ARMbuntu

Paul Dwerryhouse (paul@dwerryhouse.com.au)

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Infrequently Asked Questions

What is ARMbuntu? ARMbuntu is an attempt to port Ubuntu Linux to the ARM processor.

How was ARMbuntu developed? ARMbuntu was created by rebuilding Ubuntu source packages under Debian/ARM, which was running within a QEMU virtual machine, adding patches where required.

What is the current status? At this point in time, all of the packages needed for absolutely an minimal Ubuntu/dapper install have been built, as have those packages considered to be build-essential. There's no kernel yet, so if you intend to boot this, you'll have to pull a kernel down from somewhere else, such as Debian/ARM.

Ubuntu dapper is old! Why did you use that? That was the version of Ubuntu that was most recently released at the time I started this. And since it has long term support and will still be around in a few years' time, it's not a moving target.

Why did you compile it under QEMU? Because I don't have any real ARM hardware. And cross-compilers were too fiddly to get working. Yes, it's a slow process.

Why did you do this? Boredom. Because I can. Fun. All of the above.

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