and running a desktop operating
system from a microSD card—a
format that is, beside its lack of
speed or, potentially, space, liable
to literally set itself on fire if tested
too hard with this kind of wor k—isn’t
the best idea. USB boot is actually
some way down the firmware
roadmap, sitting somewhere
behind network boot, but we can get
a little clever: By putting just Linux’s
boot partition on the SD card, and
shuffling everything else out to a
USB-connected SSD, we’ll avoidunnecessary wear and reliance on
that microSD.DESKTOPS, DESKTOPS
Which desktop OS should you
choose? The Pi 4 improves on its
predecessors by carrying an ARM
v8, 64-bit processor, and any distro
that can work with that (also known,
in Debian lingo, as arm64, or in
Fedora terms as arm-64) is worth
at least a cursory look. ARM v7
builds should work fine, too. Let’s
look at the main candidates.›› RASPBIAN The obvious option
is Raspbian—it’s the frontline
Linux distro of the Pi, and the only
distro officially supported by the
Raspberry Pi Foundation. It’s built
on top of the Debian architecture,
the same core structure used
by Ubuntu, which means it has a
whole host of available packages,
and it naturally works well with the
specific hardware of the Raspberry
Pi 4. The latest version is Raspbian
Buster, released in September
2019, and new versions tend to
follow a biannual release.›› UBUNTU The big boy of Linux, and
the most hand-holding friendly, too,
is supported on the Pi 4. Sort of. At
press time (we’re saying that a lot,
and for good reason), the arm64
build has a rather painful bug that
means USB ports don’t work on
the 4GB version without a rather
unfriendly kernel-swapping fix, but
older versions built for v7 chips will
work—although, with those, you’re
stuck with 32-bit operations and
limited memory, due to the 32-bit
address space.›› UBUNTU MATE A special
flavor of Ubuntu that uses the
MATE Desktop environment,
Ubuntu MATE has long
been a popular alternate
Raspberry Pi desktop
build—indeed, if you’re
running a Pi 3, it’s the one we
recommend. Right now, though
(and it’s worth checking http://ubuntu-mate.org for any changes),
there’s been no new version
specifically for the Pi 4. When it
does come, we imagine it’ll run
fantastically, with its low-demand
desktop idling at around 490MB.›› MANJARO ARM Moving away
from Debian, Manjaro is based on
Arch Linux, a lightweight distro
apparently dedicated to a “keeping
it simple” philosophy—mileage may
vary with that claim. Manjaro ARM
appears to work well, with versions
available sporting both the LXFE
and LXQt desktop environments,
both of which are familiar and
lightweight enough to give a decent
desktop experience on the Pi 4.›› OTHERS Down the line, we
expect a whole host more desktop
distributions to hit the Pi 4. Fedora
ARM currently seems a little
behind the curve, but we’ve seen
confirmation that the devs are
working toward a build for the new
architecture. Similarly, FreeBSD
(which isn’t technically Linux)
should get a Pi 4 version in time.
The Raspberry Pi has long been
the home of the resurrected RISC
OS, which comes from ARM roots
on the Acorn Archimedes, but a 64-
bit version specifically for the Pi 4
would be a huge surprise—there
has not, thus far, been any 64-bit
release of RISC OS for any platform,
and it would mean a major rewrite
of the code. That said—and this is
true for just about any OS mentioned
here—there’s nothing stopping you
trying a 32-bit version. It is not as©^
UB
UN
TU
- M
AT
E.O
RG
,^ M
AN
JA
RO
.OR
G,^
RIS
CO
SO
PE
N.O
RG
The MATE spin of Ubuntu is currently waiting on an
update—count us excited.Manjaro’s LXFe version has a structure that’ll be
immediately familiar to Windows users.You likely don’t want to r un RISC OS in anger, but it is (or
will be) a neat nostalgic exercise.You’ll need a micro
HDMI cable to hook
up your Pi to a
monitor or TV.The Pi 4 has a huge advantage in
that it can comfortably support
dual screens through its pair of
built-in micro HDMI ports.
maximumpc.com JAN 2020 MAXIMUMPC 37