A month after the 9.19 release, DietPi, a lightweight, performance-focused Debian-based Linux distro for SBCs (such as Raspberry Pi) and server systems (with an option to install desktop environments), has just unveiled its latest iteration, version 9.20.
The headline addition in this release is RustDesk Server, now available through DietPi’s software catalog. The new package provides the signaling and relay server components for the RustDesk remote desktop ecosystem, allowing users to self-host secure remote access infrastructure directly on DietPi systems.
For hardware updates, images for Orange Pi 5, 5 Max, and 5 Ultra now have all USB-A ports and one USB-C port (depending on the model) set to host mode by default. On the Radxa ZERO 3, new images use the Linux 6.12 mainline LTS kernel, and existing systems are updated from older or vendor kernels.
DietPi’s built-in tools have also been improved. DietPi-Backup now skips incompatible ACLs when backing up to NFS mounts, preventing failures due to NFSv4 and POSIX ACL conflicts. DietPi-Drive_Manager is now easier to use, with clearer menus and better visibility of device nodes, mount points, and drive sizes. This makes storage management safer and simpler.
Several bundled software packages have been improved. Portainer now properly detects and updates Business Edition instances, fixing issues that happened after Community Edition upgrades. Aria2 no longer creates extra log files by default and now uses systemd’s journal. Allo GUI has been updated to a newer version, which now requires at least PHP 7.4 and includes security fixes from updated dependencies.
For bug fixes, Orange Pi 5 boards now boot faster and more reliably, with USB and M.2 SSD boot issues fixed by switching to mainline U-Boot. Important problems in DietPi-Drive_Manager that could cause incorrect drive formatting or failed unmounts have also been fixed.
Fail2Ban handling was also adjusted for Debian Trixie systems to avoid unintended overrides of administrator-selected ban actions and to ensure required nftables userland tools are present when needed. Additional fixes restored Portainer updates in Docker 29.1.0, where changes to the CLI output previously broke image detection.
In addition to these main updates, DietPi 9.20 brings many smaller performance and stability improvements, as well as visual and text fixes throughout the project. You can find full details and all code changes in the release announcement. Downloads are available here.
