Would an ethereum client or mist be able to run on a raspberry pi?
It's a simple yes or no question with an explanation. I don't want links to "light" versions of ethereum, as that's not what I'm asking for. And second of all they do not even exist yet.
Although Geth has always worked on the RPI, we haven't put much effort into optimizing for such low end devices. During the Olympic testnet I did make Geth syncable on the RPI1, but there have been quite massive modifications and it wasn't a priority to keep this platform operationally feasible.
We're currently in the midst of releasing Geth 1.4.6, which will mostly be a networking fix to allow lower end connectivity peers to stably sync, but after this, work will commence on various database optimizations to make lower end devices feasible again. I can't say how low we'll manage to go, but I would definitely like to see RPI2 at least capable of running a full node.
I haven't tried it but apparently you can (link below) !!
There's a really excellent ongoing effort over at http://ethembedded.com/ to build images for boards like the Raspberry Pi. They're all homestead compatible.
Not sure if these count as "light" by your definition.
They have geth/eth/parity builds available for:
Raspberry Pi 2/3
Odroid XU3/XU4
WandBoard Quad
BeagleBone Black
Check them out and happy hacking!
