Ubuntu Mate for NOOBS HowTo

Tips, Tricks and Tutorials Raspberry Pi
#1

Ubuntu Mate for NOOBS HowTo

download the lasted ubuntu mate image and uncompress it with:
unxz -k -v ubuntu-mate-20.10-desktop-armhf+raspi.img.xz

then mount the uncompressed image file for that type:
gnome-disk-image-mounter and select the image file

if you don't have it you can install it with:
sudo apt install gnome-disk-utility

now open the mounted "system-boot" in a terminal and type:
sudo tar -cvf ~/system-boot.tar *
sudo xz -0 -v ~/system-boot.tar

now open the mounted "writable" in a terminal and type:
sudo tar -cvf ~/writable.tar *
sudo xz -0 -v ~/writable.tar

this will create tar.xz archives from the partitions inside "your home folder"

create a noobs lite sdcard or usbstick if you don't have already

now create a folder named "ubuntu-mate" inside the "os" folder on the noobs sdcard

and copy the created archives to the "ubuntu-mate" folder

finaly you have to ceate these 3 files inside the "ubuntu-mate" folder

os.json

{
    "name":                     "Ubuntu MATE",
    "description":              "Ubuntu MATE for NOOBS"
}

partitions.json

{
  "partitions": [
    {
      "label": "system-boot",
      "filesystem_type": "FAT",
      "partition_size_nominal": 256,
      "want_maximised": false,
      "uncompressed_tarball_size": 64
    },
    {
      "label": "writable",
      "filesystem_type": "ext4",
      "partition_size_nominal": 8192,
      "want_maximised": true,
      "mkfs_options": "-O ^huge_file",
      "uncompressed_tarball_size": 6144
    }
  ]
}

partition_setup.sh

#!/bin/sh
#supports_backup in PINN

set -ex

# shellcheck disable=SC2154
if [ -z "$part1" ] || [ -z "$part2" ]; then
  printf "Error: missing environment variable part1 or part2\n" 1>&2
  exit 1
fi

mkdir -p /tmp/1 /tmp/2

mount "$part1" /tmp/1
mount "$part2" /tmp/2

sed /tmp/1/cmdline.txt -i -e "s|root=[^ ]*|root=${part2}|"
sed /tmp/2/etc/fstab -i -e "s|^[^#].* / |${part2}  / |"
sed /tmp/2/etc/fstab -i -e "s|^[^#].*\s/boot/firmware\s|${part1}  /boot/firmware |"

cp /tmp/1/config.txt /tmp/1/config.bak
awk '1;/^\[all\]/ {print "kernel=vmlinuz\ninitramfs initrd.img followkernel"}' /tmp/1/config.bak >/tmp/1/config.txt

# shellcheck disable=SC2154
if [ -z "$restore" ]; then
  if [ -f /mnt/ssh ]; then
    cp /mnt/ssh /tmp/1/
  fi

  if [ -f /mnt/ssh.txt ]; then
    cp /mnt/ssh.txt /tmp/1/
  fi

  if [ -f /settings/wpa_supplicant.conf ]; then
    cp /settings/wpa_supplicant.conf /tmp/1/
  fi

fi

umount /tmp/1
umount /tmp/2

finish! xD

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