Raspberry Pi OS upgrades lock screen, boosts touchscreen and printer support

Raspberry Pi OS has rolled out a new version for all Raspberry Pi models, highlighted by a security-focused overhaul of the lock screen. The system now uses a custom version of swaylock featuring visual instructions and a password entry field. Users can activate the lock screen manually with Ctrl-Alt-L or through shutdown options in the main menu. This update also closes a security gap allowing unauthorized access via TTY switching when auto login was active, while offering a new setting to disable console auto login with Raspberry Pi Configuration or raspi-config.

The OS replaces the problematic system-config-printer with a GNOME Printers application, improving reliability for printing tasks. Touchscreen users gain more control, with a new toggle to switch between gesture support and mouse emulation modes. The toggle appears in a dedicated section of the Screen Configuration menu for easier access. Raspberry Pi acknowledges ongoing work on further enhancing touchscreen support, particularly for Wayland sessions in future updates.

Raspberry Pi OS now runs on Linux kernel 6.12, delivering updated hardware support and security fixes. Existing Raspberry Pi OS users can upgrade using the terminal commands sudo apt update and sudo apt full-upgrade, while new installations are available through the Raspberry Pi Imager tool.