The Raspberry Pi Foundation introduced a new version of its Raspberry Pi OS, built for their single-board computers, featuring a new kernel from the Linux 6.6 long-term support series, revised components, and various enhancements.
The upgraded Raspberry Pi OS still comes on the latest Debian GNU/Linux 12 “Bookworm” Operating system. It now runs on Linux 6.6 LTS kernel series, an integral leap from Linux kernel 6.1 LTS used in older releases. Chromium 122 and Mozilla Firefox 123 web browsers are also part of the new package.
The upgraded Raspberry Pi OS now provides better support to the latest Raspberry Pi 5 SBC. This optimization has manifested as improvements in power button handling. Headless resolution settings have been added to the Screen Configuration. However, the Wayland from Raspberry Pi Configuration no longer sets the headless resolution.
This release also improved compatibility with alternative window managers, enhanced the new dark theme introduced in the preceding release. This enhancement ensured a better display of certain widgets. The opening speed of the Bluetooth and Network menus also saw a significant boost.
Furthermore, conventional windows have replaced the popover windows from the taskbar, the shutdown assistant has been updated to terminate all user processes during log out, and the audio icon on the taskbar is now hidden by default in the absence of any connected audio devices.
Besides, the latest Raspberry Pi OS release showcases an alternative mouse cursor during drag-and-drop operations and upgrades the raspi-config utility to enable EEPROM updates.
In conclusion, the WayVNC VNC server underwent an update to enhance compatibility with various VNC clients and to be managed by systemd, and several bugs have been fixed to prevent overlay of multiple file manager confirm dialogs, memory leaks in the Volume and Bluetooth menus, and a window close crash when dealing with non-GTK headerbars.
A bug that prevented the GPU load from being correctly reported in the Task Manager and the plugin was addressed as well, along with an issue where the incorrect files were moved when dragging and dropping them in the file manager, a bug that prevented the Wayfire keyboard layout settings to not load, as well as an issue causing windows from being hidden from the taskbar on other monitors.
A couple of other issues were fixed as well and you can study the full changelog here. Unfortunately, the issue causing wireless networks to not be displayed in the first-run setup wizard on Raspberry Pi 5 is still there, at least for me.
You can download Raspberry Pi OS 2024-03-12 from the official website for all supported Raspberry Pi models. Of course, existing users will be able to update their installations by using the graphical updating utility or by running the sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade commands from a terminal window.
Last updated 8 hours ago