Ubuntu on i.MX53

Since the Ubuntu ARM Team provides the populated Linux distribution for the ARM architecture, also the i.MX53 is supported.

Bluetechnix has created two SD card images for the CM-i.MX53 with Ubuntu versions

10.04 (Lucid)
11.10 (Oneiric)

for demonstrational purposes.

These images are based on the Bluetechnix Linux BSP release 1.5, so U-Boot boot loader and Linux kernel are taken from the BSP, and the root file system is taken from Ubuntu/ARM.

NOTE: Ubuntu 11.10 assumes a newer kernel than we have. Keep that in mind if you experience problems. Also, the Freescale-provided extra packages are partly incompatible with 11.10.

Screen shots

Ubuntu 10.04 start screen

Ubuntu 11.10 start screen

Downloads

FTP URL:

https://support.becom-group.com/releases/imx/mx53/ubuntu/

Files:

cmimx53-rel1.5-ubuntu10.04-sdcard-image.bin.bz2 (bzip2-compressed 10.04 SD card image)
cmimx53-rel1.5-ubuntu11.10-sdcard-image.bin.bz2 (bzip2-compressed 11.10 SD card image)
ubuntu-freescale-pkgs.tar (Debian packages to be installed for i.MX5x processors, delivered by Freescale)

Setup instructions

You need an SDHC card with a minimum size of 4 GB. The images have a size of 3,500,000,000 bytes, so it should fit on any available 4GB card. We recommend a really fast one, maybe 10.
You need a Linux system with an SD card writer.
Download the selected image and decompress it: bunzip2 <image.bin.bz2>
Decompressing will leave you the file image.bin.
Plug in the SD card
If the automounter automatically mounts the SD card, unmount it. Check with mount.
Find out the SD card block device file, e.g. by entering dmesg after inserting the card. On most PCs, it is either sdx (last letter varies!) or mmcblk6 (number varies!).
Write the image to the SD card (this makes a bit-wise copy): sudo dd if=<image.bin> of=/dev/sdx bs=10M
To be on the safe side, do a sync
The SD card is ready!
Put it in your i.MX53 base board and adjust boot mode settings (DEV-i.MX53, Argos®^2D A100 Camera)
Supply power to your board, and switch it on if necessary.

We recommend to connect

Wide screen monitor via HDMI-to-DVI cable
USB mouse
USB keyboard
Speakers/Headphone (not available on Argos®^2D A100)
Ethernet (If DHCP is available, Ubuntu will use it)

Passwords

Ubuntu 10.04 image:

Default user: lucid

Password: lucid

Ubuntu 11.10 image:

Default user: oneiric

Password: oneiric

The root account is disabled as usual in Ubuntu. You can gain root rights by using sudo and supplying the user's password.

Boot configuration

To adjust boot parameters, please read and follow the following instructions:

If you have a consumer CM-i.MX53, i.e. CM-i.MX53-C-C-xxx, your CPU is able to run at 1GHz. Default is 800MHz. Read here.
Depending on your base board, read here for Argos®^2D A100 Camera and here for DEV-i.MX53 respectively.

Tested features

Video playback with Totem video player (which uses the GStreamer framework, which in turn uses the i.MX53 hardware video processing unit to decode the video)
Audio output for video playback
Recording from camera ISM-MT9M131 with gst-launch tool and mfw_v4lsrc source plug-in
GPU-accelerated X11 applications (e.g. es11ex, simple_draw)
- This does not work in Ubuntu 11.10
SATA drive access
USB mouse
USB keyboard
USB flash disk

Experts

MX53 Ubuntu packages

The following is a list of extra packages that are specific to i.MX53. They are delivered by Freescale. (We have packed them all in ubuntu-freescale-pkgs.tar.)

The original Freescale packages can be downloaded at the Freescale web site: https://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX535&nodeId=018rH3ZrDR988D&fpsp=1&tab=Design_Tools_Tab

From L2.6.35_11.05.01_ER_images_MX5X.tar.gz: amd-gpu-x11-bin-mx51_11.05.01-1_armel.deb; firmware-imx_11.05.01-1-blt_armel.deb (modified by Bluetechnix for Ubuntu 11.10); imx-lib_11.05.01-1_armel.deb; imx-test_11.05.01-1_armel.deb; libz160-bin_11.05.01-1_armel.deb; udev-fsl-rules_11.05.01-5_armel.deb; xserver-xorg-video-imx_11.05.01-1_armel.deb (only installed in Ubuntu 10.04)
From IMX_MMCODECS_11.05.tar.gz: dh-autoreconf_3_all.deb (only installed in Ubuntu 10.04); fsl-omx_2.0-4_armel.deb; gstreamer0.10-fsl-mm-plugins_2.0.1-1-blt_armel.deb; gstreamer0.10-plugins-base_0.10.28-1-ubuntu-fsl0_armel.deb; libfsl-mm-core1_2.0.1-1_armel.deb; libfsl-mm-core-dev_2.0.1-1_armel.deb; libfsl-mm-core-doc_2.0.1-1_all.deb; libfsl-mm-core-test_2.0.1-1_armel.deb; libfsl-mm-flv-core1_2.0.1-1_armel.deb; libfsl-mm-flv-core-dev_2.0.1-1_armel.deb; libfsl-mm-flv-core-doc_2.0.1-1_all.deb; libfsl-mm-flv-core-test_2.0.1-1_armel.deb; libfsl-mm-mp3enc-core1_2.0.1-1_armel.deb; libfsl-mm-mp3enc-core-dev_2.0.1-1_armel.deb; libfsl-mm-mp3enc-core-doc_2.0.1-1_all.deb; libfsl-mm-mp3enc-core-test_2.0.1-1_armel.deb; libgst-fsl-plugins0_2.0.1-1_armel.deb; libgst-fsl-plugins-dev_2.0.1-1_armel.deb; libgst-fsl-plugins-tools_2.0.1-1_armel.deb
From IMX_AACPD_2.0.1.tar.gz: libfsl-mm-aacpdec-core1_2.0.1-1_armel.deb; libfsl-mm-aacpdec-core-dev_2.0.1-1_armel.deb; libfsl-mm-aacpdec-core-doc_2.0.1-1_all.deb; libfsl-mm-aacpdec-core-test_2.0.1-1_armel.deb

Freescale documentation for Ubuntu

File i.MX5x_EVK_Ubuntu_10.04_StartupGuide.pdf

Located in L2.6.35_11.05.01_ER_docs.tar.gz

Located in L2.6.35_11.05.01_ER_source_bundle.tar.gz

Download from https://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX535&nodeId=018rH3ZrDR988D&fpsp=1&tab=Design_Tools_Tab

Bluetechnix basis

The basis for the Ubuntu images is cmimx53-sdcard-image-1.5.bin, we take the boot loader, kernel image, and kernel modules from there.
Kernel modules (/lib/modules/2.6.35.3rel1.5-g11d821a) are copied to the Ubuntu root file system.

Ubuntu basis

The Ubuntu root file system comes from:

File lucid_1108.tar.gz from Freescale web site, https://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX535&nodeId=018rH3ZrDR988D&fpsp=1&tab=Design_Tools_Tab
File ubuntu-11.10-preinstalled-desktop-armel+mx5.img from Ubuntu/ARM web site, https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/MX5