Raspberry Pi OS: Build 2024-07-04 operates gentle version maintenance

The Raspberry Pi project has updated the official Linux operating system Raspberry Pi OS to version 2024-07-04. Minor bug fixes and a few functional enhancements characterize the current version.

The release notes for the current Raspberry Pi OS list, among other things, that the configuration software raspi-config now has settings for Raspberry Pi Connect, as well as rc-gui and piwiz. The remote maintenance option has been added to rp-prefapps, while SmartSim has been removed. It has also received various small bug fixes and tweaks, as well as updated web browser versions of Chrome and Firefox. The firmware is up-to-date, the kernel is supplied in version 6.6.31. Further details can be found in the release notes.

Update for Raspberry Pi OS (Legacy)?

The Raspberry Pi OS (Legacy) based on Debian Bullseye is also available as of 2024-07-04. However, the release notes are extremely sobering: The kernel has been updated to 6.1.21 since the May release last year, and the firmware is also unchanged. However, the changelog apparently omits the installed packages, so there are of course constantly updated libraries, frameworks and other software packages, provided the update is triggered with sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get dist-upgrade.

The updated images can be downloaded from the Raspberry Pi download page. Tools such as the Raspberry Pi Imager can help to get the operating system onto the SD card.

There are numerous Linux distributions available for Raspberry Pis that run on the hardware. Recently, the option to run AlmaLinux, a RHEL replica, was added for the Raspberry Pi 5. The previous update of Raspberry Pi OS was released in mid-March.

(dmk)