Raspberry Pi OS
Introduction
Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian) is a Unix-like operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution for the Raspberry Pi family of compact single-board computers. First developed independently in 2012, it has been produced as the primary operating system for these boards since 2013, distributed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Raspberry Pi OS is highly optimized for the Raspberry Pi with ARM CPUs. It runs on every Raspberry Pi except the Pico microcontroller. Today, is the most popular operating system for the Raspberry Pi.
Raspberry Pi OS was first developed by Mike Thompson and Peter Green as Raspbian, an independent and unofficial port of Debian to the Raspberry Pi. The first build of Raspbian was released on July 15, 2012. The Foundation’s first release of Raspbian, which now referred both to the community project as well as the official operating system, was announced on September 10, 2013.
The first build of Raspberry Pi Desktop was released on June 23, 2017. It was a Debian based version of the OS made to run on x86-based PC’s and Intel-based Macintosh systems.
Bookworm
Raspberry Pi has announced a new release of Raspberry Pi OS the 11 October 2023 based on Debian 12 “Bookworm” upgrading from Debian 11 “Bullseye” which served as the base for the Raspberry Pi operating system since November 2021.
The main change is the switch from the legacy X11 window manager to the more modern Wayland system with WayFire compositor that delivers better performance when drawing windows and improved security since it’s not using a server/client implementation.
Two plugins have been added:
- The “Power” plugin to monitor for power supply problems like low power supply voltage or excess USB current. Enabled by default.
- The “GPU” plugin to show a graph of the load on the Raspberry Pi’s GPU. Not enabled by default.
A lot of softwares was updated: Chromium web browser updated to version 116, VLC media player updated to version 3.0.18, Linux Kernel updated to 6.1.21, Matlab updated to 23.1.0, Mathematica updated to 13.2.1.
The new Raspberry Pi OS comes in 32-bit and 64-bit versions that cover all models of Raspberry Pi.
- Release date: October 10th 2023
- System: 32-bit and 64-bit
- Kernel version: 6.1
- Debian version: 12 (bookworm)
Bullseye
Every two years, Debian Linux, on which Raspberry Pi OS is based, gets a major version upgrade. Debian ‘buster’ has been the basis of Raspberry Pi OS since its release in 2019, and Debian ‘bullseye’ was released in August.
The bullseye version of Raspberry Pi OS was announced on November 8, 2021.
All of the desktop components and applications are now using version 3 of the GTK+ user interface toolkit.
Custom PC magazine, which has recently been made available for free download as PDF files as well as for purchase in print, is now available in the Bookshelf application.
Bullseye – the new version of Raspberry Pi OS
Buster
The official launch date for Debian Buster was July 7, 2019. Only a 32-bit version is available.
The bullseye version of Raspberry Pi OS was announced on June 25, 2019, a couple of weeks ahead.
This version was also still called Raspbian.
Buster – the new version of Raspbian
64-bit version
On May 28, 2020, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced a beta 64-bit version. However, this version was not based on Raspbian. The 64-bit version of Raspberry Pi OS was officially released on February 2, 2022.
The ARMv8-A architecture, which encompasses the 64-bit AArch64 architecture and associated A64 instruction set, was first introduced into the Raspberry Pi line with Raspberry Pi 3 in 2016.
Raspbian to Raspberry Pi OS
The original Pi was using ARMv6 CPU, the Pi 2 was using ARMv7. It could run a Debian “armhf” userland and after a while Debian also added support for the Pi 2 in their kernel, though being an “upstream” kernel some things that are supported in the downstream raspberry pi kernels are not supported. The Pi 3 added 64-bit cores, which (after a bit of kernel development) meant Debian “arm64” could now run on the Pi. Then the Pi 4 came along offering up to 4GB of RAM.
The default Raspbian bullseye operating system image uses a 32-bit LPAE kernel and a 32-bit userland. This allows multiple processes to share all 8GB of memory, subject to the restriction that no single process can use more than 3GB. For most users this isn’t a serious restriction, particularly since every tab in Chromium gets its own process. Sticking with a 32-bit userland has the benefit that the same image will run on every board from a 2011-era alpha board to today’s shiny new 8GB product.
But power users, who want to be able to map all 8GB into the address space of a single process, need a 64-bit userland. There are plenty of options already out there, including Ubuntu and Gentoo.
In April 2020, the 8GB Pi 4 was in alpha testing and Raspberry Pi decided it was finally time to start producing a 64-bit OS image. Because the new 64-bit version was used for an image that did not actually use anything from the Raspbian project, it was decided to rename the OS.
So Raspberry Pi decided to use the term “Raspberry Pi OS” for all their OS images (32-bit for Pi, 64-bit for Pi and 32-bit for PC) based on Debian or Raspbian.
The new official name was annouced the 28th May 2020
64-bit image discussion, and some important caveats
PipeWire for audio
Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm also says farewell to PulseAudio/ALSA sound interface and welcomes the new PipeWire audio sound system which provides better support for audio accompanying video and reduces latency. Bluetooth audio devices are also better managed as PipeWire can remember which ones were in use at power-down and automatically reconnect them at boot. PipeWire also plays better with Wayland’s secure environment than PulseAudio.
NetworkManager
The NetworkManager is now the default network controller for Bookworm. It does everything dhcpcd did, but adds features such as support for hidden wireless networks and virtual private networks (VPN), and the ability to use a Raspberry Pi as a wireless hotspot.
Download
The OS is available via the Raspberry Pi Imager, or you can download an image and write it using your preferred tool.
Download Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm