By The latest Raspberry Pi OS was released on Independency Day, July 4th with a lot of great improvements.
One of the most notable changes in this release is the ability to select the Wayland compositor. Wayfire is no longer the only compositor you can select, but you can also use Labwc, X.Org and Openbox. These are definitively some welcome options.
You can download the latest image from here, or you can upgrade if you already have Raspbian OS installed, using the following command:
sudo apt update && sudo apt -y full-upgrade
UI and Customization Enhancements
Desktop Customization: There are several improvements to the way you can customize the desktop using the panel and the PCManFM file manager
Labwc Wayland Compositor: This window-stacking compositor is now installed by default as an alternative to Wayfire. Users can enable it via the raspi-config utility, which also includes theme settings and configuration support
System and Utility Improvements:
- Wayfire Compositor: Updates to fix crashes and touchscreen bugs.
- Keyboard and PCIe Configuration: New options in raspi-config for setting keyboard layouts and adjusting PCIe speeds.
- NetworkManager: The new NetworkManager was added but is not yet the default. This tool makes managing Wi-Fi connections and VPNs easier.
Hardware Support
- Touchscreens: New support for touchscreens and the inclusion of systemd-inhibit for hardware power key overrides on the Raspberry Pi 5 which is great because everyone wanted the power key, but some want the system to behaver differently
- Improved Camera and Networking: An updated Python camera interface (Picamera2) and new networking tools makes it easier to setup a Raspberry Pi as a wireless access point, which is very useful because that’s one of the most popular uses of Raspberry Pi’s like the Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless and 2W
Security and Performance:
- Swapfile Size: The swap file size has been increased for better performance. This is important for Raspberry Pi’s like the RPI Zero 2W that only have 512MB of RAM. The original small 100MB of swap size would cause issues and typically would need to be increased manually (which some developers forgot to do since you wouldn’t see this issue until later)
- Security Fixes: Various patches to address potential vulnerabilities. We’re still looking to see if anything important got fixed
Browser and Software Updates:
- Browsers: Chromium has been updated to version 125.0.6422.133, and Firefox to version 126.0. Not a huge change but always good to keep browsers updated for security reasons.
You can see the release notes below:
* pipanel - allow customisation of more than 2 desktops * pipanel - add customisation for labwc * gui-pkinst - add whitelist to restrict installation to specified packages only * pixflat-theme - add theme settings for labwc * pishutdown - revert to original use of pkill to close desktop * piclone - fix for potential buffer overflow vulnerability (that would never have actually happened) * lp-connection-editor - fix dialog icons on taskbar * rp-prefapps - add Raspberry Pi Connect; remove SmartSim * piwiz - add page to enable / disable Raspberry Pi Connect * wf-panel-pi - constrain main menu to fit on small screens * wf-panel-pi - fix dialog icons on taskbar * wf-panel-pi - fix keyboard handling and icon highlighting for taskbar buttons * raspberrypi-ui-mods - add configuration for labwc * raspberrypi-ui-mods - add support for new touchscreens * raspberrypi-ui-mods - systemd-inhibit used to override hardware power key on Pi 5 * rc-gui - add configuration of alternate keyboard layout * rc-gui - add switching for Raspberry Pi Connect * arandr - add brightness control for DSI displays * arandr - more reliable method to detect virtual displays * raspi-config - add setting of keyboard options * raspi-config - add setting of PCIe speed * raspi-config - add switching for Raspberry Pi Connect * wayvnc - better handling for virtual displays * wayvnc - improved encryption support * GTK-3 - add keyboard shortcuts in combo boxes * pcmanfm - allow customisation of more than 2 desktops * pcmanfm - fix bug causing crash and inconsistent behaviour on certain drag and drop operations * raspberrypi-sys-mods - add udev rule to allow backlight change * raspberrypi-sys-mods - increase swapfile size * raspberrypi-sys-mods - remove symlinks from paths in initramfs scripts * wayfire - fix for crash when opening multiple Xwayland windows * wayfire - fix for touchscreen bug when touching areas without windows * labwc compositor installed as an alternative to wayfire; can be enabled in raspi-config * various small bug fixes and tweaks * Chromium updated to 125.0.6422.133 * Firefox updated to 126.0 * Raspberry Pi firmware 3590de0c181d433af368a95f15bc480bdaff8b47 * Linux kernel 6.6.31 - c1432b4bae5b6582f4d32ba381459f33c34d1424