IGEPv2 Ubuntu Distro flash

WORKING PROGRESS

How to get the Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS in the Nand Flash Memory
The Ubuntu project is excited to be working with the ARM ecosystem to port Ubuntu for ARM-based devices. This work fits with our goals of making Ubuntu available as an open platform to as many people as possible.

Overview of How-To

This How-To is meant to be a starting point for people to learn install an Ubuntu image for OMAP3-based IGEP platforms as quickly and easily as possible.

This How-To covers IGEPv2, IGEP COM Module and IGEP COM Proton boards Nand Flash Install. if you are looking Ubuntu for IGEPv5 go to this other Howto.

Prerequisites

First you need follow theIGEPv2 Ubuntu Distribution howto and boot the IGEPv2 / IGEP COM Module / IGEP COM Proton using the Ubuntu distribution described in the howto.

Where are the Nand Flash partitions?

We need to check where the Nand flash partitions are located we will use the command lsblk command for check it:

root@igep00x0:~# lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
mtdblock0    31:0    0   512K  0 disk
mtdblock1    31:1    0    12M  0 disk
mtdblock2    31:2    0 499.5M  0 disk
mmcblk0     179:0    0   3.8G  0 disk
|-mmcblk0p1 179:1    0  70.6M  0 part /boot
`-mmcblk0p2 179:2    0   3.7G  0 part /

Where:

mdtblock0: Bootloader partition
mtdblock1: Boot partition
mtdblock2: rootfs partition

Erase the partitions

It's very important erase the partitions before try to write anything into the flash memory. We will erase all NAND partitions using these commands:

$ flash_eraseall /dev/mdt0 
$ flash_eraseall /dev/mtd1 
$ flash_eraseall /dev/mtd2

Install the Bootloader

Download the writeloader binary package from here ARMEL version or from here if you are using hard float version.

After download the appropiate package we're ready for install the bootloader in the internal flash

ARMEL version

$ writeloader-armel -i /boot/MLO -o /dev/mtd0

ARM Hard float version

$ writeloader-armhf -i /boot/MLO -o /dev/mtd0

Install the kernel (first boot)

We must create a jffs2 partition for the boot device, we will use this command:

$ mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock1 /mnt

Now we can copy the boot content inside as

$ cd /mnt
$ cp /boot/* .

and after that we can unmount the device as

$ cd ..
$ umount /mnt

Install the Rootfs (Using Ubi filesystem)

a) Format the partition with ubi

$ ubiformat /dev/mtd2

b) Attach the device

$ ubiattach -p /dev/mtd2

c) Create the ubi volume

$ ubimkvol /dev/ubi0 -N rootfs -s 486MiB

d) Download the ubi ubuntu image

This image is generated using this command:

$ mkfs.ubifs -r ubuntu-12.04.04-lts-isee-igep00x0-armel/ -m 2048 -e 129024 -c 4044 -o ubuntu-12.04.04-lts-isee-igep00x0-20140606-armel.ubi.img

Where:

ubuntu-12.04.04-lts-isee-igep00x0-armel: Is the rootfs uncompressed directory

ubuntu-12.04.04-lts-isee-igep00x0-20140606-armel.ubi.img : Is the ubi generated image