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UbuntuCore

Summary

Ubuntu Core is a light weight Linux for IoT. It uses the concepts of snaps to provide functionality. One idea is to deploy snaps.

• Ubuntu Core is about 350Mb and runs on Raspberry Pi and other platforms.
• It runs on the Intel Joule, which is larger than the Intel Edison. However, it looks like people have tried to run it on the Edison.
• As of January, 2017, it is possible to get Ubuntu Core running under BBB, but BBB is not a formally supported platform, see https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/snapcraft/2016-December/002086.html
• There do not seem to be many snaps for BBB

BeagleBone Black

Summary: As of 12/2016, BeagleBone Black was not directly supported under Ubuntu Core, but there is a .img file that can be downloaded and installed via a micro SD card. It looks like logging in requires console and keyboard so that the id_rsa.pub key from https://one.ubuntu.com/ is downloaded.

BBB How To

Required:

• A BeagleBone Black
• A micro SD Card
• A USB Keyboard
• A micro HDMI cable (I used a Amzer Micro HDMI High Speed Male To HDMI Male Cable - 5 Feet)
• A monitor to connect to the other end of the micro HDMI cable.

Procedure:

1. Create an account at https://one.ubuntu.com/ and upload your id_rsa.pub key
2. Download the image file, uncompress it and dd it to the micro sd. Note that we use the device for the entire sd card /dev/mmcblk0 not /dev/mmcblk0p1 or /dev/mmcblk0p2. Below is what I did on BB:
   
   wget http://people.canonical.com/~ogra/snappy/all-snaps/stable/current/ubuntu-core-16-beaglebone.img.xz
   
   ...
   
   root@beaglebone:~/src#  unxz ubuntu-core-16-beaglebone.img.xz
   root@beaglebone:~/src# file *.img
   ubuntu-core-16-beaglebone.img: x86 boot sector; partition 1: ID=0xc, active, starthead 32, startsector 2048, 262144 secto\
   rs; partition 2: ID=0x83, starthead 25, startsector 264192, 1064960 sectors, code offset 0x0
   root@beaglebone:~/src# ls /dev/mmc*
   /dev/mmcblk0    /dev/mmcblk0p2  /dev/mmcblk1boot0  /dev/mmcblk1p1
   /dev/mmcblk0p1  /dev/mmcblk1    /dev/mmcblk1boot1  /dev/mmcblk1p2
   root@beaglebone:~/src# dd if=ubuntu-core-16-beaglebone.img of=/dev/mmcblk0
   1330132+0 records in
   1330132+0 records out
   681027584 bytes (681 MB) copied, 330.053 s, 2.1 MB/s
   root@beaglebone:~/src# mkdir boot
   root@beaglebone:~/src# mount  /dev/mmcblk0p1 boot
   root@beaglebone:~/src# ls boot
   linux-generic-bbb_6.snap  MLO  uboot.env  u-boot.img
   root@beaglebone:~/src#

   [$[Get Code]]
   Note that mounting /dev/mmcblk0p2 seemed not to work?
3. Reboot
   1. Shutdown with shutdown -h now
   2. Turn off the power
   3. Plug in a Ethernet cable, keyboard and monitor (mouse seems to be optional)
   4. Insert the sd card
   5. Hold down the boot button (see https://github.com/linneman/planck/wiki/How-to-boot-the-BeagleBone-black-from-an-SD-Card)
   6. Turn on the power
      1. It is possible to get an ssh prompt, but the password is unknown. The ssh host key changed and I had to edit ~/.ssh/known_hosts and remove the duplicate key
   7. Configure the machine by updating the Ethernet information if necessary, then enter the email address of your Ubuntu Core account and password.
   8. Your public key will be downloaded.
   9. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/PublicationNotes#Generating_beaglebone_black_images_.2816.29 says: "Note 5: need to connect a keyboard and monitor for console-conf. It downloads your ssh key from LP for the email address you provide"
   10. Use ssh to connect. The username is a short username, not the email address used by Ubuntu Core. The console should tell you the user name and IP address.

BBB Resources

• https://beagleboard.org/snappy
  • https://beagleboard.org/snappy has a Get Snappy for BeagleBone Black link that seems to have changed, an old version is https://web-beta.archive.org/web/20160306051028/https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/snappy/start
  • https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/snappy/start/gadget-snaps/ lists a BBB gadget snap
    • On the Nuc
      cxbrooks@localhost:~$ snap find beagle
      Name         Version  Developer  Notes  Summary
      beagleblack  3.1      mvo        -      OEM Beagle Bone Black
      cxbrooks@localhost:~$

      [$[Get Code]]
      See https://github.com/snapcore/snapd/wiki/Gadget-snap for info about gadget snaps.
• http://askubuntu.com/questions/721495/how-do-i-flash-snappy-ubuntu-core-onto-a-beaglebone-blacks-emmc seems useful
• http://people.canonical.com/~ogra/snappy/all-snaps/stable/current/ubuntu-core-16-beaglebone.img.xz is mentioned in http://askubuntu.com/questions/846891/how-do-i-install-ubuntu-core-16-on-the-beaglebone-black

To create a microsd card with Ubuntu Core on it, I started following these steps, but gave up because we have a .img file which is used to overwrite the entire sd card. We are not creating individual partitions

• https://github.com/linneman/planck/wiki/How-to-create-a-Boot-SD-Card-for-the-BeagleBone-black- followed until I needed the MLO-beaglebone file.
• http://www.armhf.com/boards/beaglebone-black/bbb-sd-install/ - used to get bone-uboot..

NUC

NUC Access

For the Nuc, I installed core as a vm on swarmnuc1017.eecs.berkeley.edu

1. Ask Christopher for an account on swarmnuc1017 and on the vm
2. Use ssh username@swarmuc1017.eecs.berkeley.edu to connect to swarmnuc1017
3. While logged on to swarmnuc1017, use ssh username@192.168.122.250 to connect to the vm

NUC Setup

For the Nuc, I installed core as a vm on swarmnuc1017.eecs.berkeley.edu

1. Start with https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/snappy/start/, which prompts you to install qemu-kvm, download an Ubuntu Core Image and set up an account.
   1. I uploaded the ~root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub key as one of the keys so that ssh would work below
2. When I tried to run the kvm command while logged in via ssh, I received an error:
   root@swarmnuc1017:~/src# kvm -smp 2 -m 1500 -netdev user,id=mynet0,hostfwd=tcp::8022-:22,hostfwd=tcp::8090-:80 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=mynet0 -drive file=ubuntu-core-16-amd64.img,format=raw
   Could not initialize SDL(No available video device) - exiting

   [$[Get Code]]
   My workaround was to vaguely follow http://opennodecloud.com/opennode-os/2013/01/01/howto-kvm-manager.html
   1. apt-get install virt-manager
   2. Add the public key of my account on my mac to the end of ~root/.ssh/authorized_keys
   3. Used ssh -Y root@swarmnuc1017 to connect. The -Y is compressed X11
3. Started up virt-manager
4. Created a new VM that uses the Ubuntu Core .img file that was downloaded above.
5. To log in, from swarmnu1017, use ssh cxbrooks@192.168.122.250

Snap on the BBB

Serial Change in process

This seems stuck:

List and Find

Not much installed or available for this platform

See Also

• Ubuntu Core (Terraswarm testbeds wiki, non-public)