Upgrade to raspbian pixel: how to do it and what's new

One of the biggest purposes of the Raspberry Pi now and in its infancy, is its use as an inexpensive personal computer, especially in the education sector. For years, Raspbian has lived up to this task, but it was clear that it was not up to the visual level of the other great proposals, both proprietary and free. This has recently changed with the arrival of Pixel, the new Raspbian desktop interface that comes to delight our pupils.

Below we will review the new features, what they feel and show how to update and install it.

Raspbian PIXEL features

As the developer responsible for the new graphical interface PIXEL explains, the redesign was intended to bring the user experience to the Windows or Mac level.

We also recommend reading our guides and tutorials:

• Four alternatives to Raspbian and Ubuntu Mate. The best uses for Raspberry Pi. What Raspberry Pi model do I buy?. How to install Recalbox on Raspberry Pi. How to install Retropie on Raspberry Pi.

performance

The name PIXEL comes a bit forced by it, and means " P i I mproved X windows E nvironment, L ightweight" or "XWindows Ecosystem for Pi Improved and Light", being less rigorous. Although the name does not get too wet, it wants to hint that it is not a simple face-lift but a real improvement and optimization of the graphical desktop environment.

The new user interface does seem more fluid and optimized, although it is difficult to obtain objective data to analyze this behavior.

Boot image

Most of the text that appeared on the screen when turning on the Raspberry has been removed, giving way to a welcome image. Yes, you will no longer give that feeling of controlling the black magic of computing (it is not that we paid attention to those letters) but it is a notable difference for the user.

The welcome image code has been tuned and tested to not impact the Raspberry's turn on time. Whether it displays the image or not, the power on time is the same.

Desktop backgrounds

The images available by default to configure as wallpapers have been freely given by one of the collaborators of the foundation that is in charge of the development of the Raspberry. They are really impressive, and using them the user experience itself is much more complete. The 16 default images are in the subdirectory of the root / usr / share / pixel-wallpaper / , and can be changed with the Appearance Settings application.

Icons

The icons have been modified to stay between a tone according to the work while still being fun. They have also been restructured so that they are really fast to see, without showing them crowded.

Until now, yellow and red squares appeared at the top right of the screen when we pressed too hard on our Pi and there was overheating or low voltage. These square symbols that did not offer clear indications have been changed by a thermometer for overheating and a lightning bolt for low voltage, which also appear in such circumstances.

Windows

The design of the windows has changed significantly, since they were one of the elements that cried out for an arrangement.

The edges have been rounded, the upper title bar is cleaner and flatter (previously had that relief reminiscent of iOS before iOS 7) as well as the minimize, maximize and close window icons. The window frame is much thinner, and now the resize and grip area sticks out from the frame, whereas before a wide frame was left to grip from the inside.

Sources, login and shutdown of wireless networks

The fonts retain the font they used until now, but the code that renders them uses a library that shows it much better in various situations.

The screen for user login has been retouched to be in line with the rest of the graphic design.

Now the graphic menu allows you to manage wireless networks from the graphic environment, as well as disconnect from a specific network already configured from there.

Our experience of use

Having used Raspbian for a few projects, I didn't have a completely user-friendly interface for the uninitiated. Similarly, it was not as satisfying for the eyes as other more mature systems are, such as Ubuntu, Windows or MacOS.

Instead, the features that needed the most fix have been seasoned, and the proposal they present at the moment is a great breath of fresh air for users who intend to use the Raspberry as it was conceived, a personal computer.

This was what the Raspbian interface was like before upgrading to PIXEL.

How to install Raspbian Pixel

Update from a previous Raspbian

Some users have configured their Raspbian system to adapt it to their specific work situations. From the raspi-config parameters, the Raspbian BIOS, to programs installed with their configurations or scripts, preparing a new OS to work like this can take time that not every user wants to allow.

WE RECOMMEND YOU Google works on a Pixel with Snapdragon 710 as a processor

Therefore, this user may prefer to install PIXEL from their existing OS, updating the distro. In this case it is highly recommended to make a system image just before updating, to return to it if problems occur. We can do it by following these steps:

• Extract the SD card from the Raspberry and connect it to our computer Open the Win32DiskImager program Press the folder button to show the address of the final file where we want to create the image After choosing the folder, write the name of the image ("Raspbian_previo.img" for example) Press the Read button After waiting, we have already created an OS image as we have it now. At any time we can select it and write to the SD to recover the OS at this point

Once this recovery image is created, it is time to upgrade to Raspbian PIXEL. Let's make sure we have a stable internet connection, as well as a good power supply for the Raspberry, which does not disconnect or lose halfway through the update. This could lead to a fatal problem, which we could remedy by flashing the SD with the image we just created. Below we review the simple upgrade steps:

Open a terminal and enter:

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get dist-upgrade sudo apt-get -y rpi-chromium-mods sudo apt-get -y python-sense-emu python3-sense-emu sudo apt-get -y python-sense-emu -doc realvnc-vnc-viewer

Restart the Raspberry. We can do it by introducing sudo reboot and keep in mind that if you want to change to the RealVNC server and we have xrdp, you have to uninstall it.

After a good while we should have the PIXEL desktop graphics environment working perfectly. Also our previous programs and configurations should remain in force, and it is time to check it. Being in a few days when something goes wrong, when we need it most urgently, can give us a lot of headache.

Directly install Raspbian PIXEL image

The easiest method to enjoy PIXEL is to flash the OS image available on the official download page. We will do it in a similar way as we would in the update, and we also recommend creating a backup of the system that we currently have just in case. To install Raspbian with PIXEL, we must:

• Connect the SD to our computer Open the program Win32DiskImager Press the folder button to show the address of the image file Choose the name of the disk of the SD Press the button Write We have flashed the OS as we want, and it is ready to use

What do you think of the new PIXEL interface? Have you noticed any changes in performance or are you just grateful?