iMX53 Quick Start Board - The origin of the MicroSD - Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) for ARM

DannyChin_ng · ‎07-07-2011

Hi ,

For the iMX53 Quick Start Board (QSB) BOX, anyone having any idea where does the Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) in the MicroSD comes from ?

1. Was it from Canonical ? If yes, where is the project/source/binary/download page ?

2. Was it from Freescale? If yes, where is the project/source/binary/download page ?

3. Was it from other bsp vendor ?

The goal is to know how can we build the same one like inside the MicroSD Ubuntu 10.04 (lucid) from Source so that we can learn how to build for another Ubuntu distribution like 10.10 (Maverick) or beyond to be deployed inside i.MX53 QSB. Ubuntu is Great !

Thanks.

YiLi · ‎07-26-2011

Lily,

Thanks for the clarification.

Yi

LilyZhang · ‎07-26-2011

Some clarifications:

1. For the default ubuntu image, it's based on http://releases.ubuntu.com/lucid/ubuntu-10.04-netbook-armel+imx51.img. Then applied some changes. You can read i.MX5x_EVK_Ubuntu_10.04_StartupGuide.pdf for more details.

2. For i.MX debian packages listed into i.MX5x_EVK_Ubuntu_10.04_StartupGuide.pdf. It's built from LTIB and then convert as debian package from RPM.

XiaoPong · ‎07-26-2011

Hi, Danny,

Lucid image is a rootfs and it contains its GUI. Except for rootfs, my QSB needs u-boot.bin (boot loader) and uImage (kernel). They can be built in either min profile or gnome profile. The "it" in the "lucid runs fine on top of it" stands for boot loader and kernel.

DannyChin_ng · ‎07-26-2011

Hi Wilson,

Just to understand more, when you mention that "lucid runs fine on top of it.." , do you mean all the Lucid apps including gui apps like the "Calculator" can run well with either FSL gnome and Min profile ? because the Min profile got no GUI as discussed at http://imxcommunity.org/forum/topics/solved-imx53-quick-start-board...

Thanks .

DannyChin_ng · ‎07-26-2011

If we do want it quick, why not give a try to Linaro image as mentioned by Dirk Behme, they even have the Ubuntu Natty distribution which work well for IMX53 QSB. Unless we really want to learn the very foundation of it so that we can customize anything later. But I do admit that I like the foundation.

XiaoPong · ‎07-26-2011

Hi, Yi,

Yes, you are right. Due to lack of Ubuntu source code, we cannot build up lucid rootfs from ltib. However, based on my experience, no matter which profile is chosen, either minimized or gnome, lucid runs fine on top of it. In addition, all packages added in ltib -> package list effect to my rootfs only. They will not be appended into lucid rootfs.

Best Regards,

Wilson

DannyChin_ng · ‎07-26-2011

Hi Yi, Wilson,

Using the LTIB

============================

So far we know that the LTIB is downloading source from http://www.bitshrine.org/ltib/ when it is building the rootfs image (Not from ubuntu.com) and the distribution package source is already there, somebody maintain it.

Using the default Ubuntu 10.04 Image

==============================

When we run "sudo apt-get install [package]", naturally, it source the package from http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/ so as Wilson already said the Ubuntu 10.04 (lucid) was indeed a pre-built image from Canonical is correct.

Linux is consist of Kernel, Library, Modules and Others file and for the boot process, we are using U-boot. We can separate the Kernel and the rest like Library, Modules and Others become what we call ROOTFS or IMAGE. What I can understand is that using LTIB, we are creating our own custom u-boot, kernel and rootfs which can run well with iMX53 QSB (since it is supported by Freescale) but it will be different from the default demo image which is Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid). The default windows manager is already a big different. The build process of the default Ubuntu image I guess is not using LTIB anyway. But of course, in Linux world, all the source is out there. If we still want to use LTIB to build the Ubuntu image, we can perhaps somehow write some LTIB config file to fetch related source and all its dependencies sources from Canonical site, merged with the LTIB process flow then we can produce the ubuntu 10.04 or even any other version of Ubuntu. Of course, if someone already got this config file written then it will be fantastic !

YiLi · ‎07-18-2011

Wilson,

Any idea about how to get the ltib configure file for the default demo image? I am using the vm image from the QSB DVD for the ltib build. I succeeded with test and development package build, which is not the same package as the demo image I assume (x-11 etc).

Thanks,

Yi

XiaoPong · ‎07-18-2011

The Ubuntu 10.04 (lucid) was pre-built image from Canonical.

DirkBehme_ng · ‎07-09-2011

Sorry, I don't know. Search http://www.linaro.org/ how they build Ubuntu for ARM from source.

DannyChin_ng · ‎07-09-2011

Hi Dirk Behme,

Thank for your reply. Will take a look at the linaro Natty image. Wondering if is it possible to download the Ubuntu Source, applied with some patching and build it using LTIB toolchain, in other word, roll out own BSP for any Ubuntu distribution. Is it really that difficult ?