Distributions

Linux users will be very familiar with the fact that there is a wide range of Linux distributions and remixes that are available to download. In the case of the Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi Foundation promotes 3 distributions: Debian "squeeze", Arch Linux ARM, and QtonPi, the latter being an embedded Linux platform. Initially, the Foundation recommended users download the Raspberry Pi Fedora Remix, but due to a number of problems with that remix, the Foundation is currently directing people to use the Debian "squeeze" distribution. All of these distributions have some limitations and glitches, and can be considered bleeding edge.

There is also a number of other distributions that are also worth experimenting with. None of the distributions for the Pi are anywhere near production quality yet. It is for this reason that we recommend you obtain a collection of SD(HC) cards, and try out the distributions for yourself. This, in itself, is a good learning experience, as each of the distributions have their own quirks.

For the purpose of this review, we have tested the Raspberry Pi mainly using Raspbian, an unofficial port of Debian Wheezy armhf. Unlike Debian "squeeze", Raspbian is optimised for floating point operations, which helps to speed up some applications.

Bear in mind that there are no official Raspbian images currently available. Instead, we have been experimenting with the unofficial Raspbian Pisces image. We encountered a few teething problems with this image such as DHCP failing on boot, and sound does not work by default (as the ALSA sound driver is still in testing). Whilst fixing DHCP only requires a simple edit to a file, we have not been able to get sound working in some applications. With the latest kernel and firmware, Raspbian Pisces uses 32MB of the 256MB RAM for the GPU but it is easy to increase the allocation to 64MB or 128MB if needed.

Raspbian does not come with a hardware-accelerated video player, so we have not tested the true capabilities of the GPU. Unsurprisingly, running MPlayer (a popular video player) on Raspbian did not generate good results with video lagging badly. If you want to use a hardware-accelerated video player, we would suggest you try out either OpenELEC or Raspbmc, both XBMC-centric operating systems, or omxplayer, a video player specifically made for the Raspberry Pi's GPU. Using XBMC opens up the ability to play videos including YouTube videos.

All of the distributions are waiting for hardware accelerated drivers for X to be developed. The current X server used by the Pi does not allow EXA acceleration. This has encouraged some users to tunnel applications over SSH. The Raspbian image we are using has an SSH server included, which is launched on boot by default. So, to run applications remotely, you need to find out the IP address used by each machine (using the ifconfig utility). Assuming the IP address of the Pi is 192.168.1.100 and the other machine is 192.168.1.101, and your login name is dave. On the host machine, you would type:

Enter the password for the account

The web browser, Midori, is started on the Raspberry Pi but is displayed remotely on the other machine.

Next Page: Benchmarks

1. Introduction
2. Distributions
3. Benchmarks
4. Software
5. Things to Do with the Raspberry Pi
6. Summary

Last Updated Sunday, June 03 2012 @ 07:42 PM EDT