Status of Ubuntu MATE 18.04 for Raspberry Pi 3 B & B+?

Support & Help Requests Raspberry Pi
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#21

FWIW, I have Ubuntu 18.04.1 / MATE 1.20.1 running on an ODROID XU4 and it is MUCH smoother and faster than a MATE install I did on a Pi. Don't get me wrong, I am a Pi user and in fact have built a major work-related printed-circuit board interface gizmo around the Pi that works great. However, the Korean-built XU4 is a much more capable small computer than the Pi and is what I use for my cheap home Linux machine. The ODROID community is smaller but very devoted. Worth a look.

Check out the direct Pi3-to-XU4 comparison graphs in the links below:

https://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php

Here's a drop-in, ready -to-burn Bionic Beaver disk image for the XU4:

https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-xu4/os_images/linux/ubuntu_4.14/20180501

https://www.hardkernel.com/main/shop/good_list.php?lang=en

#22

Does mainline kernel manage VPU video hardware decoding for pi ?
I am not sur about that, I think that only work wirh raspberry pi kernel and binary blob (32 bits only so armhf).
So I donā€™t think omxplayer neither tomxplayer will work with ubuntu kernels (~mainline).

#23

Not currently, but it should do soon*. Patches for vc4 using v4l2 have been knocking about since early this year.

Ubuntu has a Linux-raspi2 kernel which is what is used in ubuntu-core and the server images.

*I say soon, but note that 6 years after the original pi, they still have not had a sound driver fully accepted into the mainline kernel.

#24

I currently canā€™t install linux-image*raspi2 on my Pi 3. Wish I know whatā€™s missing.

Edit: I just realized youā€™re the same guy who replied :smiley:

#25

Hi wimpy,
New raspbian image include VLC with hw decode. Still some bugs but almost perfect. Maybe it can be a good idea and package it with next release ?

1 Like
#26

What a mess https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/bionic/+source/livecd-rootfs/+bug/1805668

#27

@Wimpy Any updates? Not many sleeps to Christmas.

#28

Yeah, whatā€™s going on regarding this? Is this update coming in 10 days or slipping to 2019?

#29

@Wimpy If santa is not delivering a 18.04 mate, then please update the website so that it is clear that the current version is not suitable for the 3B+. Iā€™m sure thousands of 3B+'s will be given as presents.

Whilst talking about websites, pretty sure your flavour maker site is hacked Website hacked?

#30

I believe that if and when Ubuntu MATE 18.04 is released for the Pi, it should use the raspi3-firmware kernel provided by Ubuntu instead of the Raspbian kernel. Iā€™m planning to do the same with my Debian ARM64 images when Debian Buster becomes stable.

https://packages.ubuntu.com/bionic/raspi3-firmware

#31

For your debian image I would recommend grub2 instead of raspi3-firmware.

#32

@code_exec Just to add a bit more infoā€¦

The reason I recommend grub2 is mainly because fedora and openSUSE use it. I think the distros outside of Raspbian should be forming a consensus on how to boot the pi.

They use u-boot to emulate uefi. The piā€™s bootloader (config.txt etc) loads the device tree and applies any overlays. This is passed on to u-boot. Which then passes it on to grub2. Grub2 then loads the kernel and initrd like any other system.

raspi3-firmware contains the firmware, but it also contains scripts/hooks to modify the config.txt and copy kernels etc to the firmware partition.

#33

Doesnā€™t GRUB2 only work on computers with a BIOS/UEFI?

#34

Just saw your second reply. Iā€™ve used u-boot in the past on the Pi 3 with the Ubuntu 18.04 generic arm64 kernels, but it appears it used the OpenGL driver which causes the display output to go off screen.

#35

But doesnā€™t debianā€™s generic kernel also use the vc4 driver?

I have the same problem with my monitor, but it is still usable.

#36

When I used the generic Ubuntu kernel, any application which used 3D graphics froze the Pi, leaving me with no other option than to reboot.

#37

Thatā€™s just a bug with the ubuntu config.

In Xorg you can always make the screen fit correctly with an xorg.conf. I havenā€™t yet figured how to do it outside of X as my normal way doesnā€™t work on the pi.

#38

Any way to fix this issue?

#39

With the ubunu config? Not with the generic kernel unless you recompile it I think. Thatā€™s for the ubuntu kernel devs to fix. You could send a patch to the mailing list to try and hurry it up.

By far the easiest solution is to switch to ubuntuā€™s raspi2 kernel. You canā€™t use grub2 with this though as it is missing the necessary config (sigh).

#40

Iā€™m building an Ubuntu 18.10 ARM64 image at the moment and it will use the linux-raspi2 kernel.