Hey LTT, a solid lightweight Linux distribution would be LTS variants like Lubuntu or Xubuntu.
Hey LTT, a solid lightweight Linux distribution would be LTS variants like Lubuntu or Xubuntu.
Hello, I'm trying to turn my Raspberry Pi 4 into a TV player. It has 4GB of RAM, but I'm having trouble finding a lightweight OS that works well. I've used Raspberry Pi OS before, but it caused issues with the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, shutting down completely even after unplugging. Now I'm looking for something that can handle internet access, logins via Windows, smooth file transfers without delays, and all this running smoothly. I don't mind trying less-known OSes if it works. Also, just a quick question: can a Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB RAM run any operating system? Thanks in advance for your help!
Raspbian is definitely the top choice. Fixing problems in Raspberry Pi is simpler than tackling them on other systems.
cool but then there is the problem were when i use vlc it puts the bluetooh mouse to sleep and it wont wake up any ideas to why
LibreElec also has limited Blutooth support on Linux, which I consider not ideal since the protocol isn’t very reliable. It seems safer to use Logitech devices with their receivers instead of Bluetooth. Additionally, the Pi Bluetooth module appears to be quite outdated and may not handle modern Bluetooth standards well.
I've tested them but kept running into issues because I couldn't find a way to access the internet freely. Using a Raspberry Pi with VLC works for me, though. If you're on a very basic OS like Slax RAM, it should be possible if you adjust settings. Your specs—RAM, CPU, storage—seem compatible with what I've seen work.
Alpine Linux consumes fewer system resources compared to Raspbian. This makes it a viable option for testing. Lightweight alternatives like FreeBSD and NetBSD also perform well for many tasks. For more details, see the provided links.
Alpine Linux https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Raspbe...me_Machine FreeBSD https://wiki.freebsd.org/arm/Raspberry Pi NetBSD https://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/evbarm/raspberry_pi/ presents strong results on my machine. I compared it to Clear Linux, which is the fastest available distro. The FreeBSD version with Firefox 102 and WebXPRT 4 achieved 1774.6 ms (the lower the better). Speedometer readings were 2.0, 62.5 Octane, 16317, and so on. Basemark Web 3.0 showed 141.44, SilverBench P3425 JetStream 2 48368, Gimp start time 4.5s, LibreOffice was notably slow. The test also noted slower performance in Basemark Web 3.0 and JetStream 2 compared to standard Linux. FreeBSD’s speed depends heavily on ZFS usage. If you disconnect it, the data remains intact; otherwise, Linux files may become unreliable.