I’ve seen a few posts requesting this. Well I can’t give you arm64 Ubuntu-Mate, but I can offer (unofficial) Xubuntu 18.04!

Download link - https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvHY_kl4hMB4gQHfDAh2SYG_Q4Bt

This is NOT an image. This is the standard *ubuntu installer for the Raspberry Pi. Copy the zipped files (including the usually hidden ‘.disk’ folder) to a fat formatted partition (it has to be an MBR/msdos partition table) and you are ready to install.

Be aware the installer has a large initrd.lz file, so you will be staring at the rainbow screen for a long time before the installer boot messages/splash screen can be seen.

The installer works just like the installation media for ‘normal’ computers. Everything you can do with a normal computer (like usb persistence) should be possible with the Pi (you just need to add the necessary parameters to cmdline.txt), but be warned the Pi has limited memory.

This is a pure Ubuntu system with the exception of the bootloader files (which have been updated so they work on the Pi 3B+) and the Pi 3B/B+ wifi firmware. It is NOT a hybrid like Ubuntu-Mate 16.04. The 64 bit kernel is a Ubuntu kernel. No ppa’s are used. The setup is exactly as it is for the 32bit Pi server images, except u-boot is not used. See the wiki for more details: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/RaspberryPi .

If you have a problem and it is nothing to do with the installation process then raising a bug on Launchpad is the thing to do.

There is plenty of scope for the user to tinker and optimise things for the Pi. For example, uninstalling apps/daemons that you don’t use. I haven’t tried the vc4 graphics driver yet. Changing the swapfile for zram? You get the idea… perhaps together we could come up with a list of things to do?

Hopefully somebody finds this useful. I enjoyed putting it together (sort of). I did learn a few things anyway!