by In this very quick guide, we will show you how to work around the problem of low performance when running Ubuntu 24.04 on a Raspberry Pi 5.
If you have recently tried to run Ubuntu 24.04 on a Raspberry Pi 5, you have a significant chance of encountering many issues. This ranges from low performance to random, unexplainable crashes. We even ran into an issue while upgrading packages that caused it to brick the whole operating system.
While there is no official explanation from Canonical on why these issues would be happening, a workaround can be put in place. The current consensus is that with Ubuntu 24.04, the operating system is severely throttling itself whenever it detects that the power supply doesn’t meet the required specifications.
Now, with older Raspberry Pi’s, this isn’t a huge issue; many power supplies will satisfy this requirement without any hassle. However, with the Raspberry Pi 5, the device uses a non-standard amperage that is usually only satisfied by using the official Raspberry Pi power adapter for the Pi 5.
While the Pi 5 can handle Ubuntu 24.04 without using the official Pi 5 power adapter, the operating system seems to just assume that it can’t run at full speed. This was a rather frustrating issue when we first ran into it as nothing made sense. While we use the Raspberry Pi 4 power adapter with our Pi 5, we have never had any performance issues before.
Luckily, some users worked out a workaround for this issue to stop Ubuntu 24.04 from running into these performance issues by simply tricking it into thinking you are using a power supply that satisfies the power current requirements of the Raspberry Pi.
Now, before you proceed any further, be warned that there are risks in this workaround as it involves making changes to the EEPROM config file. This config file is written to the Pi itself, and the only way to fix it when it is broken is to use a recovery image. Additionally, since we are setting the max current to higher, this may cause other issues so just be warned, and try not to overload the Pi by plugging to many devices into it’s USB ports.
An alternative workaround would be to run an older release of Ubuntu such as 23.10. However, if you are happy to proceed, continue on to the next section. Or potentially, a better choice is just to use Raspberry Pi OS, unless you have a specific reason for wanting to use Ubuntu; Pi OS is just significantly more stable on the Pi.
Working around the Raspberry Pi 5 Ubuntu 24.04 Performance issues
1. As mentioned earlier, we will be working around the Raspberry Pi 5’s performance issues on Ubuntu 24.04 by adjusting the EEPROM config file.
Editing this file enables us to override the maximum current value and stop it from auto-negotiating the current draw. Effectively, we would be tricking it into thinking it can pull a higher current than it actually can.
You can edit this config file by using the command below within the terminal. This will open the file for editing within Nano.
sudo rpi-eeprom-config --edit2. To the bottom of this file, carefully enter the following line.
This line will override the automatic calculation and make the OS assume it can get the full 5A it desires. This same trick is what seems to make Ubuntu 24.04 actually run properly on a Raspberry Pi 5 without the weird performance issues.
PSU_MAX_CURRENT=50003. Once you have finished typing out the new line, you can save and quit by pressing CTRL + X, Y, and then ENTER
4. Immediately after saving the file, the Raspberry Pi will write this new config file to its EEPROM, so the next time it boots it will assume it can use the full 5A instead of attempting to negotiate that with your connected power supply.
5. Even though the new EEPROM configuration file has been saved, any of the changes in that file don’t actually come into effect until after you restart your device.
You can restart your Raspberry Pi by running the following command in the terminal.
sudo reboot6. After your Raspberry Pi 5 finishes booting back into Ubuntu 24.04, your performance issues will hopefully be gone, and the operating system will be back to useful.
If you are still having problems getting this OS to run nicely, you will want to double-check your power supply to ensure that it can actually satisfy the Raspberry Pi’s power requirements.
Alternatively, you can install an older Ubuntu release, which may help you get around the bugs and performance problems.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this quick guide helped you work around the issues that you were facing when running Ubuntu 24.04 on a Raspberry Pi 5.
With any luck, this issue will be solved with the next major release of Ubuntu and this workaround will no longer be required to get decent performance out of a Raspberry Pi 5. Why the OS chooses to throttle so hard when not using the official power supply is another question.
Please feel free to drop a comment below if you have any questions about this workaround for performance issues with Ubuntu.
If you liked this guide, we have plenty of others that may be well worth exploring, as well as numerous Raspberry Pi projects.
