RaspEX For Linux

RaspEX is a free operating system for the Raspberry Pi 2, 3 and 4 computer boards. It is a Linux distribution based on the well known Debian GNU/Linux operating systems, built around the lightweight LXDE desktop environment and open-source software packages for ARM SoCs from Linaro.

The RaspEX operating system is currently distributed as a binary archive that needs to be deployed on a SD card that you boot from on your Raspberry Pi mini computer. Detailed instruction on how to do that are available on the project’s website.

There is no boot menu available for this ARM operating system, as users will only encounter the login screen of the LXDE desktop environment, where they must login as user raspex or as root (see the last paragraph of the article for default passwords).

RaspEX it’s not a simple distribution with only some basic packages thrown on top of a window manager/desktop environment just for fun, just to prove that Linux works well on Raspberry Pi 4.

The fact of the matter is that it’s a complete Linux kernel-based desktop system built around LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment), an energy-saving and extremely fast-performing desktop environment with numerous powerful open-source programs pre-installed.

Default applications include the Chromium web browser, LibreOffice office suite, Leafpad text editor, Xarchiver archive manager, as well as Synaptic Package Manager for those who want to install any other applications and packages that they need.

The distribution is currently powered by Linux kernel 4.x series and can be downloaded for free from this page. When using RaspEX, please note that the default password for user "raspex" is “raspex" (without quotes), and you can become root using the sudo command - root password is root.