Multimedia improvements for Raspberry Pi Desktop in Ubuntu Resolute Raccoon
For 26.04, we focused on addressing the desktop UX gap between RaspiOS and Ubuntu on the Raspberry Pi.
What we worked on
We experimented with:
- adding NUMA emulation to the Pi kernel
- addressing the differences in multimedia libraries between Ubuntu and RaspiOS
- optimizing applications that typically have high memory usage (like Firefox)
What is shipping in Ubuntu Resolute Raccoon?
Ubuntu 26.04 ships with specific patches applied to multimedia libraries (ffmpeg, libsdl2, and libmutter) to resolve the lower framerates of videos and games on Ubuntu (compared to RaspiOS).
These improvements were tested using VLC Media Player and Firefox for video playback, ScummVM for gaming, and rpicam-apps for live camera feeds.
What’s next?
We’ll continue to address gaps in the UX on Ubuntu Desktop (specifically to lower overall memory usage) and explore areas of improvement in Ubuntu Server for the Raspberry Pi as well.