Ubuntu-mate for raspberry pi 3 model b+

Support & Help Requests Raspberry Pi
#1

I have tried many times to install unbent-mate on my raspberry pi 3 model b+ without any luck. I had a strange error message saying something like Kernel Panic. I used all the instructions to install it without success.

It seems (I might be wrong) that the only release of ubuntu mate available for armv7 (32 bit). The pi b+ is 64 bit (arm64) and I was wondering if the ubuntu-mate was not working because it was for the 32 bit of the pi.

Is there a version of ubuntu mate that work with arm 64?

I find the rasbian a bit too basic as a desktop, when I launch the web browser (chrome) and I have a couple of other windows opened like the terminal and file manager, everything is so slow that it is not usable. I would like to try something different and ubuntu seems the great choice.

P.S.: I wish that I could add more ram to my raspberry pi board and a more performant cpu than the arm.

#2

Afaik, there is no 64bit version of Ubuntu Mate 16.04 for the RPI but I have the 32bit version working fine. :wink:

#3

I think that I know why Raspbian is so slow. I bought a RPi 3 B Plus from China. I just discovered that my Pi is based on arm V6!!! Therefore, the performance is very low with the V6. I want to buy a RPi 3 B Plus (in Canada) but it is not available for now so I will wait.

I was wondering why the performance of my Pi 3 (armv6) was so slow and basically unusable. I think that it is the reason. Do you agree?

I can do about everything that I want with the model B. But I want to have the very latest model B. I will use the armv6 for other purposes such as middleware for a toy and later, to a more significant application with the Pi armv6.

#4

Hi,

I have the same issue running Ubuntu-Mate on Rpi 3B+. It is unable to boot at all.

Regarding performance and CPU architecture mentioned in this thread.
The original RPi was built with an ARMv6 CPU and yes, it is extremly slow. It is a really outdated architecture now.
(It was an ARM11 core which originally used in higher level mobile phones. NOT the smart ones.)

RPi2 is built on a newer SoC with quad core Cortex-A7 (this is ARMv7 architecture, 32 bit).
RPi3, the original one, is built on a SoC with quad core Cortex-A53 (this ARMv8 architecture, 64 bit).

The new RPi3B+ is also using the same CPU cores (Cortex-A53) with a bith higher clock frequency. So I do not see any reason why the Ubuntu-Mate image can not boot on this platform.
Certainly the SoC is different so ther might be other issues, but not the architectecure.

Anyway, I agree that these boards will not replace a desktop machine. But not because CPU performance.
In my opinion 1GB RAM for 4 CPU cores is a joke (a really bad one).
The other problem is the SD card which a real bottleneck. There are other SBCs where eMMC memory is used as the storage for the OS and they show a great performance boost with the same CPU architecture and ammount of memory. I really hope that the next board will have improvements in these two areas. (And also a SATA interface, but not a USB to SATA converter and hopefully USB3.x instead of the 2.0. Even if it not fits in the $30-$40 range.)

Best regards,
Blaise

#5

Finally I find a working workaround!

Start Ubuntu Mate from “old” Pi 3 Model B and run the command

sudo BRANCH=stable rpi-update

This will install the needed files in /boot/ with the same kernel version of raspbian stretch.

The integrated wifi will not work because the correct firmware is not present in Ubuntu Mate i think;
I solved with a simple copy&paste from a fresh Raspbian Stretch SD.
Not knowing exactly wich are the missing files I simple did a join of the two folders /lib/firmware/brcm

2 Likes
#6

why not buy a banana pi :banana:instead of a raspberry pi [you have to add a raspberry emoji :grin:]?

#7

Note the original poster did not have a 3B+ back in January. A more recent thread on this problem is here 16.04.2 Won't boot on RPi 3 Model B+

Although it doesn’t really matter, rpi-update is frowned upon. To do similar with packages you could do:

sudo apt update sudo apt install raspberrypi-bootloader raspberrypi-kernel

Glad you got it working! Thanks for sharing your workaround.

#8

Thank you very much.

#9

We got it working in this thread on the RPI official forums too:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=208538

#10

I posted this in another topic, but I guess it’s relevant here too:

I was able to make a bootable USB image of Ubuntu Mate for the Raspberry Pi 3B & 3B+ with this thread on the raspberrypi.org forums.

I made torrents of the images:

5 Likes
Adapting official Ubuntu MATE 16.04.2 LTS image to run on Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (3B+)
#11

Thanks for the effort!

I am getting connection refused errors for the torrent downloads, can you please fix that/provide an alternative?

Thanks in advance.

#12

@Terminator_NL They appear to be working at the moment. Can you try again?

#13

I cant seem to get it to work. :confused:

#14

Welp! I got them! Thank you so much.

#15

How did you get it to work? Another browser?

#16

I had to download it through a VPN. Looks like the (reasonably crappy) network I am on blocks downloading .torrent files.

Presumably because the url ends with .torrent, and the page wasnt retrieved using https.

But I’m flashing it right now! Fingers crossed.

Thank you so much

#17

It worked right off the bat! (SD)

You’re amazing.

#18

[quote=“Terminator_NL, post:16, topic:15867, full:true”]
I had to download it through a VPN. Looks like the (reasonably crappy) network I am on blocks downloading .torrent files.

Presumably because the url ends with .torrent, and the page wasnt retrieved using https.
[/quote]Thanks for letting me know :slight_smile: I’ll also put them in a .zip next time.

[quote=“Terminator_NL, post:17, topic:15867, full:true”]
It worked right off the bat! (SD)

You’re amazing.
[/quote]Thank the Raspberry Pi forums, it’s the amazing people over there that gathered the instructions on how to make it work :wink:

#19

This WILL NOT make Ubuntu MATE boot with the Pi3B+ - this is the correct method to update kernel and firmware, BUT will only update to those in the repository WHICH HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED.

Incidentally the “current” version is 16.04.4, although there is no matching image - BUT you can upgrade from 16.04.2

#20

Thanks for pointing that out. I don’t use Ubuntu-mate (or raspbian for that matter) on my pi so it is always a bit of a risk posting anything on here.

Sorry if I wasted your time or anybody else’s with those commands. Updated packages can be found here http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/r/raspberrypi-firmware/