Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

 
Yes you see it correctly, this is an Ubuntu. To be precise an Xubuntu Desktop 14.04 LTS.
It was released yesterday. I installed it today dawn.
Yes, I'm a kind of  Windows guy. And?
There are some things I need nowadays and not available for Windows. So from now Linux also.

Installing Ubuntu on BeagleBone Black 2.

Last time here I wrote about my adventure with the BBB and Ubuntu.
Now I have a task to create a kiosk like something from the BBB. When I tried to install the desktop environment on the BBB realized, that it won't fit into the 2GB integrated MMC. To go further - If I install the ubuntu image to an 8 gig SD it still create a 2 gig ext4 filesystem. When I tried to expand it I get some strange error. Finally found the solution:

1. Put the SD card into an USB reader and connect it to the BBB
2. Boot the system from the MMC
3. Install the ubuntu image to the SD card as mentioned in the previous article
4. delete the ext4 partition (namely: /dev/sda2) with the cfdisk and recreate it to fill the whole free space on the SD card (in my case it will be a partition little bit smaller than 8GB)
5. Repair the partition:  e2fsck -f /dev/sda2
6. Expand the partition: resize2fs /dev/sda2
7. Shutdown the system
8. When it finished you can put the SD card into the holder on the BBB, boot to ubuntu and do whatever you want

After that I installed the xubuntu-desktop environment but realized that it extremely slow and even hangs after a few mouse clicks.
Today in the morning I reinstalled the whole thing with lubuntu. I had no time to wait the completion of the process. I'll see afternoon if it works correctly or not.

Installing Ubuntu on BeagleBone Black

I write this post to collect all of the information needed to get a running Ubuntu configuration on the BBB. It just give a command line UI at the end.
Authentication data for the Ubuntu:
usr: ubuntu
pwd: ubuntu
The process:
1. Put a MicroSD card into an USB reader.
2. Connect an USB hub to the BBB.
3. Connect the MicroSD reader and the cordless desktop receiver to the USB HUB
4. Start the integrated Angstrom Linux
5. Download the Ubuntu Image. The information found here: http://www.armhf.com/index.php/boards/beaglebone-black/
This package is required for the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:
http://s3.armhf.com/debian/precise/bone/ubuntu-precise-12.04.2-armhf-3.8.13-bone20.img.xz
6. Put the image to the SD card with the following command:
xz -cd ubuntu-precise-12.04.2-armhf-3.8.13-bone20.img.xz > /dev/sda
7. Mount the created filesystem (I forget this so I did it other way). Hopefully the devicefile correct:
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
8. Copy the image (ubuntu-precise-12.04.2-armhf-3.8.13-bone20.img.xz) to the mounted filesystem somewhere
9. Shutdown the system put the MicroSD card into the MicroSD holder of the BBB.
10. Boot the Ubuntu first time from the SD.
11. Install the Ubuntu into the integrated MMC:
xz -cd ubuntu-precise-12.04.2-armhf-3.8.13-bone20.img.xz > /dev/mmcblk1
12. Shutdown, remove the MicroSD and start from the MMC
The first steps with the new system:
13. First of all you have to put the package management system into order:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
14. If you are using other keyboard layout than the default US you can change it:
dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
15. Change the password of the ubuntu user to something more secure