Ubuntu for the Pandora

This is an Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Penguin) installation for the Pandora.

Most stuff should work, but PNDs do not as Ubuntu is compiled for armhf (hard float) and the PND-programs, libraries and all PNDs are compiled for soft float.

This is based on the Ubuntu Pre-Installed OMAP image https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/OMAP, but uses the 3.2.17 kernel from NAND and some stuff from the original firmware.

Reminder: Partition alignment

Make sure your partitions are aligned correctly or Ubuntu will be very slow. Check the flashbench utility if you are unsure.

Installation

You need an ext2 or ext3 partition with at least 2 GB of free space for this. You will probably want to install this on an empty partition.

Assuming you want to install this on partition 2 of you SD-card:

  1. Optionally, but recommended: Format the partition:
    (Please make sure /dev/mmcblk0p2 is the right partition. This will erase all your data there.) $ sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/mmcblk0p2 (Replace "mkfs.ext3" with "mkfs.ext2" if you prefer an ext2 partition.)
  2. Mount the partition and extract the tar-archive: $ mkdir /tmp/ubuntu $ sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /tmp/ubuntu $ cd /tmp/ubuntu $ wget -O - http://lxtek.de/pandora/ubuntu/ubuntu-12.04-preinstalled-desktop-armhf+omap-pandora1.tar.gz | sudo tar xfz - (You can also download the tar archive onto a different partiton/SD-card first and then extract it from there.)
  3. If you did not install into the second partition on your SD-card you need to edit /tmp/ubuntu/boot.txt and change the following line: setenv bootargs debug root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rw rootdelay=2 vram=6272K omapfb.vram=0:3000K /dev/mmcblk0p2 needs to point to the partition where you extracted the files to.
  4. Unmount your SD-cards and put the Ubuntu-card into the left slot, if it's not in there already.
  5. Reboot and hold the right shoulder button until the boot menu appears.
  6. Select "boot from SD1:2" (or where ever you installed it) and confirm with the gamepad button "X".
  7. Wait until Ubuntu is booted and login as the default 'pandora' user with the single letter password 'p'.
  8. Have fun.

You can ignore all the error messages about not being able to open a pts on system boot. Upstart needs /dev/pts to be mounted when started. This is normally done in the initrd, but the original Pandora kernel is not compiled with initrd-support. But regardless of all the errors everything seems to work fine.