Ubuntu OS for SOM-SMARC-Genio Series

Owned by Oleksii Kutuzov
Last updated: 27. Aug 2024
4 min read

As a collaboration between Canonical and MediaTek, Ubuntu on Genio is designed to run Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Desktop on Genio processor series.

The current version is Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish). It incorporates an Ubuntu derivative kernel officially maintained by Canonical.

More information can be found on MediaTek website.

 

In Ubuntu on Genio,

  • Canonical publishes and maintains Ubuntu.

  • Canonical maintains the Ubuntu Linux kernel.

  • Canonical maintains the Ubuntu archive.

  • MediaTek provides bootloader and firmware for Genio EVKs.
    SECO provides bootloader and firmware for SOM-SMARC-Genio700 and SOM-SMARC-Genio510.

  • MediaTek provides installable Genio packages to enable Genio SoC for Ubuntu.

  • Developers and users may install additional third-party packages.

Thus, please note that Ubuntu images and software provided here are offered as-is, with no full support or guarantees.

Setup host PC

Please follow the instructions to setup the Tool Environment for Linux or Windows.

https://mediatek.gitlab.io/aiot/doc/aiot-dev-guide/master/sw/yocto/get-started/env-setup.html#environment-setup

If you have issues with genio-flash tool on Windows, we recommend installing the following driver:

Installation

  1. Download the Ubuntu Desktop OS image from release page. The following steps apply to both Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server (WIP).

  2. Extract the Ubuntu image first, and then extract the boot firmware into the same directory. On Ubuntu host PC this can be done with the following commands:

    tar -xvf Ubuntu-jammy-*.tar.xz tar --strip-components=1 -xvf {BOOT_FIRMWARE}.tar.gz -C {UBUNTU_IMAGE}/ cd Ubuntu-jammy-*

  3. The resulting image directory should contain at least these files:

    $ ls bl2.img bootassets.vfat fip.bin firmware.vfat lk.bin u-boot-initial-env ubuntu-seco.img writable-seco.img ubuntu.json

  4. Check the following lines in the u-boot-initial-env file. They are responsible device tree overlays which will be applied. You can remove or add overlays from the list.

    conf ... list_dtbo= gpu-mali.dtbo video.dtbo apusys.dtbo

  5. You can also set the MAC address at the boot time, which will be saved in the bootloader config. You can do so by adding a new line to u-boot-initial-env file:

  6. Connect the Baseboard with SOM-SMARC-Genio700 or SOM-SMARC-Genio510 module to PC. Open a terminal application on your host PC and connect to the serial device (converter name). Make sure you set the following parameters on your terminal application:

    • baud rate: 115200

    • 8-bit

    • Party bit: 1

    • No flow control

  7. Launch a command line prompt on your host PC.
    First change directory(cd) to the image directory, and run genio-flash:

    The tool should have the following output:

    The line Looking for MediaTek SoC matching USB device 0e8d:0003 shows that genio-flash tool is waiting for the board to be reset into download mode to start the flash programming procedure.

  8. Set the board into download mode
    For REV A0 modules on B79 Baseboard:
    Set the SW14 switch 2 to ON to enter the Serial Download mode
    For later revisions on B79 Baseboard:
    Set SW12 and SW13 to correct position. Please consult with B79 datasheet or the Embedded Controller page: STM32 MCU - WILK - REVA0 | Carrier board BOOT_SEL configuration

  9. The flash tool should continue with the following log output, which shows the progress of erasing the onboard storage and writing image content to the storage:

If you are using a Windows host PC, and the tool stops at the output line < waiting for any device >, please follow the steps in this trouble shooting page to solve an underlying Windows driver issue.

Eventually, the flash tool would report the following logs once it finishes writing the onboard storage and reboot the board:

  1. Now the module will boot into the Ubuntu OS.
    Default user: ubuntu
    Default password: ubuntu
    You will be asked to change the password during the first login.

  2. After first boot please uninstall the generic packages so that they aren’t overwritten when doing upgrade:

    Now the installation is done.

The complete in depth guide is available at https://mediatek.gitlab.io/genio/doc/ubuntu/get-started/genio-700-evk.html

Ubuntu System is now up and running on your SOM-SMARC-Genio700 or SOM-SMARC-Genio510. To get the most out of Ubuntu and Genio platform, we recommend you to:

Post-installation

Releases