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Installing Ubuntu on the Cubieboard with Berryboot

To continue the unboxing video of Cubieboard, haritot made another video on how to install different Linux distributions on a microSD card for Cubieboard using berryboot; a GUI image installation tool.

The steps that haritot goes through are:

Get a microSD card. It is recommended to use a larger card (4GB or more).
Connect the microSD card to your computer. You may need to use an adapter, as shown in the video.
Format the SD card, selecting the FAT32 filesystem.
Download “Berryboot-cubieboard-beta1.zip” from http://www.berryterminal.com/doku.php/berryboot_a10
Download “win32diskimager-binary.zip” from https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+download
Extract the files from both downloaded .zip archives
Run Win32DiskImager.exe
1. Select the image file
2. Go to the correct folder where BerryBoot is located
3. Select the * filter so that you can see the .ddimg file
4. Select the “Berryboot-cubieboard-beta1.ddimg” file
5. Verify that correct disk drive is selected (the one that corresponds to the microSD card)
6. Write the file to the microSD card
Verify that you have the BerryBoot files on the SD card
Connect the Cubieboard with all cables (HDMI, Keyboard, Mouse, Network, microSD card and Power)
Place the microSD card into the Cubieboard and power on the board.
Read the BerryBoot instructions that are shown during the installation
Select the correct media device where to install the Linux distribution
Select a Linux distribution from the list
1. Ubuntu
2. Debian
3. OpenELEC
4. Puppy
5. RasoRazor
6. Sugar
7. LTSP Thinclient
8. BerryWebServer
When the installation has been completed, exit the BerryBoot installer
Restart the Cubieboard and enjoy your Linux distribution running on the Cubieboard!

26 comments on “Installing Ubuntu on the Cubieboard with Berryboot”

Kanishk on November 16, 2012 at 9:31 am said:

Nicely done!
Much appreciated.
Keep it coming!
Nikita on November 16, 2012 at 10:32 am said:

How install Gentoo Linux?
Sergio on November 19, 2012 at 7:44 pm said:

Does it work with the M3l3 A2000?
- cubieboard on November 20, 2012 at 5:02 am said:
  
  i think you mean mele A2000. What do you mean by work with?
  - Sergio on November 20, 2012 at 9:03 pm said:
    
    I have to write M3l3 because of the spam filter of this web. It has practically the same hardware and I want to know if I can use berryboot with.
hope on December 12, 2012 at 9:00 pm said:

Is it planned to port the berryboot tool on GNU/Linux?
I don’t see on the video the pure debian but only raspbian (debian for ARMv6): it is planned that berryboot support 100% pure debian for ARMv7?
gilgam on December 27, 2012 at 10:06 pm said:

So i assume it is possible to install it on an sata hdd (r ssd) and that it will boot directly from it ???

Wow i was just waiting for that
- simos on January 21, 2013 at 11:00 pm said:
  
  There is a way to get the Cubieboard to boot from a SATA/SSD disk. It requires however to install a boot manager on the SD card or on the NAND memory.
  
  Join the discussion board at http://cubieboard.org/contact/ for more.
Daniel jay on January 9, 2013 at 2:48 pm said:

How would I go about installation for Mac OSX?
- simos on January 17, 2013 at 5:16 pm said:
  
  If you do not get an answer here, visit http://cubieboard.org/contact/ and join the google group for technical discussion.
- Sam on February 13, 2013 at 4:36 pm said:
  
  OS X only runs on Intel chips, so it’s highly unlikely you’d manage to get it running on a Cubieboard.
Florian on January 27, 2013 at 9:42 am said:

Is there any way to install a “regular” Ubuntu with Unity Desktop? If so – how? I can’t get the Linaro ALIP Version to use Unity.
- simos on January 27, 2013 at 12:20 pm said:
  
  You can use the image at http://liliputing.com/2012/06/ubuntu-12-04-and-lubuntu-12-04-images-for-the-mk802-mini-pc.html
  to get Ubuntu 12.04 with Unity on the Cubieboard. The mentioned mk802 is based on the same SoC (the Allwinner A10).
  
  If you want to base your Ubuntu+Unity on the Linaro ALIP, you would need to replace several packages.
  Check at http://cubieboard.org/contact and the discussion list in case someone has ready-made images for you.
  - Florian on January 28, 2013 at 10:08 am said:
    
    Thanks you very much for the reply! Indeed I did try to install the Image you mentioned but I didn’t get it to work – all I got was a black screen. Seems far to complicated for the “usual PC user” to get this to work Any chance that this will get easier in the future?
    - simos on January 28, 2013 at 12:15 pm said:
      
      There should be some Youtube video that shows how to write the ‘image’ to a microSD card.
      ‘Writing’ the image requires a special software that will write byte by byte the ‘image’ file to the microSD card.
      For Windows you use (I think) WinImage, for Linux you use ‘dd’.
      I would suggest that you can join the discussion list and describe what steps you did in order to write the image.
      In this way, we should be able to pinpoint any errors that should be fixed.
      - dq on January 29, 2013 at 3:25 am said:
        
        i got the the ‘image’ to a microSD card and its booting but im having a problem with my wired usb mouse and wireless keybord its not working or it wont detect the mouse and keyboard and i cant proceed to installition..i tried removing the microsd card and boot it without the microsd and everyting is working.
      - simos on January 29, 2013 at 11:33 am said:
        
        In most cases, the issue with not enough power. How do you power your Cubieboard?
        If it is by USB (5V/500mA), then it should work provided you do not connect many USB devices.
        You have better chance if you can get a proper power source that can provide 5V/2A.
        It has been said that a Sony PSP charger is compatible as it has the proper connector and it gives out 5V/2A.
matt on January 30, 2013 at 1:27 pm said:

Would any of the raspberry pi installing processes work to write the image to the sd card? Or is there another program you used?
- simos on January 30, 2013 at 8:31 pm said:
  
  I am not familiar with the RPi.
  See http://linux-sunxi.org/ for details.
  
  In a nutshell, you write the image to the microSD card using the ‘dd’ command, or (I think) WinImage on Windows.
  - matt on February 7, 2013 at 8:56 pm said:
    
    So i used dd to write a lubuntu image to the sd card and I plugged it all in. When i turned it on the screen just blinks blue every few seconds. I thought it could have been the sd card so i unplugged it and turned the cubieboard on with no sd card. It did the same thing. Do you think this is a software problem or could this be a hardware problem. I ran it with a hdmi-dvi connector. Would that effect it?
Cara on February 18, 2013 at 6:35 pm said:

I installed Linux Linaro. I log on with linaro’s credentials but what is the password for root account please?
- simos on February 21, 2013 at 12:16 pm said:
  
  I think it’s linaro/linaro.
  You should also join the discussion list for more technical support. See the Contact page for more.
Ayuda on March 16, 2013 at 7:47 am said:

how can I install Linaro from SD to NAND? I can`t find information about it ¿Can help me somebody? Thamk you in advance.
- simos on March 25, 2013 at 2:22 pm said:
  
  Yes, it’s possible, and it has been discussed at the discussion list. Join there and ask for more details.
Jackson on April 26, 2013 at 7:23 am said:

I wish to install it in USB Pendrive over the microSD or NAND. It seems there isn’t any guide out there explaining how to do it. Can someone here provide me some tips?

http://airkayu.com
- matson on May 8, 2013 at 8:25 am said:
  
  cubieboard cannot support booting from usb. If you have any question, you may send mail to [email protected]