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

Sweet!.....thanks for the effort. I REALLY appreciate it.

I've put together a sample script for anybody wishing to create armhf installers for the pi. This uses live-build to kick out an armhf installer hdd image.

Please link me to this script, I'm wondering if I could adapt it for arm64.

I'll post it this evening, but I've already posted scripts on how to build an arm64 installer. You'll need similar custom preseed scripts because arm64 ubiquity doesn't have flash-kernel-installer (otherwise you would have to rebuild/adapt ubiquity some other way).

EDIT: I've made the above sound a bigger deal than it is. flash-kernel-installer doesn't do much, and flash-kernel will probably be run multiple times by the installer anyway.

For arm64 I think you should forget about bionic and look at disco. You could build a generic installer for that using grub2.

To be honest, I don't see the point in pushing arm64 at pi users. For one thing a lot of pi python stuff doesn't work on arm64. For the niche users who need it, then they can install via the mini iso or server image.

I've already made an ARM64 Disco image with GRUB2 and the generic kernel (not an installer through) but I'm aware of multiple bugs in the image and I don't really plan on maintaining it. I might create a script on how I made it for anyone who's interested in maintaining the image and using it to make their own images.

I haven't got around to testing this:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvHY_kl4hMB4gQmqrT5rpI3vVSBY

For arm64 you need different preseed files (see earlier links).

EDIT: Sigh, you always spot a mistake when you post something without testing it...

release_ver=$(distro-info --series $PROJECT -r | awk '{print $1;}')

should be

release_ver=$(distro-info --series $SUITE -r | awk '{print $1;}')

Being pedantic ${LB_BOOTSTRAP_QEMU_STATIC} should probably be added to config/binary_rootfs/excludes

So far it's just a rehash of the flavour maker scripts so doesn't bring 'official' images any closer. Why not use ubuntu-image in classic mode if building an image?

An example of ubuntu-image in use is here https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=56&p=1435007

Still think an installer (Status of Ubuntu MATE 18.04 for Raspberry Pi 3 B & B+? ) is better

I'd definitely be interested in an ARM hard float image myself if one comes to fruitition. It may not have all the bells and whistles of 64 bit and I think it means Firefox will crash, but it should theoretically use less memory, and on a low memory device that's a good thing.

Firefox works on armhf under 18.04. It has been practically from release.

Actually not, last time I ran Ubuntu MATE on my Raspberry Pi 3 and tried running Firefox it simply said that it crashed and suggested I send a bug report.

What's that then running in Martin's screenshot?

I haven't used Ubuntu MATE armhf on the Pi for a while though. The bug could have been fixed. One difference between the currently available 16.04 image and the upcoming 18.04 image is that they use different kernels. The 16.04 image uses the same kernel as used in Raspbian unlike the upcoming 18.04 image uses the linux-raspi2 kernel. Firefox crashing in the 16.04 image (even after being updated to 18.04) could be the cause of the kernel used in the image.

I wonder if Martin has considered people who have upgraded? They may suddenly find things like raspi-config not working.

See Ubuntu MATE 18.04.2 is coming to the Raspberry Pi 2 and 3

Just ordered a second Raspberry Pi 3+!
Don't want to perform setup and tests on my existing Raspberry Pi 3+ running raspbian & Pi-hole.

Xcited and looking forward :sunglasses:

What do you mean by "official" image exactly? There are very good reasons why I build these in bootstrapped systemd-nspawn containers.

One that is built by Canonical using their build infrastructure. One that is not associated with what appears to be a hacked website Website hacked?

Your own code makes it clear the image is not official https://git.launchpad.net/ubuntu-pi-flavour-maker/tree/build-image.sh

The official Ubuntu Server images aren't built using debootstrap. The package used is livecd-rootfs. This can create a filesystem which can be used in a live CD, but can also be used to create a Raspberry Pi image with oem-config setup.

I just hope the Ubuntu MATE 18.04 image doesn't come with any of the Raspberry Pi-specific software like Minecraft Pi and Sonic Pi that the 16.04 image did. In my opinion, an operating system image for the Pi called 'Ubuntu MATE' should look and feel like the desktop version of Ubuntu MATE, with the only differences being the underlying architecture and kernel.

These will be the most official Ubuntu MATE images for the Pi you're going to get, seeing as though I'm creating them.

I'm very familiar with live-build, seeing as though that is how the PC images are created and I use it for another project I'm working on. In time I will migrate to live-build, but in order to deliver full Pi hardware support, it is not viable at this time.

The work I've done for the Ubuntu MATE 18.04 images for the Pi I have shared with my colleagues (I work for Canonical) in the Ubuntu Foundations team, so my fixes and improvements will be making their way to Ubuntu very soon :+1:

@code_exec I have learned my lesson from the 16.04 images and won't be repeating bundling everything. The additions to the 18.04 images include; port of raspbi-config for Ubuntu, Bluetooth firmware loader, fbturbo X11 driver, VideoCore libraries/tools, USB boot support, MMAL accelerated version of VLC, GPIO bare essentials and pip is pre-configured to point at piwheels.

Stuff like Scratch and Sonic Pi will be exposed via the Software Boutique in due course.

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