The latest update to the Raspberry Pi operating system brings a slew of new desktop enhancements, including text search, network management, and access to the Pi’s camera system. Raspberry Pi OS features also a new text search box to find applications such as File Manager, OS Imager and Image Viewer. It can be accessed by pressing the Raspberry key on the keyboard or the Windows key on other keyboards. The existing menu remains in place.
The Raspberry Pi operating system additionally gets an audio icon for output and another icon for input, as well as a microphone icon that will appear after connecting a USB audio device or Bluetooth. New shortcuts include Ctrl+Alt+B to open the Bluetooth menu, and Ctrl+Alt+W to open the Wi-Fi menu.
This release includes NetworkManager software, popular in other Linux distributions for managing Wi-Fi networks. Until now, Pi OS used dhcpcd to manage connections to Wi-Fi networks. NetworkManager is another option that users should enable against the default dhcpcd. However, it will become the default going forward. Connections are not automatically transferred between the two systems. Users must also reconfigure any network customizations.
A new library
“Why change? Mainly because NetworkManager adds a bunch of extra features that you may find useful. It lets you easily connect to wireless networks with hidden SSIDs. It makes managing VPN connections easier. And it lets you easily set up a Raspberry Pi as a Wi-Fi hotspot,” says Simon Long of Raspberry Pi.
The new image can be downloaded from the Raspberry Pi download page and can also be flashed directly to an SD card using the Raspberry Pi Imager. The Python Picamera2 camera interface, developed in-house and open source, is now included with the operating system. The library is based on the existing libcamera framework, but is easier to use. It replaces the old Picamera library which was deprecated in the Debian Bullseye version of Pi OS.
Raspberry Pi engineer David Plowman explains that the Pi OS platform, in this case, is moving away from Broadcom’s proprietary, closed camera APIs. Raspberry Pi devices, which run on Broadcom silicon, come with a binary blob containing its proprietary code, frustrating some open-source fans.
A slew of new stuff!
This is a beta version of Picamera2 that developers can use with AI frameworks, such as Tensorflow for image analysis and detection. Picamera2 is installed with Qt and OpenGL dependencies. However, these dependencies are not installed with Raspberry Pi OS Lite for less powerful devices, as they struggle with X Windows applications.
Beyond video encoding and recording and drawing overlays, key features according to Raspberry Pi include:
- a command-driven paradigm, meaning you can type Picamera2 commands directly into a Python interpreter, or into your Python scripts;
- preview windows that use OpenGL acceleration for hardware-assisted rendering or DRM/KMS for efficient rendering when X Windows is not running;
- additional support for integrating out-of-the-box Picamera2 widgets into Qt applications;
- a native use of numpy, “which makes it very natural to use with OpenCV, TensorFlow and other Python libraries”.
All source code is available on the Picamera2 GitHub page, or as part of the libcamera project.
Source: ZDNet.com