Raspberry Pi has introduced a brand new launch of its Debian-based Linux distribution for its single-board pc vary, Raspberry Pi OS — and whereas it expands Wayland assist to all fashions, it has additionally introduced a couple of launch-date bugs, which can imply customers of older units are higher off delaying an improve for a day or two.
“Immediately we’re releasing a brand new model of Raspberry Pi OS. This model features a important change, albeit one which we hope most individuals received’t even discover,” Raspberry Pi’s Simon Lengthy says of the brand new software program construct. ” For many of this 12 months, now we have been engaged on porting labwc to the Raspberry Pi Desktop. This has very a lot been a collaborative course of with the builders of each labwc and wlroots: each have helped us immensely with their assist as we contribute options and optimizations wanted for our desktop. After a lot optimization for our {hardware}, now we have reached the purpose the place labwc desktops run simply as quick as X on older Raspberry Pi fashions. Immediately, we make the change with our newest desktop picture: Raspberry Pi Desktop now runs Wayland by default throughout all fashions.”
Raspberry Pi is making Wayland the default for all its single-board computer systems, after a change to a brand new compositor. (📷: Raspberry Pi)
The launch of Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm, primarily based on the Debian Linux distribution of the identical title, in 2023 introduced a transfer from the classic however well-established X Window System to its next-generation successor Wayland — however solely on chosen fashions of Raspberry Pi, with older units remaining on X. The brand new launch does away with this distinction, shifting to the labwc compositor to unlock improved efficiency and compatibility and make Wayland accessible to all Raspberry Pi fashions — with these upgrading from earlier releases prompted to make the change from the Wayfire compositor on reboot.
Different enhancements within the new working system embrace an improved touchscreen expertise, with native assist for an auto-hide on-screen keyboard. “This modification comes because of integrating the Squeekboard digital keyboard,” Lengthy explains. “When the system detects a contact show, the digital keyboard robotically shows on the backside of the display screen at any time when it’s doable to enter textual content. The keyboard additionally robotically hides when no textual content entry is feasible.” The Raspberry Pi Join distant management system is now simpler to allow and disable, with a everlasting icon on the taskbar, and multi-monitor configuration has been made extra performant.
The brand new launch features a built-in on-screen keyboard for contact shows. (📷: Raspberry Pi)
These desperate to experiment with the brand new options, although, are suggested that some launch-date bugs have been found — together with clean screens when switching to labwc, keyboard structure switches, and an incapability to make use of the graphical community configuration software from the taskbar. These, Lengthy says, are both being addressed or, relying on while you learn this, have already had fixes launched.
Extra data is offered on the Raspberry Pi weblog; the brand new construct is now accessible to obtain via the Raspberry Pi Imager software and immediately from the corporate’s web site.