Ubuntu image for the new Raspberry Pi 3 B+

[jamesh]

In the meantime, there is a perfectly good (better than Ubuntu, but I would say that) version of Raspbian available. AFAICT, on the command line is exactly the same as Ubuntu, so will be very familiar, (except more up to date), is the distro the Foundation uses for development, and is the first to get bug fixes.

[gkaiseril]

I just checked the Ubuntu Mat blog March 9, 2018. The current Beta test version is 18.04 Beta 1 and as for the Raspberry Pi there is the following statement:

Raspberry Pi images

We’re am planning on releasing Ubuntu MATE images for the Raspberry Pi around the time 18.04.1 is released, which should be sometime in July. It takes about a month to get the Raspberry Pi images built and tested and we simply don’t have time to do this in time for the April release of 18.04.

Since this was before the announcement for the Pi 3B+ what and when the update will be done is not clear, but it looks like about July 2018.

[n67]

Note that the term "negativity" has two popular meanings:

1) General sarcasm and/or bitterness. I.e., the stuff of forums and the stuff that makes mods mad.

2) Just being skeptical or doubtful about whether or not something is going to work.

I think the poster meant it in the second sense, but it is too frequently interpreted in the first sense.

[BluPI2]

Here is a link to the enormous Ubuntu Mate ARM software repository:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/xenial/armhf

65k packages!

[mahjongg]

Here is a link to the enormous Ubuntu Mate ARM software repository:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/xenial/armhf

65k packages!

Almost all of those *should* work on Raspbian too (extra desktop packages, if needed, will be installed automatically).

[MaxVMH]

For those who are running Ubuntu Mate, what GPU memory size do you guys use/recommend?

[Alex_guti]

I was able to make a bootable USB image of Ubuntu Mate for the Raspberry Pi 3B & 3B+. Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread

I made torrents of the images:

• This one is for USB drives (I tested this one myself)
• This one is for SD cards (I couldn't test this one since I don't have a free SD card lying around - can someone confirm if it works?)

The SD torrent seemed to work for me.

Thanks for letting me know!

To those who are running Ubuntu Mate: how do you like it? Is the performance OK?

I tested some things and found it to be really slow, afterwards I realized the GPU memory was still set to 16MB for my headless projects. I'll probably give it another go later this week.

Note that the official update is not yet out, so this might be a version that only partially works.

True, and the official updated image might take a while. My understanding is that their next image for Raspberry Pi will be released 1 or 2 months after they release 18.04.

The SD torrent worked perfectly!! The only thing it won´t work its the wifi, i assume it´s because i didn´t know where to install it!! Well done guys

[MaxVMH]

The SD torrent worked perfectly!! The only thing it won´t work its the wifi, i assume it´s because i didn´t know where to install it!! Well done guys

If I'm not mistaken, run this in MATE Terminal:

Code: Select all

sudo rfkill unblock wifi

And then reboot:

Code: Select all

sudo reboot

Let me know if that works out for you. If it doesn't, I'll try a fresh install when I get the chance to try and remember how I got it to work.

[resiakt]

The only thing it won´t work its the wifi, i assume it´s because i didn´t know where to install it!!

Ubuntu is a modern OS.

Code: Select all

sudo su -
rfkill unblock wifi
apt-get --no-install-recommends install network-manager
reboot
nmcli dev wifi list
nmtui-connect

The nmcli call shows you available networks and with the nmtui-connect call you establish the connection and store this as a flexible profile.

[MaxVMH]

The SD torrent worked perfectly!! The only thing it won´t work its the wifi, i assume it´s because i didn´t know where to install it!! Well done guys

If I'm not mistaken, run this in MATE Terminal:

Code: Select all

sudo rfkill unblock wifi

And then reboot:

Code: Select all

sudo reboot

Let me know if that works out for you. If it doesn't, I'll try a fresh install when I get the chance to try and remember how I got it to work.

Someone else asked a similar question elsewhere, so I decided to do the fresh install just now. I can confirm that 'sudo rfkill unblock wifi' and a reboot does the trick

[mahjongg]

This Ubuntu image probably doesn't have the NEW driver that supports the NEW WiFi interface, that also handles 5GHz Ethernet now.
You probably have to copy that driver from the latest Raspbian to get all its features, the driver you are using now probably only supports the older hardware, and thus only 2.4GHz modes.

[MaxVMH]

This Ubuntu image probably doesn't have the NEW driver that supports the NEW WiFi interface, that also handles 5GHz Ethernet now.
You probably have to copy that driver from the latest Raspbian to get all its features, the driver you are using now probably only supports the older hardware.

I have put the new drivers in there, so that's not the problem. Once the localization has been set (which happens in the Ubuntu Mate installer), running 'sudo rfkill unblock wifi' and a reboot does the trick. Then WiFi (and 5GHz) work perfectly

If I'm not mistaken, Raspbian has a similar issue.

[mahjongg]

This Ubuntu image probably doesn't have the NEW driver that supports the NEW WiFi interface, that also handles 5GHz Ethernet now.
You probably have to copy that driver from the latest Raspbian to get all its features, the driver you are using now probably only supports the older hardware.

I have put the new drivers in there, so that's not the problem. Once the localization has been set (which happens in the Ubuntu Mate installer), running 'sudo rfkill unblock wifi' and a reboot does the trick. Then WiFi (and 5GHz) work perfectly

good job...

[richlion2]

To those who are running Ubuntu Mate: how do you like it? Is the performance OK?

I tested some things and found it to be really slow, afterwards I realized the GPU memory was still set to 16MB for my headless projects. I'll probably give it another go later this week.

Raspbian is slow and adding memory to the GPU may not solve all your problems. First of all not all programs utilize the GPU acceleration. VLC for example needs to be recompiled with the option to use the GPU.
https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/compile ... ation/2602

Chromium has all the GPU acceleration options set to disabled and not available on Linux. Firefox- I found some hints on how to turn on, but what was in the tutorial didn't match my Firefox, as it's an older version. So in general there is no point adding memory to GPU unless you have applications enabled to use the acceleration. If you want to watch BBC Iplayer - no chance.

You may though add some more SWAP. Chromium is struggling with default setup to 1GB, it can even halt your system and SWAP will go down to 0 KiB (I mean ZERO) . Change it to at least to 200 in /boot/config.txt. I now have it set to 400, although it is still a bit sluggish. I don't think switching to Ubuntu will help IMHO, although Gnome is driving me crazy - very very utterly basic ( I have never used in on normal PC's ever) compared to modern desktops. The only reason Gnome was chosen was to make the OS light. I would be wary of Ubuntu, as modern desktops tend to be more CPU/power hungry. I never used MATE but I will try it out.

I hope this helps.
Richard

[feelslikeautumn]

The default Gpu acceleration in raspbian is not standard. Chromium in raspbian has been patched so it should have acceleration. If you switch to the vc4 driver, I think you will lose chromium acceleration in raspbian, but gain it in Firefox/chromium in *Ubuntu(mate).

Ubuntu-mate has a precompiled patched vlc package for the raspberry pi.

As far as I'm aware, Vc4 is yet to gain accelerated video decoding, but even without it I can watch YouTube videos in chromium in lubuntu.

[gilius]

I was able to make a bootable USB image of Ubuntu Mate for the Raspberry Pi 3B & 3B+. Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread

I made torrents of the images:

• This one is for USB drives
• This one is for SD cards

If anyone prefers a direct download instead of a torrent, send me a PM (not posting those publicly to save my bandwidth)

Are they 32-bit or 64-bit? Thanks!

[gilius]

The USB version won't boot up on my Pi 3 b+. I first followed this guide:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... des/msd.md

And then I used Rufus to copy the IMG file to USB in DDImage mode, and it lists 2 partitions inside disk manager.

Instead of booting from the USB my SDCard Raspbian boots up instead.

Any ideas what the problem is?

[ejolson]

The USB version won't boot up on my Pi 3 b+. I first followed this guide:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... des/msd.md

And then I used Rufus to copy the IMG file to USB in DDImage mode, and it lists 2 partitions inside disk manager.

Instead of booting from the USB my SDCard Raspbian boots up instead.

Any ideas what the problem is?

Boot priority is to boot the card first if possible. Remove the SD card and try again.

[gilius]

The USB version won't boot up on my Pi 3 b+. I first followed this guide:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... des/msd.md

And then I used Rufus to copy the IMG file to USB in DDImage mode, and it lists 2 partitions inside disk manager.

Instead of booting from the USB my SDCard Raspbian boots up instead.

Any ideas what the problem is?

Boot priority is to boot the card first if possible. Remove the SD card and try again.

OK cool - will give it a try. Can we change that boot order...?

[gilius]

AWESOME - I'm now writing from Ubuntu Mate on my R Pi 3 b+!!! Unfortunately, it's a 32-bit Arm7 distro, but at least I get the concept now of how to boot up a new Os via USB...

[f1dad]

Thanks to @feelslikeautumn and @DougieLawson. I also had to copy over the updated brcm firmware files in /lib/firmware/brcm, but I'm now up and running.

[Bignumbas]

I copied the entire raspian boot partition onto my working Pi 3 Ubuntu Mate SDcard but left the old cmdline.txt and it boots to the desktop.
However It says that modules were not loaded and when I get to the desktop there is no mouse/keyboard working and I suspect networking.
Suggestions anyone?
It seems I would have to compile the modules needed before I transplant to the Pi 3B+.
What would I need to make?

[MaxVMH]

I copied the entire raspian boot partition onto my working Pi 3 Ubuntu Mate SDcard but left the old cmdline.txt and it boots to the desktop.
However It says that modules were not loaded and when I get to the desktop there is no mouse/keyboard working and I suspect networking.
Suggestions anyone?
It seems I would have to compile the modules needed before I transplant to the Pi 3B+.
What would I need to make?

They are all in this thread, scattered around on 5 pages. So here's a nice summary
(Let us know in case I forgot something.)

Copy the following files from Raspbian to Ubuntu Mate:

• For Booting: copy bootcode.bin, fixup.dat, start.elf, bcm2710-rpi-3-b-plus.dtb and kernel7.img
• For keyboard/mouse: copy /lib/modules/4.9.80-v7+ (root partition)
• For network: copy the contents of /lib/firmware/brcm/ (root partition)

If you want to boot from USB:

• edit cmdline.txt, change root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 to root=/dev/sda2 (boot partition)
• edit etc/fstab, change/dev/mmcblk0p2 to sda2 and /dev/mmcblk0p1 to sda1 (root partition)

Torrents of the Ubuntu Mate image with the changes already done (these are not official, I made these so use at own risk):

• This one is for SD cards
• This one is for USB drives

PS: If anyone was wondering, Ubuntu Mate is slower than Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi and there's less community support. If anyone is doing this because they don't like the Raspbian desktop looks, I recommend customizing it or installing another desktop on top of Raspbian Lite instead of going to Ubuntu Mate.

[Bignumbas]

Thanks for that summary MAXVMH
.
After much hair pulling and angst I discovered my problem.
I had copied everything over that was necessary but the +7 modules folder was populated with 0 byte files????
Deleted folder and recopied and all was perfect.
Everything works including wireless etc.
One happy camper.

My only question is why haven't the PI developers documented this easy upgrade fix.
There must be a lot of people using Mate and they release a new board and leave you in the lurch.
It's like stuff you! We use Raspbian, buy our new boards but go away we don't care if you cannot use it.

I use Ubuntu Mate because its my preferred Linux on x86 PC's and its easier to stick with the same system, just like being married .

[hommar]

I update kernel ubuntu-mate too, but I use official tool rpi-update
This tool update all need files.
I install last kernel 4.9.x
After first run you can use rpi-update for update to 4.14.x

PS I use second system (OS) and update offline ubuntu-mate use chroot