A few important notes.

While the experience is visually similar to the desktop edition of Pearl MATE, the underlying architecture is very different. This page will highlight a few of these differences.


Incompatible Software

Some packages available for Pearl have only been written and compiled for the i386 or amd64 architecture. As the Raspberry Pi is based on armv7, or arm64, these packages will not be available to install. Depending on the package, it may be possible to compile these yourself or use an existing port.

Incompatible:
  • Google Chrome
  • Minecraft (Java Edition)
  • VirtualBox
Compatible:
  • Chromium
  • Minecraft: Pi Edition
  • QEMU

Upgrades

Please do not attempt to upgrade your Raspberry Pi to a newer version of the distribution (for instance, from 16.04 to 18.04), as the underlying kernel is not designed to do this. This process will take a very long time to complete while potentially filling up your SD card to a point where there is no more free space.

It is safer to back up all of your data you wish to keep and re-flash the card with the new image. Attempting to upgrade may corrupt the SD card, prevent your installation from booting, or cause severe glitches.

You can, however, install regular updates via the utility for your installed software.


Release Notes

To read up on release notes and changes by version, visit the Pearl MATE website.


Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the .