Ubuntu on APF

If you have an APF27, then it's possible to install and run the Ubuntu distribution (XUbuntu ARM version).

This page will detail the installation process.

Requirements

• an APF27 with at least 128MBytes of RAM
• a SD/MMC card of at least 2GBytes
• coffee or at least something to do meanwhile ;-)

Here we go

• if not already done, install QEMU (this will also install some other needed packages like debootsrap):

$ sudo apt-get install qemu

• then get the "Ubuntu builder script" and launch it:

$ cd your_armadeus_view
$ mkdir ubuntu && cd ubuntu/
$ wget http://people.ubuntu.com/~ogra/arm/build-arm-rootfs
$ chmod a+x build-arm-rootfs
$ sudo ./build-arm-rootfs --fqdn ubuntu --login ubuntu --password temppwd --imagesize 2G --seed xubuntu-desktop

• after some minutes/hours you will get a complete rootfs: armel-rootfs-XXXXXX.tgz

Prepare your microSD

• Format it and mount it:

$ sudo mkfs.ext2 /dev/mmcblk0p1
$ sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/disk/

• Untar it the generated rootfs:

$ sudo tar zxf armel-rootfs-xxxxxxx.tgz -C /media/disk/
$ sudo umount /media/disk/

Boot you system

• Plug the microSD in your APF27Dev and powerup your system.
• in U-Boot type:

BIOS> run mmcboot

Links

• QEMU
• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/RootfsFromScratch