14 DAY TRIAL // RaspEX developer Arne Exton released a new version of his RaspEX Linux operating system for Raspberry Pi devices based on the recently released Ubuntu 18.10 operating system.
What's special about this new RaspEX version is that while it's based on Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish), it uses the older LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) desktop instead of the new LXQt variant, which probably consumes more CPU and RAM on the tiny Raspberry Pi single-board computers.
RaspEX LXDE Build 181022 is powered by the Linux 4.14.76 LTS kernel built for the ARMv8 architecture, which means that it supports the original Raspberry Pi 3 Model B single-board computer, as well as the latest Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ variant. However, you can also use a 32-bit kernel, Linux 4.14.74 LTS.
"I’ve made an extra version of RaspEX LXDE. RaspEX Build 181022 uses a 64-bit kernel – 4.14.76-v8+," writes Arne Exton. "You can very easily switch back to the original 32-bit kernel (4.14.74-v7+) if you don’t find the 64-bit kernel useful. Since the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and B+ only have 1GB RAM it’s perhaps useless to run a 64-bit kernel."
What's new in RaspEX LXDE Build 181022
Being based on the recently released Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish) operating system, all the packages included in RaspEX LXDE Build 181022 are up to date. Noteworthy packages included in this release are Raspotify, a Spotify Connect client for the Raspberry Pi devices, Putty, RealVNC, and Samba.
Wireless and Bluetooth support works out of the box, as expected, however, you have to do some things after installing RaspEX LXDE Build 181022 on your Raspberry Pi computer. First, you'll have to log into the LXDE desktop from the Slim display manager using the "root" username and "root" password.
Additionally, you must execute the "sh resize_rootfs.sh" command in a terminal emulator to be able to use all the space on the SD card. You will also have to run the "dphys-swapfile setup" command to create a 2GB swap file, which needs to be activated with the "dphys-swapfile swapon" command.
Bottom line, using Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish) with the lightweight LXDE desktop environment on your Raspberry Pi 3 computer is easy with the RaspEX LXDE distribution. If you want to give it a try, you can download RaspEX LXDE Build 181022 for free right now through our Linux software portal. Enjoy!