Skip to main content

Install FE Ubuntu

info
  • I typically manage my COMETs via SSH. If you have a keyboard and monitor hooked up then the instructions may be slightly different

Prerequisites​

To find the OS image, use the link provided in the CM3588 Wiki

Look for the section 4.4.3.1.1 Flash Official OS to eMMC then click the download link.

download-link

You will need to click the "Google Drive" logo, then select 01_Official images, > 02_SD-to-eMMC images and then download the one that starts with rk3588-eflasher-ubuntu-noble-desktop or rk3588-eflasher-ubuntu-noble-minimal. Do not extract/unzip the file after downloading as it is not required.

Before proceeding follow the below guides to prepare the Micro SD card.

A monitor will be needed to view the automated installation process on first boot.

info

The HDMI port closest to the USB port is an INPUT. You must use the other 2 ports to get a video OUTPUT signal.

The following steps are the same whether installing the full desktop or minimal installation. Both provide Gnome desktop environments, however the minimal will have less packages installed making it smaller.

First Boot​

Automated Installation​

Once the Micro SD card has been prepared, insert it into the COMET and press the power button. The system should automatically begin installing the OS on the COMET.

info

I noticed that during the automated installation the 5" monitor I typically connect to my headless servers did not display the screen correctly (it was too small and cut off most of the screen) leaving me with just a gray screen. Plugging the COMET into my ultra wide allowed me to see the progress.

When the installation finishes press the power button to turn off the COMET.

Post Installation​

warning

Do not forget to remove the Micro SD Card. If left in the OS will be installed again and require another reboot

After the automated installation, make sure the Micro SD card is removed, then boot the COMET. A default user pi is automatically created during installation and will be automatically logged in when the COMET is booted. Default credentials:

root

Username: root
Password: fa

non-root

Username: pi
Password: pi

The following steps can be performed if directly connected to the COMET via a keyboard & monitor by opening up a terminal on the desktop and switching to the root user with sudo su and typing in the password for the pi user. However, I will be performing these steps over SSH. Many of these steps are user-preference and are not required. These are my perferred steps.

Connect to the COMET via SSH​

Identify the IP address of the COMET using your router (hostname is CM3588) or while logged into the Desktop environment with ip a. Then connect via SSH using the root user.

Change the root Password​

Change the root password with

passwd

Update Ubuntu​

Ensure the latest packages are installed

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Install Dependencies​

By default, some useful packages are not installed. I install these before proceeding

  • nano - text editor
  • htop - system monitor
apt install nano htop tmux curl

User Management​

I remove the pi user and create my typical hakehardware user. In addition, I turn off auto-login as I SSH into my COMETs and do not need auto-login.

Turn off auto login by opening up the GDM configuration

nano /etc/gdm3/custom.conf

Then set

AutomaticLoginEnable = true
AutomaticLogin = pi

to

AutomaticLoginEnable = false
# AutomaticLogin = pi

Then press ctrl + x, then y, then enter to save. Now reboot the system

reboot now

Log back in via root (use the new password you created) and remove the pi user

userdel -r pi

Then add a new user

useradd -m -s /bin/bash <USERNAME>

Set the password for the user

passwd <USERNAME>

Add the user to the sudo group to allow commands to run as root with sudo

usermod -aG sudo <USERNAME>

Lastly, prevent root from logging in via SSH

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Scroll down to

PermitRootLogin yes

Set it to the following value. Then press ctrl + x, then y, then enter to save.

PermitRootLogin no

Set the Hostname​

By default, the hostname is CM3588. I prefer to change it to a custom value to easily identify the system

hostnamectl set-hostname <NEW_HOSTNAME>

Update the hosts file

nano /etc/hosts

Change any instance of CM3588 (there should only be 1) to whatever the new hostname is. Then press ctrl + x, then y, then enter to save.

Set Timezone & Locales​

By default the timezone will be UTC. It is best to set the local timezone, if you are unsure what to choose list the possible timezones

timedatectl list-timezones

Use the page-up/page-down or the arrow keys to scroll. Press q to quit. Set the timezone to the correct timezone.

timedatectl set-timezone <Region/City>

Configure the locales. Make sure to select the correct locale and then click "OK". The locales will then be generated.

dpkg-reconfigure locales

locale-selection

Set the locales for bash, updating the locale to the applicable one

echo "export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export LANG=en_US.UTF-8" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8" >> ~/.bashrc

(Optional) Turn off Suspend​

I only SSH into Armbian, however, after some idle time the system will suspend itself and log me out of my SSH session.

suspend

To turn off the setting for the system to suspend on AC power, open up greeter.dconf-defaults

sudo nano /etc/gdm3/greeter.dconf-defaults

Make two changes:

  1. Uncomment sleep-inactive-ac-timeout and set the value to 0.
  2. Uncomment sleep-inactive-ac-type and set the value to blank.

Press ctrl + x then y then ENTER to save.

Reload and Restart Gnome​

sudo dconf update
sudo systemctl restart gdm3

This should prevent the system from suspending. This can likely also be completed via the Desktop environment but I have not done it that way before.

Reboot​

Finally, reboot the system for all the changes to take effect. Make sure to log in with your new non-root user on reboot.

reboot now

That completes the installation and set up of the FE Debian installation.