HW091: WLAN Pi – MCP & OS Updates

So we fell into the traditional routine of releasing a new image.

I think two weeks before WLPC, we often find ourselves doing a development sprint towards the conference so that we can put in features and fixes so that we can use those tweaks in the deep dive.

So it's actually a good thing for your team.

Oh, it is definitely a cadence and an event that force it.

It's a forcing function to keep the software up to date.

One of the main things that changed for this OS, this image, was the update to Trixie.

So in the background, we are a fork of... raspberry pi os and that means that we are in step with raspberry pi os and we take their image and add and tweak bits and then release our own image which is the wlan pi os the main thing that changes with tricksy is support for raspberry pi 5 and cm5 so they're the the brains that would run a wlan pi

and why are you not going to cm5 or raspberry

Yeah, that is a really good question that crops up regularly.

Now that you support Raspberry Pi 5s, why are we not switching to them? Right now, our stance is the Raspberry Pi 5 doesn't bring a great deal to the table.

And the CM5 is more...

This is true for both.

They are more expensive.

And they get a lot hotter.

So it introduced a new dynamic of how are we going to keep the thing cool.

So add a fan.

We could add fans, but I, we, we had, we had some experience with fans for the WMPI pro and I do not wish to repeat if at all possible.

So right now we don't feel that the, did you say you're allergic to that? I always said, I, I, at one point I did say that I am allergic to fans.

No moving parts if we can possibly help it.

So there's no reason why people cannot build their own Raspberry Pi 5 WLAN Pi or build a carrier board CM5.

But as far as units that we are going to assemble and distribute, for the moment, we're staying with CM4 and Raspberry Pi 4.

Anything else that was added in that new image?

Yes, lots of things.

But we could transition nicely over to the MCP.

That would probably be the smart thing.