Support for Raspberry Pi 4?

Support & Help Requests Raspberry Pi
#61

Happy New Year!

Well, in theory the 64-bit aarch64 should be faster due to new computational CPU features supported in 64-bit mode like NEON.
Also in Linux kernel 5.2 and above there is support for some of the RPI4 GPU features like HDR as per LibreELEC 9.2.0 release notes.
With 64-bit there is an overhead to the memory though - the size of the applications is bigger and they occupy more RAM than the same 32-bit applications. Neither of those is an issue with big enough SD card and with the 4 GB version of RPI4.

In practice currently Raspbian which is 32-bit armhf is the fastest distro for RPI4 because it has Linux kernel specifically built for the Raspberry and also has GPU drivers with support for hardware graphical acceleration without which the CPU is loaded with graphics tasks.

What I like about RPI on the software side is that unlike other SOC boards it has huge community and devoted volunteers that work on improving the software and sharing their work like the Unofficial Ubuntu Server 18. 04.3 image by James A. Chambers.

Also with the announced official support by Canonical for Raspberry Pi starting with Ubuntu Server 19.10 and above and with the declared collaboration with the Rspberry Pi Foundation at some point we'll have fully supported aarch64 image with Linux kernel 5.3.x, with hardware GPU acceleration and latest CPU features, on top of which we'll be able to install Mate (or another desktop environment of choice).

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#62

For anyone still following this thread - Ubuntu released official Raspberry Pi 4 support on 12th of February with 18.04.4 release: http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2020/02/12/ubuntu-18-04-4-lts-released/
According to the Downloads page: https://ubuntu.com/download/raspberry-pi

32 bit vs 64 bit

The Raspberry Pi 2 only supports 32 bits, so that’s an easy choice. However the Raspberry Pi 3 and 4 are 64 bit boards. According to the Raspberry Pi foundation, there are limited benefits to using the 64 bit version for the Pi 3 due to the fact that it only supports 1GB of memory; however, with the Pi 4, the 64 bit version should be faster.

You can install Mate on top of the Ubuntu Server image using:
sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment

After trying it I don't recommend it yet - bluetooth isn't working and graphics performance isn't good - with XFCE with compositing disabled on 1920x1080 I get around ~375 FPS from glxgears and with compositing enabled ~280 FPS and also video is not decoded in hardware when using VLC (a new VLC version with MMAL/OpenMAX IL support is needed I guess).
Use the the Unofficial Ubuntu Server 18. 04.3 image by James A. Chambers where on same setup I get ~730/1020 FPS in glxgears with compositing enabled/disabled and video is hardware accelerated in VLC.
I believe Ubuntu will improve the Desktop experience, but it's not good enough yet.

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#64

I tried the latest official Ubuntu rpi on my rPi4b 4GB a few days ago, and found the same problems you mentioned. Plus horrific 1080p screen tearing on a toy that's supposedly able to do two 4k screens. Not just in Firefox and VLC, but even just dragging a window around the screen. I'd started with the latest rPi distro and it had screen tearing too, so for now I've just set it aside in a box awaiting upgrades. I'm happy and appreciative that the Ubuntu team is working on rPi releases, and eager to get it working because I'm just Loving my new install of 20.04 Mate Cupertino on a desktop Dell. :slightly_smiling_face:

#65

you can also install the official Ubuntu server image of 20.04 for the pi4 and then load the mate desktop onto it

#66

Has anyon tried to boot from USB MSD on a Pi4?

I copied the newer .dat/.elf files from Raspberry Pi Firmware git or an updated Raspbian SD card to my Ubuntu Server + Mate disk, both doesn't work and u-boot crying with waiting for pxeboot....

#67

Here, here, agreed! This whole thing annoys me as well.

#68

password not working
I tried multiple times
Still i have the same issue.

#69

Old thread, but over the weekend I setup a Pi4B with ubuntu-mate-20.04.1-beta2-desktop-armhf+raspi.img.xz and had a great out of the box experience!

Now that Google is supporting python 3.8 for tflite and their USB3 Coral Edge TPU AI accelerator, and Ubuntu 20.04 finally has a reasonably current OpenCV (4.2.0) in the repos I was able to setup my security DVR AI add-on using only apt and pip3 installs.

Impressed me enough that I made a $10 donation to the cause.

In other Mate news, Odroid has a Mate-20.04 image for the XU-4 and similar Pi competitors, inspired by the Pi4B success, I gave it a try. It also worked a treat.

#70

Ubuntu Mate 20.04.1 and 20.10 both have System Error popup on boot. Looks like an audio error because it boots without audio and I have to manually select the right output each time. These are clean installs on both Pi4 4GB and Pi4 8GB versions on four different SD cards - two of which came with the kits, three 32GB Class10 and one 128GB U3. Images downloaded three times from official site. Pi is hooked up to a Samsung TV. Anyone else with same problem?