Ubuntu 18.04 support for the Up Board

nicolasb565

Hi,

Do you plan to support Ubuntu 18.04 for the Up Board?

Do you have any release schedule for Ubuntu 18.04?

Thanks!

Kurt

I was wondering the same thing. Now that there is a new LTS release

Pieter Jordaan

That would be great. Especially since the new gstreamer and ffmpeg are part of bionic

ccalde

Hi guys,

Plans are in progress to release a kernel 4.14 and 4.15 for Ubuntu 16.04.4 and Ubuntu 18.04 hopefully by the end of September.

Cheers!!

Kurt

Any more updates on this?

ccalde

Not yet!

Cheers!

bvrabete

Please keep us posted;

ccalde

Yes, @bvrabete ,

No problem!

Marcello

Any news on this front?
thanks

eduncan911

@nicolasb565 said:
Hi,

Do you plan to support Ubuntu 18.04 for the Up Board?

Do you have any release schedule for Ubuntu 18.04?

Thanks!

Others have posted that Ubuntu 18.04 LTS works fine on the UP devices. I previously ran 17.10 myself for a while. Currently I run Arch Linux on most of my devices, which has the latest kernels and there are no issues.

However, the only thing not available out of the box is the UP GPIO-enabled kernel. The UP Wiki contains information on how to build your own kernel.

https://wiki.up-community.org/Compile_ubilinux_kernel_from_source

Even the Arch wiki has info about the linux-up kernel package which supplies a kernel with the Aaeon GPIO patches. However, I find it is always behind mainline and don't run it myself. It does work though.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Up-board

The reason I mention the Arch Wiki is that it is an excellent source of instructions if you ever need up-to-date information on how to install or compile something. For example, if I wanted to patch my own kernel for UP, I would read through that UP wiki link first and then head over to the Arch AUR repo of where the package is and step through the PKGBUILD file for the latest tweaks.

Kurt

@eduncan911 said:

Others have posted that Ubuntu 18.04 LTS works fine on the UP devices. I previously ran 17.10 myself for a while. Currently I run Arch Linux on most of my devices, which has the latest kernels and there are no issues.

However, the only thing not available out of the box is the UP GPIO-enabled kernel. The UP Wiki contains information on how to build your own kernel.

https://wiki.up-community.org/Compile_ubilinux_kernel_from_source

Thanks, I am running on Ubuntu 18.04 on one UP board, and as you mentioned it only lacks the GPIO stuff, which I would be great if it worked. Again thanks for the pointers on how to build one...

But still wonder if UP is going to release an official updated kernel any time soon as was suggested back in May?

eduncan911

@Kurt said:

Thanks, I am running on Ubuntu 18.04 on one UP board, and as you mentioned it only lacks the GPIO stuff, which I would be great if it worked. Again thanks for the pointers on how to build one...

But still wonder if UP is going to release an official updated kernel any time soon as was suggested back in May?

I'll forward the request to them.

Kain

@eduncan911 I am trying to compile a custom Kernel as you recommended, but I am getting this error and It will not work, this same thing happens If I try downloading the kernel normally through the RDK setup process from the intel website:
https://01.org/developerjourney/recipe/intel-realsense-robotic-development-kit

The two lines I am trying are:

samr@samr:~$ sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
[sudo] password for samr:

and

samr@samr:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubilinux/up
[sudo] password for samr:
Kernel packages with support for the special features on the UP board (http://up-board.org), such as 40-pin header I/O.
More info: https://launchpad.net/~ubilinux/+archive/ubuntu/up
Press [ENTER] to continue or Ctrl-c to cancel adding it.

both return this and do not work:

Hit:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease [88.7 kB]
Ign:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubilinux/up/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Get:4 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease [83.2 kB]
Get:5 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease [74.6 kB]
Hit:6 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-toolchain-r/test/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Err:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubilinux/up/ubuntu bionic Release
404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.95.83 80]
Reading package lists... Done
E: The repository 'http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubilinux/up/ubuntu bionic Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.

I am running Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS fresh downloaded and updated. Please let me know if I am missing something or if you know how I can get this Kernel downloaded and running so I can get the RealSense hooked up and run rviz. Thank you!

TheVoice

Did you get it @Kain

Kain

@TheVoice no I went ahead and downloaded the 16.04 Ubuntu and loaded it on the UP board and all the directions worked fine for that version still.

TheVoice

Funny thats what im doing now! Best wishes

wez

I took the Arch patches and built an ubuntu kernel. Here's a gist with the patch against the ubuntu tree and the steps to build one for yourself. I opted to publish instructions rather than just uploading an unsigned kernel blob so that the steps can be followed more easily when ubuntu update the kernel in the future.

https://gist.github.com/wez/a8749dbd0f3db7bbe207ff4cb7679d2e

ccalde

Hi @wez

Thanks for sharing the info!

Kurt

@wez, Thanks for sharing.

@ccalde - Still wish there was an official release...

But back to the instructions.
With the instruction: patch -p1 < ~/Downloads/ubuntu-up-board.patch

I assume this was downloaded from somewhere?

Thanks
Kurt

wez

@Kurt yes, download it from the gist

Kurt

@wez,

Thanks again, I tried it and ran out of space on my UP board, will try again later, Will need to probably remove everything else on that board and try again.

Wondering does one built on the UP work on the UP squared and likewise built on UP squared work on UP?

ccalde

Hi @Kurt,

You could try to run your new built kernel for Ubuntu 18 without removing everything just updating the kernel.

The UP linux kernel should work for UP and UP2 boards.

Kurt

Thanks @ccalde,

But I assume I need to have enough space on the board for the build to complete. The board has some other stuff on it, like ROS2 support. Will check to see if my UP or UP2 board has the most space available before trying again.

rlems

@wez said:
I took the Arch patches and built an ubuntu kernel. Here's a gist with the patch against the ubuntu tree and the steps to build one for yourself. I opted to publish instructions rather than just uploading an unsigned kernel blob so that the steps can be followed more easily when ubuntu update the kernel in the future.

https://gist.github.com/wez/a8749dbd0f3db7bbe207ff4cb7679d2e

Thanks for the instructions! However the patch as of this moment seems to be outdated: there is a new kernel version released.

Note: you may need to edit the first line of debian.master/changelog; it looks like this at the time of writing this gist:
linux (4.15.0-40.42+upboard) bionic; urgency=medium
... For that reason, I suggest bumping the actual version number as I have done in this gist.

I bumped the version to 43 (current is 42, whereby the patch is from 39 to 40): linux-image-unsigned-4.15.0-43-generic_4.15.0-43.45+upboard_amd64.deb etc. etc.

Error messages with the newly compiled kernel xxx-42-xxx

Furthermore, during sudo apt update and upgrade seems to result in various error messages with the newly created kernel:

[98.786773] systemd-gpt-auto-generator[1465]: Failed to dissect: Input/output error
[n] systemd-gpt-auto-generator[n]: Failed to dissect: Input/output error

Fix seems to be available. Add systemd.gpt_auto=0 to the kernel command line. See rglinuxtech.com/?p=2047

Anybody knows how to add the systemd.gpt_auto=0 to the kernel command line?

Update: any writing to eMMC now results in a couple of error messages....

rlems

@wez said:
I took the Arch patches and built an ubuntu kernel. Here's a gist with the patch against the ubuntu tree and the steps to build one for yourself. I opted to publish instructions rather than just uploading an unsigned kernel blob so that the steps can be followed more easily when ubuntu update the kernel in the future.

https://gist.github.com/wez/a8749dbd0f3db7bbe207ff4cb7679d2e

Thank you! It worked, however the patch seems to be outdated. The patch bumps the version from 39 to 40. As of this writing it should be 42 to 43.

Update 1
During any some eMMC writes I now get the following error messages:

[n] systemd-gpt-auto-generator[n]: Failed to dissect: Input/output error

Fix seems to be to add systemd.gpt_auto=0 to the kernel command line. See rglinuxtech.com/?p=2047

I have no clue whatsoever how to do that exactly? Anybody?

Update 2
Default new installation Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS server with latest (security) updates as of this writing also results in the error messages... therefore it is irrespective to the custom compiled kernel.

ccalde

Hi @rlems ,

You can figure out the systemd-gpt-auto-generator usage:
https://www.systutorials.com/docs/linux/man/8-systemd-gpt-auto-generator/

But I insist on the Ubuntu 18 is not supported yet for UP board, so if you want to use Ubuntu 16, desktop or server, you must follow the steps in the Wiki:
https://wiki.up-community.org/Ubuntu

Bart van Oort

@ccalde said (in May 2018):
Plans are in progress to release a kernel 4.14 and 4.15 for Ubuntu 16.04.4 and Ubuntu 18.04 hopefully by the end of September.

@ccalde said (in December 2018):
But I insist on the Ubuntu 18 is not supported yet for UP board, so if you want to use Ubuntu 16, desktop or server, you must follow the steps in the Wiki:
https://wiki.up-community.org/Ubuntu

So is there any word yet on when Ubuntu 18.04 will be supported? Seems like the plan to release a Ubuntu 18.04 supporting 4.15 kernel in September didn't work out that well.

ccalde

Hi @Bart van Oort

Yes, The Ubuntu 18 was delayed last year as you know.
But we are going to work on the new Ubuntu 18 release for UP family in the next months.
We will keep you updated about that!

Thanks!

ddd

Such a hassle to compile the kernels, is the emutex team planing to merge upstream anytime soon? The documentation for Ubuntu 18 on your site is misleading and some of the stuff does not work. It is embarrassing giving support only to Ubuntu 16/ Ubilinux tbh, very poor support..

These are the *deb files that work for me on my Ubuntu 18 Up2, if someone might find them of interest. You can simpy untar and sudo dpkg -i * deb
https://mega.nz/#!3RQTWIxT!99rWmFsZUIsUEIkfMkblM9KQtLw6KwBBZc3suuLGsJ4

ccalde

Hi @ddd ,

We have updated the UP Wiki to include the new Ubuntu 18.04 support using kernel .4.15 version for UP family.

https://wiki.up-community.org/Ubuntu

ddd

Yes, I have seen that. However:

sudo apt-get autoremove --purge 'linux-.*generic'

Will brick my system if the other kernel fails to install and makes apt freak out about missing deps (as it should be, I just removed all my systems kernels)

sudo apt install upboard-extras

Is not on the repository for Ubuntu 18 AFAIK.

sudo apt-get install linux-image-generic-hwe-18.04-upboard

Have done this, of course(last time, this morning) . I have followed your tutorial and I has never worked. Kernel 4.9 is the only one that is working for me on the UP2 right now.

Any comments about your plans on merging to mainline kernels?

My problem of course are the GPIO modules. I get the Input Output error with the 4.15 kernel.