The Raspberry Pi project developers have published a significant new release of the Raspberry Pi OS distribution on 2023-10-10 (Raspbian), based on the Debian package base. Three builds are prepared for download — a minimal one (435 MB) for server systems, a basic desktop version (1 GB), and a full version with an additional set of applications (2.7 GB). About 35,000 packages are available for installation from the repositories.
Key changes:
- Transition to the Debian 12 package base has been implemented (formerly Debian 11 was used).
- In the builds for Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5, the desktop components have been switched from Openbox to the compositing manager Wayfire, which uses the Wayland protocol. This allows for increased graphics environment performance and includes animated effects when opening and closing windows. The file manager pcmanfm is still used to form the desktop, but it has been adapted to use Wayland. An XWayland layer has been provided for running applications that only support X11. For those not wishing to use Wayland, the raspi-config tool includes an option to revert to the X server with the Openbox window manager. In the future, the Wayland-based environment is planned to be used by default for older Raspberry Pi models as well.
The top panel has been replaced with a new wf-panel-pi panel (a branch of the wf-shell panel developed by the Wayfire project). The design of the new panel is styled after the old lxpanel, and all previously available indicator plugins have been ported to the new environment. A new panel plugin for GPU displaying GPU load graphs has been added. The Power plugin for monitoring power consumption issues, such as low charge voltage or current overload for USB ports, is enabled by default.
- By default, the multimedia server Pipewire is used instead of traditional sound processing. server PulseAudio. PipeWire offers an advanced security model that allows for access management at the level of individual devices and specific streams, simplifying the organization of sound and video forwarding from and to isolated containers. PipeWire can handle any multimedia streams and is capable of mixing and redirecting not only audio streams but also video streams, as well as managing video sources (video capture devices, webcams, or content being output by applications). In case users encounter issues with settings, there is an option to revert to PulseAudio.
- An option to enable NetworkManager for network configuration instead of dhcpcd has been added in raspi-config. With NetworkManager, it is possible to operate in access point mode, connect to hidden wireless networks, and work through VPN.
- Specialized builds of the Firefox browser optimized for Raspberry Pi boards have been offered, supporting Widevine DRM, hardware video decoding for h.264, screen sharing on Wayland systems, and access to cameras connected via the CSI port. Optimizations have been made to enhance performance on older boards.
- Among the older features that are incompatible with Wayland are the settings for overscan and the system tray. The wayvnc has been used as the VNC server, which lags behind the previously used RealVNC in terms of VNC client support but works well with the TigerVNC client. The SenseHAT Emulator, Magnifier (incompatible with Wayfire), BlueJ IDE (incompatible with Wayland), Greenfoot IDE (incompatible with Wayland), and Sonic Pi (incompatible with PipeWire) applications have been removed from the recommended list and the complete build.
- Support for the Raspberry Pi 5 board has been added.
Source: opennet.ru
