Ubuntu MATE 15.10 for the Raspberry Pi 2.

@Wimpy and @rohithmadhavan have made an Ubuntu MATE image for the Raspberry Pi 2 which you can download or build yourself.

The image is functional and based on the regular Ubuntu armhf base, not the new Snappy Core, which means that the installation procedure for applications is the same as that for the regular desktop version, ie using apt-get .

We have done what we can to optimise the build for the Raspberry Pi 2 and one can comfortably use applications such as LibreOffice, which in fact is a joy to use But the microSDHC I/O throughput is a bottleneck so we recommend that you use a Class 6 or Class 10 microSDHC card. If you build the image yourself we recommend you use the f2fs

filesystem.

You'll need a microSD card which is 4GB or greater to fit the image. The file system can be resized to occupy the unallocated space of the microSD card, similar to Raspbian.

NOTE! There are no predefined user accounts. The first time you boot the Ubuntu MATE image it will run through a setup wizard where you can create your own user account and configure your regional settings. The first boot is quite slow, but once the first boot configuration is complete subsequent boots are much quicker.

Download

A pre-built image available from the Ubuntu MATE website.

Putting the image on microSDHC

Download the image and then:

Extract the .img.bz2 archive to get the image file.

bunzip2 ubuntu-mate-15.10-desktop-armhf-raspberry-pi-2.img.bz2

Write the image file to the microSD card as root.

sudo ddrescue -d -D --force ubuntu-mate-15.10-desktop-armhf-raspberry-pi-2.img /dev/sdX

The drive may be mounted on any /dev/sdX so use the command lsblk to

check.

Re-size file system

There are no utilities included for automatic file system re-sizing. However,

it's not hard to do manually. Once booted:

`sudo fdisk /dev/mmcblk0`

Delete the second partition (d, 2), then re-create it using the defaults

(n, p, 2, enter, enter), then write and exit (w). Reboot the system, then:

`sudo resize2fs /dev/mmcblk0p2`

Enable and Disable X11

We created a simple utility called graphical to disable/enable the MATE desktop environment for easily creating a headless "server". Executing graphical disable will present a console login on the next boot, with now X11 or associated services running. If you want to get the full Ubuntu MATE desktop back, run graphical enable and reboot.

Hardware accelerated video

Most videos will play with hardware acceleration using omxplayer which is pre-installed in Ubuntu MATE. However if you have MPEG-2 or VC-1 video video files then you will need MPEG-2 and/or VC-1 licenses from the Raspberry Pi Store.

Redirecting audio output

You can select which audio device omxplayer should output audio to.

For HDMI

omxplayer -o hdmi video.mp4

For 3.5mm audio jack

omxplayer -o local video.mp4

The sound will output to HDMI by default if both HDMI and the 3.5mm audio jack are connected. You can, however, force the system to output to a particular device using amixer .

For HDMI

sudo amixer cset numid=3 2

For 3.5mm audio jack

sudo amixer cset numid=3 1

Feedback and Improvements

Please post all feedback here, in this topic. If you have any improvements then please submit a pull request to our

BitBucket.

Credits

Rohith Madhavan - Made the Ubuntu MATE 15.04 image.

Martin Wimpress - Added first boot setup wizard and architecture optimisations.

Ryan Finnie - Raspberry Pi 2 Kernel, Firmware and video driver packages.

Sjoerd Simons - Made the initial Raspberry Pi 2 kernel patches for Debian Jessie.

Sergio Conde - Maintains omxplayer for the Raspberry Pi.

for the Raspberry Pi. Spindle - a tool to help spin distribution images

Changes

2015-10-22 - Ubuntu MATE 15.10 for Raspbery Pi 2 Final Release

Added OMXPlayer GUI.

Added YouTube Downloader.

Added fake-hwclock .

. Added python-spidev and python3-spidev .

and . Added python-codebug-tether and python3-codebug-tether .

and . Added python-codebug-i2c-tether and python3-codebug-i2c-tether .

and . Added file system integrity checking on first boot.

Optimised first run of MATE Menu.

Optimised LibreOffice icons.

Reinstated oem-config , which has been patched for the Raspberry Pi 2. Now includes the Ubuntu MATE slideshow.

, which has been patched for the Raspberry Pi 2. Fixed udev rules and groups for accessing spi .

. Fixed Scratch, it now runs via a sudo wrapper. Simliar to how Raspbian does it except only Scratch can be executed with elevated privileges, not everything.

wrapper. Removed Compiz.

2015-10-14 - Ubuntu MATE 15.10 for Raspbery Pi 2 Release Candidate

Fixed framebuffer so it now uses 32-bit colour depth.

Added Minecraft Pi Edition 0.1.1-4.

Added Scratch 20150916.

Added Sonic Pi 2.7.0-1.

Added essential Python 2.7.x and Python 3.4.x libraries.

Added raspi-gpio .

. Added python-rpi.gpio and python3-rpi.gpio .

and . Added python-serial and python3-serial .

and . Added python-picamera and python3-picamera .

and . Added python-sense-hat and python3-sense-hat .

and . Added python-astropi and python3-astropi .

and . Added python-pygame and python3-pygame .

and . Added udev rules for gpio , input , i2c , spi , vchiq .

rules for , , , , . Added /usr/local/sbin/adduser.local hook to automatically add new users to the adm , gpio , i2c , input , spi and video groups.

hook to automatically add new users to the , , , , and groups. Added openssh-server with first-boot host key regeneration.

with first-boot host key regeneration. Added graphical a utility to disable/enable the MATE desktop environment for easily creating a headless "server".

a utility to disable/enable the MATE desktop environment for easily creating a headless "server". Updated to Linux 4.1.10. Now using the kernel, firmware and drivers from Raspberry Pi Foundation and includes rpi-update to easily update the kernel and firmware.

Updated /boot/config.txt so it is now fully documented.

so it is now fully documented. Updated to raspi-copies-and-fills (high performance memcpy and memset) 0.5-1.

(high performance memcpy and memset) 0.5-1. Updated to xserver-xorg-video-fbturbo (an accelerated x.org driver) 0~git.20151007.f9a6ed7.

(an accelerated x.org driver) 0~git.20151007.f9a6ed7. Updated to omx-player 0.3.6~git20150912~d99bd86.

0.3.6~git20150912~d99bd86. Updated /boot/config.txt so when HDMI is connected audio is sent over HDMI by default.

so when HDMI is connected audio is sent over HDMI by default. Enabled Plymouth to improve startup and shutdown performance.

Removed oem-config .

2015-04-22 - Ubuntu MATE 15.04 for Raspberry Pi 2 Final Release

Enabled Ryan Finnie's PPA. https://launchpad.net/~fo0bar/+archive/ubuntu/rpi2 Many thanks to Ryan for adding Vivid as a build target.

Changed from cfq to deadline I/O scheduler.

to I/O scheduler. Added xserver-xorg-video-fbturbo (an accelerated x.org driver) 0~git.20150305.e094e3c-1.15.04. Limited to hardware accelerated window moving and scrolling.

(an accelerated x.org driver) 0~git.20150305.e094e3c-1.15.04. Added raspi-copies-and-fills (high performance memcpy and memset) 0.4-1.

(high performance memcpy and memset) 0.4-1. Added oem-config so first boot provides a setup wizard.

so first boot provides a setup wizard. Added rpi2-ubuntu-errata for facilitating post-release updates/migrations.

for facilitating post-release updates/migrations. Added sym-links to VideoCore utilties in /opt/vc/ for 3rd party script compatibility.

for 3rd party script compatibility. Added f2fs support to the build script. Pre-built images available for download use ext4 because f2fs file systems can not be resized

at present.

support to the build script. Updated to Linux 3.18.0-20.21.

Updated to flash-kernel 3.0~rc.4ubuntu54+rpi2.4.

3.0~rc.4ubuntu54+rpi2.4. Updated to omxplayer 0.3.6~git20150402~74aac37.

0.3.6~git20150402~74aac37. Updated to raspberrypi-firmware-nokernel 1.20150402.3ea439c-1.

1.20150402.3ea439c-1. Updated to raspberrypi-vc (VideoCore GPU libraries) 1.20150323.7650bcb-1.

(VideoCore GPU libraries) 1.20150323.7650bcb-1. Fixed /etc/network/interfaces so that the Ethernet device is now configurable via Network Manager.

so that the Ethernet device is now configurable via Network Manager. Removed openssh-server until host key regeneration can be integrated.

2015-03-14 - Ubuntu MATE 15.04 for Raspberry Pi 2 Beta 2

Enabled systemd as the init system.

as the init system. Added raspberrypi-vc (VideoCore GPU libraries) 1.20150301.0de0b20-3.

(VideoCore GPU libraries) 1.20150301.0de0b20-3. Added omxplayer 0.3.6~git20150217~5337be8.

0.3.6~git20150217~5337be8. Added linux-firmware .

. Added openssh-server .

2015-03-07 - Ubuntu MATE 15.04 for Raspberry Pi 2 Beta 1

Initial Release.

TODO