64 bit Ubuntu 18.04 on Pi4B

[geev03]

Looking for testing a 64 bit OS on Pi4B? Here is a link to one image that works..https://blog.cloudkernels.net/posts/rpi4-64bit-image/

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ubuntu@192.168.1.172's password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.19.57-v8+ aarch64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

  System information as of Tue Jul 16 10:58:43 UTC 2019

  System load:  2.95              Processes:           111
  Usage of /:   27.4% of 6.99GB   Users logged in:     1
  Memory usage: 24%               IP address for eth0: 192.168.1.172
  Swap usage:   0%


  Get cloud support with Ubuntu Advantage Cloud Guest:
    http://www.ubuntu.com/business/services/cloud

161 packages can be updated.
80 updates are security updates.


Last login: Tue Jul 16 10:47:22 2019
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 4.19.57-v8+ #2 SMP PREEMPT Tue Jul 9 20:31:37 UTC 2019 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

[bomblord]

I won't be able to get to this until much later today but I've been watching out for a working 64 bit image like a hawk and am definitely willing to throw this onto a burner micro SD card to test. Do you have any impressions of it? Does it have a working driver for the VC6? How is performance?

[geev03]

It has its limitations- I can only see 1 GB RAM on this Pi4B-4
As a server , it works as fast as the setup on Raspbian Buster.
Aim was to test docker ,that will take few more steps but without access to the 4GB memory only marginal improvement from docker on Pi3 is expected.

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root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# docker

Command 'docker' not found, but can be installed with:

snap install docker     # version 18.06.1-ce, or
apt  install docker.io

See 'snap info docker' for additional versions.

root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu#

[bomblord]

A 1GB RAM limitation might be a deal-breaker dang... Might still try it

[o635789]

It has its limitations- I can only see 1 GB RAM on this Pi4B-4
As a server , it works as fast as the setup on Raspbian Buster.
Aim was to test docker ,that will take few more steps but without access to the 4GB memory only marginal improvement from docker on Pi3 is expected.

Code: Select all

root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# docker

Command 'docker' not found, but can be installed with:

snap install docker     # version 18.06.1-ce, or
apt  install docker.io

See 'snap info docker' for additional versions.

root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu#

You need to reconfigure:
echo "total_mem=1024" >> config-extra.txt
and bump the number up for your board, then re-build it.

[bomblord]

It has its limitations- I can only see 1 GB RAM on this Pi4B-4
As a server , it works as fast as the setup on Raspbian Buster.
Aim was to test docker ,that will take few more steps but without access to the 4GB memory only marginal improvement from docker on Pi3 is expected.

Code: Select all

root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# docker

Command 'docker' not found, but can be installed with:

snap install docker     # version 18.06.1-ce, or
apt  install docker.io

See 'snap info docker' for additional versions.

root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu#

You need to reconfigure:
echo "total_mem=1024" >> config-extra.txt
and bump the number up for your board, then re-build it.

Anyway to edit the prebuilt image to do that or otherwise do it after installation something like just extracting the file and editing it? I can try to insert that at the appropriate point in the build process in the op but I'm not remotely familiar with building an OS image and tbh those instructions look like greek to me.

[o635789]

It has its limitations- I can only see 1 GB RAM on this Pi4B-4
As a server , it works as fast as the setup on Raspbian Buster.
Aim was to test docker ,that will take few more steps but without access to the 4GB memory only marginal improvement from docker on Pi3 is expected.

Code: Select all

root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# docker

Command 'docker' not found, but can be installed with:

snap install docker     # version 18.06.1-ce, or
apt  install docker.io

See 'snap info docker' for additional versions.

root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu#

You need to reconfigure:
echo "total_mem=1024" >> config-extra.txt
and bump the number up for your board, then re-build it.

Anyway to edit the prebuilt image to do that or otherwise do it after installation something like just extracting the file and editing it? I can try to insert that at the appropriate point in the build process in the op but I'm not remotely familiar with building an OS image and tbh those instructions look like greek to me.

My bad, it actually won't work. The memory limit is likely in Raspberry's firmware, it happened once when Raspberry Pis increased RAM to 1GB in the past.

[bomblord]

You need to reconfigure:
echo "total_mem=1024" >> config-extra.txt
and bump the number up for your board, then re-build it.

Anyway to edit the prebuilt image to do that or otherwise do it after installation something like just extracting the file and editing it? I can try to insert that at the appropriate point in the build process in the op but I'm not remotely familiar with building an OS image and tbh those instructions look like greek to me.

My bad, it actually won't work. The memory limit is likely in Raspberry's firmware, it happened once when Raspberry Pis increased RAM to 1GB in the past.

Dang that sucks oh well might have to hold out then...

[hardwaremack-orginal]

this is pretty exciting!!!!

i am DLING this now. will use the lazy image.
i have 2gig PI4B so i will just make that edit.
no big deal.

Charles

[bomblord]

Well it "works" but I sadly can't any form of GUI to properly install. After installing the Ubuntu desktop environment I only get a mouse.

[magnusbrzenk]

Are there any 64-bit distros out yet that can take full advantage of Pi 4B's 4GB?

[bomblord]

Are there any 64-bit distros out yet that can take full advantage of Pi 4B's 4GB?

Not yet just got to be patient for now.

[geev03]

Well it "works" but I sadly can't any form of GUI to properly install. After installing the Ubuntu desktop environment I only get a mouse.

Responses of remote GUI is not that bad...

[bomblord]

Well it "works" but I sadly can't any form of GUI to properly install. After installing the Ubuntu desktop environment I only get a mouse.

Responses of remote GUI is not that bad...

The kind of software I'm wanting to run and wanted a 64 bit environment for wouldn't be very well suited for remote desktop (games, emulation)

[Nifnat]

Well it "works" but I sadly can't any form of GUI to properly install. After installing the Ubuntu desktop environment I only get a mouse.

When I tested it out about a week ago the Ubuntu Desktop didn't want to work properly. If you switch between virtual consoles and then back to the desktop you should be able to get to the logon screen but it's very slow. The Lubuntu desktop seems to work fine for the most part if you want to try that out.

Also the latest kernel seems to have fixed some of the DMA issues, now allowing you to use more than 1GB of RAM. I've currently got a Lubuntu 18.10 environment booting and usable with 3GB of RAM

[Musketeer]

Definitely use Lubuntu, Ubuntu is memory hog kindda and sortta... + they stopped use icons on desktop!

[bomblord]

Well it "works" but I sadly can't any form of GUI to properly install. After installing the Ubuntu desktop environment I only get a mouse.

When I tested it out about a week ago the Ubuntu Desktop didn't want to work properly. If you switch between virtual consoles and then back to the desktop you should be able to get to the logon screen but it's very slow. The Lubuntu desktop seems to work fine for the most part if you want to try that out.

Also the latest kernel seems to have fixed some of the DMA issues, now allowing you to use more than 1GB of RAM. I've currently got a Lubuntu 18.10 environment booting and usable with 3GB of RAM

Do I just need to run update/upgrade to get that fix or build it using something else? Going to try this out tonight.

[Nifnat]

Do I just need to run update/upgrade to get that fix or build it using something else? Going to try this out tonight.

You'd either need to build the kernel yourself or wait for somebody else to build it and then upload it.

[bomblord]

Do I just need to run update/upgrade to get that fix or build it using something else? Going to try this out tonight.

You'd either need to build the kernel yourself or wait for somebody else to build it and then upload it. There's a post explaining how to build a kernel for the Pi4 on this forum that might be useful to you.

I'll see what I can figure out. Can I use the instructions in the OP and just swap it for an armv8 ubuntu 18.10 image?

[Nifnat]

I'll see what I can figure out. Can I use the instructions in the OP and just swap it for an armv8 ubuntu 18.10 image?

You could do that. I'd think that the 18.04 image should work fine as well. Looks like the instructions in the OP is pulling in the latest kernel so it should build the one with the fixes just fine.

[gilius2k15]

This is a great start - the lazy image even has KVM enabled!

Could you guys please share your exact terminal commands to get any kind of GUI? I tried sudo apt install lubuntu - but it doesn't find any such package. Should a repository be set first?

I tried sudo apt install lxde - but just got a mouse cursor.

Now I've upgraded to 18.10 - kind of ends prematurely - and now I'm trying lxde again.

[bomblord]

This is a great start - the lazy image even has KVM enabled!

Could you guys please share your exact terminal commands to get any kind of GUI? I tried sudo apt install lubuntu - but it doesn't find any such package. Should a repository be set first?

I tried sudo apt install lxde - but just got a mouse cursor.

Now I've upgraded to 18.10 - kind of ends prematurely - and now I'm trying lxde again.

Could you detail what you did to get the 18.10? I searched all their repositories that I could find and couldn't find an armv8 build of it.

[gilius2k15]

18.04 > 18.10

Download this and write to Micro SD card: (login: ubuntu/ubuntu)
https://cloudkernels.net/ubuntu-18.04.2 ... kvm.img.xz

Then make sure you have update-manager-core package installed.
sudo apt install update-manager-core

Next, edit a configuration file using nano or your preferred command line text editor.
sudo nano /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades

At the bottom of this file, change the value of Prompt from lts to normal.
Prompt=normal

Save and close the file. After that, run the following command to begin the upgrade process.
do-release-upgrade

But I still cannot get the GUI to work - just shows a black screen with white mouse cursor.
I tried LXDE, Mate, Xubuntu so far.

[bomblord]

18.04 > 18.10

Download this and write to Micro SD card: (login: ubuntu/ubuntu)
https://cloudkernels.net/ubuntu-18.04.2 ... kvm.img.xz

Then make sure you have update-manager-core package installed.
sudo apt install update-manager-core

Next, edit a configuration file using nano or your preferred command line text editor.
sudo nano /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades

At the bottom of this file, change the value of Prompt from lts to normal.
Prompt=normal

Save and close the file. After that, run the following command to begin the upgrade process.
do-release-upgrade

But I still cannot get the GUI to work - just shows a black screen with white mouse cursor.
I tried LXDE, Mate, Xubuntu so far.

Awesome, thank you I'm going to begin poking around and see what I can figure out as far as the GUI goes.

[bomblord]

Currently on my 5th re-image have tried installing lubuntu-desktop both before and after the upgrade (also of note the upgrade always ends in a critical failure on flash-kernel but still upgrades some stuff). I either get a dependency error or otherwise just can't find it. I tried gnome and mate as well and they don't work either. Going to try a different approach.

Edit 2 hours and a lot of changes later got lubuntu to install but even that just ends up with a black screen and a mouse. Looks like I'm just going to be waiting for an official 64 bit image from one of the Linux distro devs.