Snappy Ubuntu Core

This repository contains every needed to build your own Snappy Ubuntu Core OS image for Boundary Devices Nitrogen platforms.

Build requirements

First of all, it is highly recommended to build from Ubuntu 20.04 or later. Although there are solutions for different OS flavours, some tools are limited to Ubuntu for now.

Then you need to install the following packages in order to build Ubuntu Core.

~$ sudo apt update
~$ sudo apt install -y build-essential u-boot-tools snapd \
   gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu
~$ sudo snap install snapcraft --classic
~$ sudo snap install ubuntu-image --classic

You can check that the snap is working on your host machine by listing the available packages:

~$ snap list
Name               Version                     Rev    Tracking       Publisher   Notes
core               16-2.58                     14447  latest/stable  canonical✓  core
core18             20221212                    2667   latest/stable  canonical✓  base
core20             20221212                    1778   latest/stable  canonical✓  base
snapcraft          6.1                         7201   6.x/stable     canonical✓  classic
ubuntu-image       2.2+snap10                  321    latest/stable  canonical✓  classic

Build procedure

Getting the source code

Simply clone this repository:

~$ git clone https://github.com/boundarydevices/ubuntu-core.git
~$ cd ubuntu-core

Gadget build

If you just wish to build the gadget:

~/ubuntu-core$ make gadget

Kernel build

If you don't build from a Focal 20.04 OS, we recommend using LXD:

~$ sudo snap install lxd
~$ sudo lxd init --auto
~$ sudo lxc launch ubuntu:20.04 focal
~$ sudo lxc shell focal

Then you can simply build the kernelsnap:

~/ubuntu-core$ make kernelsnap

Image generation

If you re-built the kernel or the gadget manually, you can simply generate the image:

~/ubuntu-core$ make snappy

Flashing instructions

The output file should be named ubuntu-coreXX-<arch>-nitrogen-yyyymmdd.img.gz.

You can then simply flash it using zcat and dd.

~/ubuntu-core$ zcat ubuntu-core*.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=1M oflag=sync