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What is a definitive list of operating systems that work with the Raspberry Pi?

I know of the distributions listed on their sites of course, but it could be beneficial to have a complete list of everything known to work (broken down by OS, and then distribution).

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    We might want to define what "work" means. I'm taking "work" to mean "it boots". It may eventually be useful to differentiate operating systems that have full hardware support from those that boot, but remain rough around the edges.
    – Zoot
    Commented Jul 11, 2012 at 13:23
  • Maybe we should split the list below into several, representing different stages of 'working'?
    – Matt Lacey
    Commented Jul 11, 2012 at 23:12
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    I’ve made a list of Raspberry distributions, there are 80 distro circa plus discontinued ones. fabiololix.blogspot.it/2016/05/…
    – Lolix
    Commented Jul 23, 2016 at 15:10

9 Answers 9

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The OS distributions that are available as an SD card image are marked with SD.

Beware not everything on this list will work on all models of Pi; non pi-specific GNU/Linux distros are usually for ARMv7+ and therefore only viable on the Pi 2/3. Some pi-specific images are also model 2/3 only, but this should be clearly indicated on the homepage if not here.

There are also (non pi-specific) ARMv8 64-bit ("aarch64") GNU/Linux distros that should be viable on the Pi 3 but this is largely untested.

Non pi-specific images (not having a dedicated SD card image is a clue to this) will probably at a minimum require you install the Raspberry Pi kernel; a generic ARM kernel will not work. See here for an example methodology regarding this.

References

This is a comprehensive list of OS available for the Raspberry Pi. The official site links to this eLinux wiki, so I presume this might be the most complete list at the moment.

  1. Distribution List on eLinux Wiki
  2. Official Downloads
  3. Raspberry Pi on Wikipedia - includes an extensive list
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    The link should be kept though, so we can see the latest update (I'm sure more will be added). We can also investigate the more exotic ones.
    – winwaed
    Commented Jun 20, 2012 at 13:11
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    Also, it would be good practice if people edited this answer when new distributions become available rather than adding new answers, that way everything is kept together and the list doesn't get effectively ordered by popularity on Raspberry Pi Stack Exchange.
    – Mark Booth
    Commented Jun 20, 2012 at 16:46
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    Glad this has been marked as community wiki!
    – Matt Lacey
    Commented Jun 21, 2012 at 7:52
  • @LaceySnr-MattLacey Anyone got a reference for SliTaz working on the Raspberry Pi??
    – Alex Chamberlain
    Commented Jul 11, 2012 at 11:18
  • @LaceySnr If this question dies (like it already has), then it will become outdated quickly. I tried to revive it, but I almost think that we should close it.
    – Andrew Larsson
    Commented Apr 10, 2013 at 19:38
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we just release Linutop OS for Raspberry, a distribution dedicated to professionals that need to deploy public internet kiosks and digital signage solutions using raspberries

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I'm surprised Windows IoT isn't on this list at this time.

Also, there's Ubuntu Mate and Core.

OSMC and LibreElec also exist if you consider these as OSes.

Refer to https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/

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  • You can edit to add new ones at any time! I'll put them on there now.
    – Matt Lacey
    Commented Jul 18, 2016 at 2:21
  • @LaceySnr Yeah, I'm aware. I was on my phone when I posted this. Editing on a phone is a hassle.
    – Aloha
    Commented Jul 19, 2016 at 5:12
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Kali Linux also has an ARM version of itself.

https://www.offensive-security.com/kali-linux-arm-images/

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  • Additional details and links would improve your answer. See some of the above answers for examples.
    – Steve Robillard
    Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 7:44
  • learn.adafruit.com/…
    – Rush Frisby
    Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 21:55
  • Man, another Kali that no one will be able to use... Stack Overflow, brace for the off-topic questions...
    – user50099
    Commented Mar 22, 2019 at 10:28
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There is an another OS: Parrot Sec similar to Linux TAILS OS with lots of internet security applications including tor browser
Download at https://www.parrotsec.org/download.fx

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Daylight linux is available for Raspberry pi 3. You can test it here : Daylight Linux

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• Slackware ARM also known as SARPi, a Slackware ARM Linux for the Raspberry Pi 1, 2, or 3.

Slackware ARM is NOT also known as SARPi!

SARPi is just the Slackware ARM installer for the Raspberry Pis, which incudes the kernel, kernel_modules, and boot-firmware (.txz) packages. SARPi is not an operating system. Nor a clone, or a modification, or a hack, of Slackware ARM.

You do not install 'SARPi'. You do not run 'SARPi'. You install and run Slackware ARM!

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There is also Kano [at http://developers.kano.me/downloads/]. Very user friendly especially to get children coding(although I still prefer Raspian stretch for its programming ability)

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