What distro do you use on your Raspberry Pi?

fox · January 09, 2021, 11:13:14 PM

I hadn't realized how many choices there are for my RPi4. Going to the BerryBoot page, I see a number of light distros, including Raspberry Pi OS, Q4OS, DietPi and RaspArch. Are any of you using a desktop OS on your Pi that is different from Raspberry Pi OS?

ssfc72 · January 10, 2021, 03:23:57 AM

On my RPi 3b, if I recall correctly, I think I briefly ran the Rasbian desktop OS. I believe Rasbian is now called Raspberry Pi OS??
I think it ran quite well, but I didn't spend much time using it. I wound up using the Pi for other things such as LibreElec, MotionEye OS and Volumio.

fox · January 10, 2021, 07:38:35 AM

Don't you have to install a distro to run these things? LibreElec, for example, is a distro set up to run Kodi, I think. There is a version of LibreElec for BerryBoot that I had installed on the Pi 3; it ran pretty well. Unfortunately, there isn't one on the BerryBoot website for the Pi 4. You can get LibreElec for the Pi4 on the LibreElec website, but it has to be adapted in some way to be installed on the BerryBoot booter.

Jason · January 10, 2021, 04:18:50 PM

When I do use it, I just use the Raspberry Pi OS. But I've experimented with RISC OS and LibreELEC just to see what they look like. I noticed just now that they've updated NOOBS with some different OSes: Recalbox, Lakka, Screenly OSE, and TLXOS. I don't think I've heard of any of these before.

ssfc72 · January 11, 2021, 02:55:23 AM

No you don't install a distro. LibreElec, Volumio and MotionEye programs all have the underlying Pi OS included. You just image these programs to the SD card of the RPi and they boot up when you power up the Pi.

Quote from: fox on January 10, 2021, 07:38:35 AM
Don't you have to install a distro to run these things? LibreElec, for example, is a distro set up to run Kodi, I think. There is a version of LibreElec for BerryBoot that I had installed on the Pi 3; it ran pretty well. Unfortunately, there isn't one on the BerryBoot website for the Pi 4. You can get LibreElec for the Pi4 on the LibreElec website, but it has to be adapted in some way to be installed on the BerryBoot booter.

fox · January 11, 2021, 07:47:35 AM

Quote from: ssfc72 on January 11, 2021, 02:55:23 AM
No you don't install a distro. LibreElec, Volumio and MotionEye programs all have the underlying Pi OS included. You just image these programs to the SD card of the RPi and they boot up when you power up the Pi.

Thanks; I didn't know that. But I suspect that the underlying OS is highly modified, probably with a lot of components missing. Otherwise, installing Raspberry Pi OS and adding LibreElec would run the same as an installation of LibreElec. Maybe what they do is install the basic components of RPI OS and none of the irrelevant programs and set it to start in LibreElec?

fox · January 11, 2021, 07:57:50 AM

Incidentally, I just tried a new distro on my RPi 4 - Manjaro. It shows as an option when you install BerryBoot for the first time, so I tried it. Seems to run very smoothly; as well as Raspberry Pi OS. Very attractive. Uses the LXQT desktop, which takes some getting used to. Biggest problem for me is not being used to an Arch-based distro when it comes to finding and installing new software. I know that there is Pacman/AUR for Arch on a computer, but I don't think there are Raspberry Pi versions.

Jason · January 11, 2021, 08:01:07 PM

Quote from: ssfc72 on January 11, 2021, 02:55:23 AM
No you don't install a distro. LibreElec, Volumio and MotionEye programs all have the underlying Pi OS included. You just image these programs to the SD card of the RPi and they boot up when you power up the Pi.

Not be one of those guys, but the Raspberry Pi people call LibreELEC a distribution as well as an OS. The people who make LibreELEC call it a distribution and OS, too. But is it basically just a light OS with Kodi on top (perhaps Raspberry Pi OS for that version) but that pretty much describes any specialized distribution. Maybe you're confusing LibreELEC with Kodi which is a software program that you can install it on any mainstream distribution?

I can't speak to the others. What is Volumio?

Jason · January 11, 2021, 08:02:34 PM

Quote from: fox on January 11, 2021, 07:57:50 AM
I know that there is Pacman/AUR for Arch on a computer, but I don't think there are Raspberry Pi versions.

There should be but it wouldn't be as complete as Majaro's on a PC.

ssfc72 · January 13, 2021, 05:12:31 PM

I finally got around to booting up my new RPi4 with 2G of memory.
I installed the Rasberry OS ( takes up about 8G of the sd card) on the sd card and it seems to run very well, in the small amount of time that i have used it. I am running the Pi4 while posting this message.
i plugged a cheapey usb sound card dongle into the usb port and it works well and I was able to watch a movie on YouTube.

My next test will be to see if I can get Volumio (internet radio) to run on this Pi4.

fox · January 13, 2021, 05:40:30 PM

With BerryBoot, I have mine set up to run from an SSD. The next step for me is to set this up so that it runs without the SD card at all.

fox · January 18, 2021, 08:14:07 AM

Quote from: ssfc72 on January 13, 2021, 05:12:31 PM
....
My next test will be to see if I can get Volumio (internet radio) to run on this Pi4.

Does it run? I think there is a Volumio option in BerryBoot if you want to try that.

fox · January 18, 2021, 08:15:52 AM

I'm surprised that no one has tried Ubuntu 20.10 Mate version. I saw two YouTube videos on it, and it apparently runs very well. I'm not a big fan of the Mate desktop myself, mainly for aesthetic reasons.

ssfc72 · January 18, 2021, 01:43:05 PM

I took the micro SD card (with the Volumio boot) and put it in the RPi 4 and it didn't boot. I am going to do a fresh install of Volumio on the micro SD card and try again.

Quote from: fox on January 18, 2021, 08:14:07 AM
Does it run? I think there is a Volumio option in BerryBoot if you want to try that.

fox · January 18, 2021, 01:58:23 PM

Quote from: ssfc72 on January 18, 2021, 01:43:05 PM
I took the micro SD card (with the Volumio boot) and put it in the RPi 4 and it didn't boot. I am going to do a fresh install of Volumio on the micro SD card and try again.

If it doesn't work, try it in BerryBoot. You just download the BerryBoot installer, copy it to your SD card and when you start it up you have options to add distros. As I recall, Voluminio is under the Appliance tab.