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Raspberry Pi Changes

Raspberry Pi
About & Features What's New? Compatibility Check Download Install Guide

What’s New for the Raspberry Pi?

Table of Contents

  • What’s New for the Raspberry Pi?
    • July 4th 2021 - 22.04
      • Known issues
    • 6 November 2021 - 21.10
    • 30 October 2020 - 20.04.1 & 20.10
    • 13 August 2020 - 20.04.1 Beta 2
    • 12 July 2020 - 20.04 Beta 1
    • 06 April 2019 - 18.04.2 Beta 2
    • 24 March 2019 - 18.04.2 Beta 1
    • 05 March 2019 - 18.04.2 Alpha 1
    • 02 March 2019 - 18.04.2 Alpha 1
    • 16 February 2017 - 16.04.2 Release for Raspbery Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3
    • 24 April 2016 - 16.04 Final Release for Raspbery Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3
    • 05 April 2016 - 16.04 Beta 2 for Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3
    • 27 February 2016 - 15.10.3 for Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3
    • 26 February 2016 - 15.10.2 for Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3 (internal testing build)
    • 21 December 2015 - 15.10.1 for Raspberry Pi 2 Update
    • 22 October 2015 - 15.10 for Raspberry Pi 2 Final Release
    • 14 October 2015 - 15.10 for Raspberry Pi 2 Release Candidate
    • 22 April 2015 - 15.04 for Raspberry Pi 2 Final Release
    • 22 April 2015 - 15.04 for Raspberry Pi 2 Beta 2
    • 07 March 2015

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.

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