Official Ubuntu Core kernel release for BeagleBone Black?

#1

Hello,

Is Canonical planning to officially support the BeagleBone Black platform? I read this article way back in 2015 https://blog.ubuntu.com/2015/01/20/ubuntu-core-on-internet-things which seemed to indicate that Canonical had a clear intention to partner with BeagleBoard.

I notice there are developer images maintained by @ogra as well as the kernel package snap for the BBB, so I wonder if/when we could expect to see an ‘official’ BBB release, similar to the images featured on this page : https://www.ubuntu.com/download/iot

Thank you

Ryan

#2

I am also interested to use ubuntu core on BeagleBone (Black, Green, …). In fact, it was the recommended board for snappy ubuntu core.

There is also the BeagleBoard (X15) flagship; it should be took into consideration by Canonical engineers.

#3

I think that the difference between official support and community support is that there are certain guarantees to be met for the former. I don’t believe there is any indication that the set of reference platforms would be extended to include the Beagle* suite of development boards.

#4

Is there anyone who could give feedback on using the BeagleBone image thus-far? I’m yet to install and test it, but wanted to get a basic idea of its stability first. Would like to know whether it still needs a lot of work or whether it is quite acceptable as it is? Is there a link to a developer forum, or possibly a Github link where active development is taking place, or where on could get involved? Beagleboard.org seems a little mute on the subject.

If one is intent on using an eMMC, the Beaglebone offers an easier step to development than the raspberry pi CM3. Designing all the hardware around a compute module 3 is relatively complex… It is easier to design a cape for a beaglebone board than it is to design a carrier board for the CM3.

I feel it would be a great addition to the Ubuntu Core reference platforms…

#5

Hi, sorry for the late reply …
I do maintain a beaglebone black image at http://people.canonical.com/~ogra/snappy/all-snaps/ since we dropped it as an official reference platform.

While the core 16 image uses my own armhf re-build of the linux-generic kernel in the ubuntu archive (called linux-generic-bbb), in core18 there is an officially maintained build of this kernel snap (confusingly called “pc-kernel” in the store). I am working on getting daily builds for the core18 bbb image up and running ATM.

So with core18 we have about 90% of the support back. While I am still maintaining the gadget and model, the rootfs and kernel are fully supported and get security and bugfix updates automatically.

I have also been talking with drew fustini and jason kridner at embeddedworld this year and we might be able to arrange that beaglebone.org takes over the gadget maintenance eventually, so you can have actual official images from them.

Meanwhile if you want to try core18 on beagle hardware (before the bbb image is ready), I made an experimental pocketbeagle image available pretty recently at:
http://people.canonical.com/~ogra/snappy/pocketbeagle/
(check the README for info)

I’ll update this thread once there is more info about further “officiality” :wink: