A new Ubuntu MATE image for RP2 has been released

Dec 24, 2015 15:44 GMT  ·  By

A new and refreshed Ubuntu MATE 15.10.1 image has been released for the Raspberry Pi 2 platform, bringing a number of changes and improvements.

The Ubuntu MATE team has been working on a new piece of software called the Ubuntu Pi Flavour Maker, which allows users and other developers to build or adapt OSes to the Raspberry Pi 2 system. It has already registered a lot of success, and the new Ubuntu MATE 15.10.1 image has been built with its help.

In fact, Ubuntu MATE turned out to be a really great choice for the Raspberry Pi 2, and it’s already one of the best distros that have been made available until now for this platform. It’s a full-fledged operating system that is easy to use and has a familiar look.

Ubuntu MATE 15.10.1 for RP2 has arrived

“Martin Wimpress and Rohith Madhavan have made an Ubuntu MATE image for the Raspberry Pi 2 which you can download or build yourself. The image is functional and based on the regular Ubuntu armhf base, not the new Snappy Core, which means that the installation procedure for applications is the same as that for the regular desktop version, ie using apt-get,” reads the official website.

This is basically a respin of the original Ubuntu MATE 15.10 for Raspberry Pi 2, as the version number indicates. There aren’t all that many changes, but we can spot a new Linux kernel and a couple of interesting modifications.

According to the changelog, the build has been migrated to the Ubuntu Pi Flavour Maker project, the Images are now XZ compressed, which makes them compatible with GNOME Disks, python-gpiozero and python3-gpizero have been added, Scratch is now at version 20151111, the Linux kernel is now at version 4.1.15 (Terminator version), and audio is no longer forced over HDMI.

You can download the Ubuntu MATE 15.10.1 Raspberry Pi 2 image from the official website and give it a spin.