Ubuntu Wiki

This page covers installation of Ubuntu "Lucid" 10.04 on Freescale i.MX51 Babbage 2.x and 3.x boards. Babbage 1 boards are not supported anymore.

Known issues

Please consult the known issues with Ubuntu 10.04 ARM platforms before installing.

Preparing the installation media

First of all download the Ubuntu Desktop image for i.MX51 boards and write to a SD card. The SD card must be at least 1 GB.

To write the image, you may either:

• use the USB Startup Disk Creator found in the usb-creator package
• use the usb-imagewriter tool found in the usb-imagewriter package
• write the image from the command line, e.g. if your SD card drive is /dev/mmcblk0:

sudo dd bs=4096 if=lucid-desktop-armel+imx51.img of=/dev/mmcblk0

You'll also need either an USB mass storage device or another SD card on which you'll install the system. Your device should be at least 8 GB for a stock desktop installation.

Using a different installation variant

The Installation variants page shows how to switch a Babbage desktop image or SD card to different install variants (i.e. OEM manufacturer installation)

Starting the live system

Plug the SD card with the installation image into the lower SD card slot underneath the board and power up the board with the power button labelled "PWR".

The board should boot into a live session after a couple of minutes.

Starting the installer

Double-click on the "Install" icon on the desktop and follow the instructions. The installer window might take up to 30 seconds to appear.

Note that you can not repartition your installation SD card (/dev/mmcblk0) during installation, please install to an USB mass storage device or to another SD card plugged in the user slot on top of the board. In theory, you may partition the remaining space on your installation SD card on another computer to use it as a target filesystem but this isn't recommended.

Rebooting into the installed system

When the installation finishes, you may reboot into your installed system. Do not remove the installation SD card as it is needed to boot into your installed system.

NB: The very first boot of an installed might be slower than following ones as some profiling data is gathered by sreadahead.