Since Debian 13 “Trixie” was released last August, it was just a matter of time until Raspberry Pi OS followed. Raspberry Pi announced the update from Bookworm to Trixie a few days ago.
The new Raspberry Pi OS images get the new and updated packages from Debian 13, and features like 64-bit time support to solve the Y2K38 bug. However, as Simon Long, UX engineer at Raspberry Pi, points out, there have been fewer changes in newer versions of Debian, and most changes in the new version of Pi OS are cosmetic, although there are some interesting under-the-hood changes as well.
The most obvious change from the user’s perspective is the new theme featuring a completely new set of icons, a new font (Nunito Sans Light), new desktop backgrounds (the new default is a photo of the sun rising over the Drakensberg mountains in Lesotho), and some other small tweaks.
They have also consolidated the Raspberry Pi Configuration, Appearance Settings, Mouse and Keyboard Settings, Screen Configuration, and Printer into a single new Control Centre application.
It’s been designed as a lightweight application that loads its functionality from a set of plugin libraries, and users can develop additional plugins. You can check out the source code of existing plugins on GitHub.
The Raspberry Pi OS images are now built using meta packages to make it easier to create custom images. One benefit is that if you have installed Raspberry Pi OS Lite, you can easily upgrade to a desktop image without the Raspberry Pi OS theme as follows:
For Wayland:
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sudo apt install rpd-wayland-core |
For X11:
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sudo apt install rpd-x-core |
If you want to install the new theme and control center:
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sudo apt install rpd-theme rpd-preferences |
Other packages include:
- rpd-applications – For extra applications like Geany editor, Thonny, Firefox, Chromium…
- rpd-utilities – For the contents of the Utilities and Help menus, Raspberry Pi Connect, SD Card Copier, Bookshelf, Text Editor, Image Viewer…
- rpd-developer – Various Python and camera libraries
- rpd-graphics – Command-line graphics and video tools like FFmpeg and GStreamer
- rpd-wayland-extras and rpd-x-extras – For tools specific to Wayland or X environments, such as remote desktop and screenshot utilities.
You can download Raspberry Pi OS Trixie from the usual Download page. You’ll find 32-bit and 64-bit Desktop and Lite versions of the operating system there, or you can simply use Raspberry Pi Imager.
Some may be tempted to upgrade from Bookworm to Trixie, but it’s not recommended, and there is a long list of steps to go through before proceeding. There’s nothing like the do-release-upgrade utility on Ubuntu, which works (most of the time) when upgrading between versions. That’s not ideal if you have made many customizations to your Raspberry Pi OS installation, and you can keep using Bookworm for now if you prefer, since it will be supported for at least two more years (critical updates only).
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Gotta love the Y2K38 “acronym” that actually doesn’t save any characters of Y2038 and looks bad.
I think it’s meant to convey that 2038 is similar to 2000. I was not aware of Y2038. Now I know what it is without looking it up
I remember when it was decades away. Now it’s less than 13 years to go.
That they have no supported migration path just stuns me. Every other OS manages this. Why, RPI?
Especially since Debian itself is easily upgradeable. I’m running on the same install for 9 years now.
Raspberry Pi specifically points to Debian upgrade instructions to tell their users not to upgrade. Users are supposed to run a long bunch of commands before proceeding with the upgrade from one Debian version to the next.
I suppose. Almost everything on that page is CYA, option commands. Debian is very good at overdocumenting for every possibility but most things on that page are not needed, imho, for a normal upgrade.
Since average SD cards can’t cope well with that massive amount of small random writes such an OS update is.
As such for the average Joe (never having heard of Write Amplifications and backups) such an OS update often ends up with a dead SD card and the RPi folks end up with unhappy users whining in their forums. Easy fix: propagate reflashing the SD card which is magnitudes less stress (one huge sequential write with a Write Amplification of 1)