PREVIEW: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Server Alpha

loverpi

La Frite should be officially supported by Ubuntu 20.04 from Canonical. The first alpha daily arm64 iso has arrived targeting the ARM EBBR specification.
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-server/daily/current/focal-server-arm64.iso
It took two years of extensive upstream developer work to get to this point and it is the first time a consumer ARM64 board is supported. We are working closely with Canonical's software team to get all of our platforms supported without modifications. However, some platforms will need minor kernel modifications to enable all features.
Please leave all comments below and do not contact Canonical/Ubuntu's team or create bugs in their system. We will follow up with them for specific issues.

miguelagve

Is La Frite going to be fully suported, or will it need any modifications? I've tried booting the current ISO and the keyboard stops being detected once I get into the installation process, just like the other distros I've tried. I haven't checked, but it's probably CONFIG_PHY_MESON_GXL_USB2 not being set to yes, or the module not being included in initramfs

miguelagve

I've just read your kickstarter update, and you said you're working on keyboard reliability, but it's on the firmware side. Is my issue related to it, because the keyboard is fully fuctional for me in firmware and grub menu, but after that, it stops working.

aheisner

I have the same problem with keyboard. Keyboard works in u-boot and in grub, but not in language selection GUI. I did check, and indeed the phy-meson-gxl-usb2 module is neither built-in nor included in the initrd as a loadable module. Bummer.

Mark_Birss

loverpi said:

La Frite should be officially supported by Ubuntu 20.04 from Canonical. The first alpha daily arm64 iso has arrived targeting the ARM EBBR specification.
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-server/daily/current/focal-server-arm64.iso
It took two years of extensive upstream developer work to get to this point and it is the first time a consumer ARM64 board is supported. We are working closely with Canonical's software team to get all of our platforms supported without modifications. However, some platforms will need minor kernel modifications to enable all features.
Please leave all comments below and do not contact Canonical/Ubuntu's team or create bugs in their system. We will follow up with them for specific issues.

Mark_Birss

Yes, can also confirm via serial console,  meson-gxl-usb2 missing only usb-storage module loaded
why do they even post this news, if you cannot use it as provided ?
install will start, but cant mount usb install image so cant install that way also, will try PXE next

davisonja

@Mark_Birss ; USB isn't the only way you can boot (PXE, as you mention, is an alternative). The nature of an Alpha is there's a bunch of stuff that doesn't work in a bunch of places, so unless you really can't boot it at all it seems fair. There has been talk of putting the board in USB target mode to write to eMMC which may be another alternative.

miguelagve

davisonja said:

@Mark_Birss ; USB isn't the only way you can boot (PXE, as you mention, is an alternative). The nature of an Alpha is there's a bunch of stuff that doesn't work in a bunch of places, so unless you really can't boot it at all it seems fair. There has been talk of putting the board in USB target mode to write to eMMC which may be another alternative.

The fact that the module isn't enabled means that the usb's won't work even in you install it in other ways. I've encountered this same issue before trying to install other distros, like OpenSUSE on the board, and this module is in fact enabled in libre-computer provided images. If they are working with Canonical, enabling the needed kernel modules for the board to fully function should have been a priority.

siewcu

Any updates here? 

WereCatf

siewcu said:

Any updates here? 

I assume USB is still not enabled, since I am unable to boot the image from a USB-stick.

miguelagve

WereCatf said:

siewcu said:

Any updates here? 

I assume USB is still not enabled, since I am unable to boot the image from a USB-stick.

I can boot the image just fine, but once I get into the installation process my keyboard is not detected anymore.

WereCatf

miguelagve said:

WereCatf said:

siewcu said:

Any updates here? 

I assume USB is still not enabled, since I am unable to boot the image from a USB-stick.

I can boot the image just fine, but once I get into the installation process my keyboard is not detected anymore.

Interesting. I wonder why I can't even boot the installer. I can get to the GRUB-screen, but after that, it just gets stuck at complaining that it can't detect the size of the storage-media.

miguelagve

What kind of usb drive are you using? Some of them seem to have some issues with the board. Sandisk ones seem to be the most reliable for me to work with.

WereCatf

miguelagve said:

What kind of usb drive are you using? Some of them seem to have some issues with the board. Sandisk ones seem to be the most reliable for me to work with.

Doesn't matter what USB-drive I use, doesn't change anything. I get the errors:

Couldn't get size: Device Error (0x8abunchazeroes7)

and

MODSIGN: Couldn't get UEFI db list

No idea if the problem stopping it from booting is one of those two, or something that's not even visible.

devegoo

Anyone have problem with final images from ubuntu-focal-arm64 /ubuntu-focal-daily-arm64, with LaFrite 512 ? 
 installer not booting correctly after grub stage , i have message "host not halted after 16000 microseconds"
also on opensuse tumbleweed snapshot i have this message.

loverpi

@devegoo Right now, Debian is the only image known to work. We are working on the others with the upstream people. http://share.loverpi.com/board/libre-computer-project/libre-computer-board/distro/debian/11/bullseye-testing-netinst-2020-05-11.iso