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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 22.04.2 LTS for ARM64 image will be used.

Headless installation

Fast deployment of a headless Ubuntu 64 bits OS in Raspberry Pi 4 using 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. Burn the Ubuntu OS image to a SD-card or USB flash drive

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

Raspberry PI Imager can be used to burn Ubuntu 22.04 Server (64 bits) OS into a SD Card/USB Flash disk.

Step 3: Mofify user-data network-config within /boot directory in the SDCard or USB Flash drive/SSD

Modify file /boot/user-data

As an example this cloud-init user-data file, set hostname, locale and timezone and specify a new user, ricsanfre (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: ricsanfre
    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
## 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 user name (ricsanfre) and ssh_authorized_keys field. Your own user_name and 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/Fash drive

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

Automating Image creation (USB Booting)

Using a Linux desktop, creation of booting USB SSD disk for different cluster nodes can be automated.

Step 1. Download Ubuntu 22.04 Raspberry PI 64 bits image

https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/22.04/release/

IMG=ubuntu-22.04.2-preinstalled-server-arm64+raspi.img.xz
URL_IMG=https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/22.04/release/${IMG}
mkdif img
# Download Image
wget ${URL_IMG} -O img/${IMG}

Step 2. Insert USB SSD disk

Get device associated with USB disk (i.e: /dev/sdb) executing command lsblk
```
USB=/dev/sdb
```
Step 3: Optional (Wipe USB disk partition table)

This remove current partition tables defined in the USB disk.
```
sudo wipefs -a -f ${USB}
```

Step 4: burn image into USB disk

# `-d` decompress `<` redirect $FILE contents to expand `|` sending the output to `dd` to copy directly to $USB
xz -d < img/${IMG} - | sudo dd bs=100M of=${USB}

Step 5: Mount system-boot in the burned image

SYSTEM_BOOT_MOUNT=/tmp/pi-disk
sudo mkdir ${SYSTEM_BOOT_MOUNT}
# Mount first partition of device /dev/sdb1 corresponding with system-boot partion
sudo mount ${USB}1 ${SYSTEM_BOOT_MOUNT}

Step 6: Copy cloud-init configuration files

sudo cp user-data ${SYSTEM_BOOT_MOUNT}
sudo cp network-config ${SYSTEM_BOOT_MOUNT}

Step 7: Unmount system-boot partition
```
sudo umount ${SYSTEM_BOOT_MOUNT}
```

Ubuntu 20.04 USB Booting

Ubuntu LTS 22.04 supports out-of-the-box booting from USB Flash Drive/SSD. In case of using Ubuntu LTS 20.04 release additional steps are required to enable USB booting

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: May 17, 2023

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