February 19 saw the latest release of DietPi, a Linux distro aimed at the Raspberry Pi and many other single-board computers (SBC). Version 9.1 brings support for the flagship Raspberry Pi 5 and a number of enhancements for other SBCs.
DietPi is a lightweight Debian-based Linux distro that mainly targets SBCs, but it can also be used on x86-based hardware. The goal of DietPi is to use low-power, low-cost hardware to provide services. With DietPi, we can build servers, internet-enabled appliances, and IoT devices or build our own custom Linux distro. We've used it in the past to build print servers, MQTT brokers, and even streaming audio players.
DietPi 9.1 now supports the Raspberry Pi 5. Version 9.1 is based on Debian Bookworm, the same as Raspberry Pi OS. There are a couple of issues in this release. Support for changing screen resolutions and using the official Raspberry Pi camera module is not ready just yet.
Support for Radxa's Rock 4 SE has been added. In the past, there was a release that worked with the Rock 4, but not the 4 SE. Version 9.1 also sees new images for NanoPo R5S / R5C and 6 series boards. These images use kernels and bootloaders generated using the Armbian build system.
DietPi 9.1 brings enhancements for the general OS and this includes the menus and software used to configure your appliance. DietPi-Sync, a backup tool, has been enhanced to ensure that it no longer errors when it sees any rsync process.
If home automation is your thing, DietPi 9.1 offers Domoticz for x86_64 Bookworm and Trixie systems. The Home Assistant application sees a version bump to 3.12.1. RISC-V SBC users can now use Vaultwarden, an unofficial Bitwarden password manager. Finally, audio appliance builders note that Squeezelite, an audio player/client for Logitech media servers, has been updated to v2.0.0-1465.
The release also brings a series of bug fixes for general OS-level tasks, such as partition resizing. At an app level, we see bug fixes for Mosquitto (MQTT service), Amiberry (Amiga emulation), Samba (SMBFS) servers, OctoPrint 3D printer web interface, and RealVNC server.
DietPi v9.1 can be downloaded directly from the DietPi website.
