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The upcoming OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 operating system is just around the corner and it will offer full support for the AArch64 architecture with installable images for some popular devices like the Raspberry Pi, so I though it would be a good idea to give you guys a first look at it.
When OpenMandriva announced the Release Candidate of OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 earlier this month, it revealed the fact that they finished the AArch64 (ARM 64-bit) port. That’s amazing news for OpenMandriva Lx fans who own an ARM64 device like the Raspberry Pi, Pinebook Pro, or even the PinePhone.
The even better news is that OpenMandriva provided installable images for various popular devices, such as Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+, Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, Pinebook Pro, PinePhone, and Rock Pi 4C. A generic AArch64 image for UEFI compatible devices, such as various server boards, is also available for download.
Since I own a Raspberry Pi 4 computer, I thought it would be nice to give you guys a first look at OpenMandriva Lx 4.2’s AArch64 port. The installation was quite easy and it’s the same as with most xz compressed ARM64 images.
Basically, you’ll have to extract the xz archive and write it to a microSD card with Raspberry Pi Imager or a similar tool. That’s all you have to do to succesfully boot and use OpenMandriva Lx on the Raspberry Pi. No other installation is needed.
Once you connect to your Wi-Fi network, you’ll be able to update the system for a fresher experience. As you know, OpenMandriva uses the KDE Plasma desktop environment by default, and with the upcoming 4.2 release you’ll get the KDE Plasma 5.20.5 with the most recent KDE Frameworks and Applications software suites.
The default web browser (Falkon) works well and renders websites quickly, but you won’t be able to watch videos in Full HD (1080p). This entire review was written on Falkon and the browser crashed twice during my testing session (I have no idea why).
What works? Wi-Fi 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks work, sound works, Full HD video playback works (I highly recommend to use the pre-installed MPV video player, but SMPlayer works too with the mpv engine), and Full HD (1080p) YouTube video playback works if you install this patched Chromium web browser, which will also enable support for proprietary video and audio steaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and others.
What doesn’t work? Bluetooth doesn’t seem to work. There’s no tray icon for it in the systray area, nor an entry in System Settings to enable it.
Other than that, the entire OpenMandriva Lx experience on the Raspberry Pi feels nice and I really enjoyed it. Even after a few hours of use, the system never went above 2GB RAM usage, even if KDE Plasma is known to be a bit performance hungry.
If you want to try OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 on your Raspberry Pi computer or any of the supported ARM64 (AArch64) devices, you can download the binaries from here. Have fun!
Last updated 3 years ago
