Ubuntu on ARM : Two examples of mine

After succeeding to run a graphical environment of Ubuntu on iMac G3, I felt a deep desire to test Linux on SbC having an ARM processor.

My first SbC was a "Cubietruck" (aka Cubieboard-3) which was released in Autumn 2013. It was on my hands on November 2013. It had an Allwinner A20 cpu (dual-core). The operating systems I tried were Lubuntu, Fedora and Cubian. Later, Ubuntu was also available. "Cubietruck" had some superiorities compared to other SbCs (VGA or HDMI as video output; NAND or micro-SD as boot media; ability to run SATA drive; wi-fi and Bluetooth and infrared availability; digital audio output through optic port). Yes, it's not the most powerful SbC, but as a personal computer for browsing web pages or for multimedia purposes or for office applications, it was found sufficient. Now, the operating system runs on a SATA-HDD (significantly faster than NAND or micro-SD).

In the fifth month of my first SbC experience, I wished to try another SbC, having a more powerful processor. My search resulted in "ODROID-U3". The processor was very powerful compared to "Cubietruck". It was an Exynos 4412 (quad-core at 1.7 GHz). It had inferiorities compared to "Cubietruck" (only HDMI; micro-SD or eMMC as boot media; no SATA support; no wi-fi; no Bluetooth). But it was really an acceptable choice for me who wanted to try it as a replacement for x86-based computers with very low energy consumption and portability. Needless to say that "ODROID-U3" was a very powerful device. I added a wi-fi dongle (to one of the three USB-2.0 ports). Ubuntu was installed and run (now 14.04). It had a great community and also a monthly magazine was available (http://magazine.odroid.com). I have to express that my home computer is this "ODROID-U3" now (using it for adding this post also). I also want to tell that the operating system is running on an USB-HDD (thanks to ODROID magazines).

To see a very low power consumption (running with an adapter 5V DC and 2 A max) while performing everyday computing tasks kept me a little bit away from my old PCs.

Ubuntu 12.04 on iMac G3 350MHz PPC750 512MB RAM

Situation :

- An iMac G3 350MHz PPC750 running Mac OS 9 with old browsers (not upgradeable) limited the ability to search the internet

- 64MB RAM was enough for running Mac OS 9, but if using Mac OS X 10.4 (latest Mac OS X for iMac G3) would be the case, additional RAM was necessary

- In search of recent software, Mac OS X 10.4, being at least 4 years old, would not be the first choice, and although some work would probably be necessary, Ubuntu 12.04 was thought to be tried



Homework :

- Additional RAM (a 512MB SDRAM was found and mounted)

- Ubuntu 12.04 "mini.iso" for PowerPC architecture (downloaded and burned to CD)

- Finding and reading documents about probable problems and their solutions (lots of documents were downloaded and read)



What was done :

- while pressing the power button, CD was inserted, "C" key was pressed and kept still until iMac started to read from CD and a black-white text screen was visible
(if the keyboard layout is not QWERTY, the key to be pressed may vary, being the third from left in the lowest row)

- a few seconds after the first screen, a second screen where the default selection was said to be "install" was visible, and "cli" was typed and "return" key was pressed
("cli" is the short form of "command line install")
(if the keyboard layout is not QWERTY, the keys to be pressed to type "cli" may vary, "c" being the third from left in the lowest row, "l" being the ninth from left in the middle row and "i" being the eighth from left in the upper row)


- "mini.iso" CD went on, asking questions about language, region, keyboard layout, etc., then partitioning, and so on
(needless to say that installation in such a system through the network lasted more than one hour)

- when prompted, "no automatic updates" was selected

- installation was completed and iMac went for a reboot
(time to take the CD out)

- iMac booted from the hard disk drive and a login screen was there to run Ubuntu 12.04 in the command line

- login was completed and "xinit" package was installed with the command
"sudo apt-get install xinit"

- the command "nano" was typed and entered to write an "xorg.conf" file;
the "xorg.conf" file was copied to "/etc/X11" folder with root privilages
(the "xorg.conf" file is as follows)
Section "Device"
    Identifier "ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128"
    Driver "r128"
    Option "NoInt10" "true"
    Option "CCEusecTimeout" "100000"
    Option "UseFBDev" "false"
    Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
    Option "SWcursor" "true"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load "i2c"
    Load "ddc"
    Load "dri"
    Load "dri2"
    Load "record"
    Load "extmod"
    Load "freetype"
    Load "type1"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
    Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "iMac"
    VendorName "iMac"
    ModelName "Monitor Model"
    Option "DPMS"
    HorizSync 58-62
    VertRefresh 75-117
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Default Screen"
    Device "ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128"
    Monitor "iMac"
    DefaultDepth 24
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 16
        Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

- the command "xinit" was typed and entered; "X" screen was there
(time to select window manager, display manager, browser, ...)



What I chose :

- "fluxbox" as window manager (sudo apt-get install fluxbox)
"lxde" may be a good choice also (sudo apt-get install lxde),
but not "lubuntu-desktop" (sudo apt-get install lubuntu-desktop)

- "slim" as display manager
(if the choice will be "lxde", its own display manager -lxdm- will be there, making this step unnecessary)

- "dillo" and "firefox" as browsers

- "mc" as file manager (not a graphical one)
(if the choice will be "lxde", its own file manager -pcmanfm- will be there, making this step unnecessary)

- "hardinfo" to view system information and details

- "ssh" to connect to and to be connected by other computers

- "remmina" to connect to desktops of other computers



Feelings in short :

- Recent operating system with recent browser software running in a computer this old made us happy