~git.20151007.f9a6ed7.
• Updated to omx-player 0.3.6~git20150912~d99bd86.
• Updated /boot/config.txt so when HDMI is connected audio is sent over HDMI by default.
• Enabled Plymouth to improve startup and shutdown performance.
• Removed oem-config.

22 April 2015 - 15.04 for Raspberry Pi 2 Final Release

• Enabled Ryan Finnie’s PPA.
  • https://launchpad.net/~fo0bar/+archive/ubuntu/rpi2
  • Many thanks to Ryan for adding Vivid as a build target.
• Changed from cfq to deadline I/O scheduler.
• Added xserver-xorg-video-fbturbo (an accelerated x.org driver) 0~git.20150305.e094e3c-1.15.04.
  • Limited to hardware-accelerated window moving and scrolling.
• Added raspi-copies-and-fills (high performance memcpy and memset) 0.4-1.
• Added oem-config so first boot provides a setup wizard.
• Added rpi2-ubuntu-errata for facilitating post-release updates/migrations.
• Added sym-links to VideoCore utilties in /opt/vc/ for 3rd party script compatibility.
• Added f2fs support to the build script.
  • Pre-built images available for download use ext4 because f2fs file systems can not be resized at present.
• Updated to Linux 3.18.0-20.21.
• Updated to flash-kernel 3.0~rc.4ubuntu54+rpi2.4.
• Updated to omxplayer 0.3.6~git20150402~74aac37.
• Updated to raspberrypi-firmware-nokernel 1.20150402.3ea439c-1.
• Updated to raspberrypi-vc (VideoCore GPU libraries) 1.20150323.7650bcb-1.
• Fixed /etc/network/interfaces so that the Ethernet device is now configurable via Network Manager.
• Removed openssh-server until host key regeneration can be integrated.

22 April 2015 - 15.04 for Raspberry Pi 2 Beta 2

• Enabled systemd as the init system.
• Added raspberrypi-vc (VideoCore GPU libraries) 1.20150301.0de0b20-3.
• Added omxplayer 0.3.6~git20150217~5337be8.
• Added linux-firmware.
• Added openssh-server.

07 March 2015

• Initial Release.