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Ubuntu OS Installation

Ubuntu Server 64 bits installation on Raspberry Pi is supported since release 20.04. Ubuntu images for Raspberry Pi can be downloaded from Ubuntu’s download page.

Ubuntu Server 20.04.3 LTS for ARM64 image will be used.

Headless installation

Fast deployment of a headless Ubuntu 64 bits OS in Raspberry Pi 4 configuring cloud-init. Ubuntu cloud-init configuration files within the image (/boot/user-data and /boot/network-config) will be modified before the first startup.

Step 1. Download Ubuntu 20.04 OS for Raspberry PI

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS image that can be downloaded from here:

https://ubuntu.com/download/raspberry-pi
Step 2. Burn the Ubuntu OS image to the SD card

Burn the latest Raspberry Pi OS image to SD-Card using Etcher

Browse to https://www.balena.io/etcher/ Download the version for your operating system Run the installer To run Etcher is pretty straight forward.

Put a blank mini SD card and adapter into your machine. No need to format it. You can use a new SD card right out of the package.

1 - Click Flash from file - browse to the zip file you downloaded for Raspberry Pi OS.
2 - Click Select target - it may find the SDHC Card automatically, if not select it.
3 - Click Flash! - you may be prompted for your password

After you flash (burn) the image, File Explorer (Windows) may have trouble seeing it. A simple fix is to pull the SD card out then plug it back in. On Windows it should appear in File Explorer with the name boot followed by a drive letter.

Step 3: Mofify user-data network-config within /boot directory in the SDCard

Modify file /boot/user-data

As an example this cloud-init user-data file, set hostname, locale and timezone and specify a couple of users, oss and ansible (removing default ubuntu user) with its ssh public keys

#cloud-config

# Set TimeZone and Locale
timezone: Europe/Madrid
locale: es_ES.UTF-8

# Hostname
hostname: gateway

# cloud-init not managing hosts file. only hostname is added
manage_etc_hosts: localhost

users:
  # not using default ubuntu user
  - name: oss
    primary_group: users
    groups: [adm, admin]
    shell: /bin/bash
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    lock_passwd: true
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABJQAAAQEAusTXKfFoy6p3G4QAHvqoBK+9Vn2+cx2G5AY89WmjMikmeTG9KUseOCIAx22BCrFTNryMZ0oLx4u3M+Ibm1nX76R3Gs4b+gBsgf0TFENzztST++n9/bHYWeMVXddeV9RFbvPnQZv/TfLfPUejIMjFt26JCfhZdw3Ukpx9FKYhFDxr2jG9hXzCY9Ja2IkVwHuBcO4gvWV5xtI1nS/LvMw44Okmlpqos/ETjkd12PLCxZU6GQDslUgGZGuWsvOKbf51sR+cvBppEAG3ujIDySZkVhXqH1SSaGQbxF0pO6N5d4PWus0xsafy5z1AJdTeXZdBXPVvUSNVOUw8lbL+RTWI2Q== ubuntu@mi_pc
  # Ansible user
  - name: ansible
    primary_group: users
    shell: /bin/bash
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    lock_passwd: true
    ssh_authorized_keys:
      - ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQDsVSvxBitgaOiqeX4foCfhIe4yZj+OOaWP+wFuoUOBCZMWQ3cW188nSyXhXKfwYK50oo44O6UVEb2GZiU9bLOoy1fjfiGMOnmp3AUVG+e6Vh5aXOeLCEKKxV3I8LjMXr4ack6vtOqOVFBGFSN0ThaRTZwKpoxQ+pEzh+Q4cMJTXBHXYH0eP7WEuQlPIM/hmhGa4kIw/A92Rm0ZlF2H6L2QzxdLV/2LmnLAkt9C+6tH62hepcMCIQFPvHVUqj93hpmNm9MQI4hM7uK5qyH8wGi3nmPuX311km3hkd5O6XT5KNZq9Nk1HTC2GHqYzwha/cAka5pRUfZmWkJrEuV3sNAl ansible@pimaster

## Reboot to enable Wifi configuration (more details in network-config file)
power_state:
  mode: reboot

Important:

Before applying the provided cloud-init files remember to change ssh_authorized_keys fields for both users (ansible and the non-default ubuntu). Your own ssh public keys must be included.

timezone and locale can be changed as well to fit your environment.

Modify /boot/network-config file within the SDCard

version: 2
ethernets:
  eth0:
    dhcp4: false
    addresses: [10.0.0.1/24]
wifis:
  wlan0:
    dhcp4: true
    optional: true
    access-points:
      "<SSID_NAME>":
      password: "<SSID_PASSWD>"

Important:

Remember to include the SSID name and password of your home network

(Optional) USB Booting

As alternative to using a SDCard a USB 3.0 Flass Drive (or SSD disk connected through a USB3.0 to SATA adapter) can be used to hosts the OS.

Latest version of LTS 20.04.2 does not allow to boot from USB directy and some additional steps are required.

You can follow the instructions of this post.

Step 1. Flash USB Flash Disk/SSD Disk with Ubuntu 20.04

Repeat the steps for flashing Ubuntu image, but selecting the USB Flash Drive instead the SDCard
Step 2. Boot the Raspberry Pi with Raspi OS Lite

The SDCard burnt in preparing Raspberry Pi section, can be used for booting the RaspberryPI.

Step 3. Plug in the USB Flash Disk/SSD Disk using USB 3.0 port in Raspberry Pi

Execute lsblk for finding the new USB disk

lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda           8:0    1 29.9G  0 disk
├─sda1        8:1    1  256M  0 part
└─sda2        8:2    1  2.8G  0 part
mmcblk0     179:0    0 29.7G  0 disk
├─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0  256M  0 part /boot
└─mmcblk0p2 179:2    0 29.5G  0 part /

Note: In this case USB device is labelled as sda: two partitions (boot and OS) are automatically created by initial image burning process.

boot partition: sda1
root filesystem: sda2

Step 3.5 (Case of SSDD with USB to SATA Adapter). Checking USB-SATA Adapter support UASP

Checking that the USB SATA adapter suppors UASP.

lsusb -t

/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 5000M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 5000M
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/1p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 3, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
        |__ Port 4: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M

Driver=uas indicates that the adpater supports UASP.

Check USB-SATA adapter ID

sudo lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 174c:55aa ASMedia Technology Inc. Name: ASM1051E SATA 6Gb/s bridge, ASM1053E SATA 6Gb/s bridge, ASM1153 SATA 3Gb/s bridge, ASM1153E SATA 6Gb/s bridge
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0000:3825
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 145f:02c9 Trust
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2109:3431 VIA Labs, Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Note: In this case ASMedia TEchnology ASM1051E has ID 152d:0578

Step 4. Create 2 mountpoints

Now we are going to create two mountpoints and mount the Ubuntu drive. Use these commands substituting your own drive it is not /dev/sda:

sudo mkdir /mnt/boot
sudo mkdir /mnt/writable
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/writable

Check mounted disks with lsblk command:

lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda           8:0    1 29.9G  0 disk
├─sda1        8:1    1  256M  0 part /mnt/boot
└─sda2        8:2    1  2.8G  0 part /mnt/writable
mmcblk0     179:0    0 29.7G  0 disk
├─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0  256M  0 part /boot
└─mmcblk0p2 179:2    0 29.5G  0 part /

Step 5. Modify Mounted Partitions to fix booting procedure from disk

Modify step 4 mounted partitions using script from James A. Chambers

Download and execute the automated script:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TheRemote/Ubuntu-Server-raspi4-unofficial/master/BootFix.sh -o BootFix.sh
chmod +x BootFix.sh
sudo ./BootFix.sh

The script output should be like:

sudo ./BootFix.sh
Found writable partition at /mnt/writable
Found boot partition at /mnt/boot
Decompressing kernel from vmlinuz to vmlinux...
Kernel decompressed
Updating config.txt with correct parameters...
Creating script to automatically decompress kernel...
Creating apt script to automatically decompress kernel...
Updating Ubuntu partition was successful!  Shut down your Pi, remove the SD card then reconnect the power.

Step 6. Shutdown Raspberry Pi, remove SDCard and boot again from USB RaspberryPI is now able to boot from USB without needing a SDCard

Last Update: Feb 25, 2022

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