Vendors are trying to work around it, especially as there is the expectation of a ramp-up in the availability of ARM based hardware. Super long-life netbooks, low powered touch based computers, and even a flurry of smaller embedded devices are forecast to hit the market this year, many of which will be based on the Linux operating system. Ubuntu would be a great match for this.

Ubuntu and ARM

Ubuntu runs very well on some ARM based platforms and there is a sustained effort to make it work more ubiquitously across many more. To that end our goal is to have Ubuntu running on any ARM based device (as long as there is hardware available). A lofty goal but one which we would like to see happen.

So what can we do about the 3D graphics licensing issue? Legally not very much. The companies that own the IP (Intellectual Property) rights to these drivers often want large licensing fees for their technology. This is a model for single product lines (take the Nokia N900 for instance) but for Ubuntu where we are targeting a more broad approach, this isn’t ideal.

So when you buy your new, ARM based netbook that has an obscene amount of battery life and you just want to install the 3D clutter based, wonderfully rich UI that Ubuntu Netbook Edition offers, what do you do?

Well Ubuntu recognizes this problem and as part of the Lucid Lynx release there is an effort to bring a similarly wonderfully rich UI to non-3D-accelerated hardware.

The new 2D EFL based Launcher

Above you can see the default UI for Ubuntu’s ARM based releases starting from Lucid (10.04). It’s a direct clone of the UI found in the 9.10 Karmic release on i386 although this one is based on EFL (Enlightenment Foundation Libraries) meaning that its fast on non-accelerated platforms. If there is 3D hardware available it can use that but it works perfectly fine without.

Another great thing about the 2D launcher is that isn’t not restricted to ARM hardware only, in fact if you have Lucid installed now, getting the launcher couldn’t be simpler. At the command prompt just type the following (make sure you have the universe repository enabled):

sudo apt-get install netbook-launcher-efl

and voila, your UI switches to the new launcher. Of course a simple:

sudo apt-get remove netbook-launcher-efl

will remove it if you decide its not what you want.

Beyond Netbook Launcher

Another of the great things about this launcher, as apposed to the 3D launcher shipped with Karmic, is that its extremely theme-able. The theme file is contained in:

/usr/share/netbook-launcher-efl/data/themes/default.edj

Theme files use the edje declarative layout format. By changing this file you can completely change the way the UI looks. For example, see the alternate UI screenshot above, both are based on the same code, the only difference is that they have a different theme file.

So if you have ARM based hardware but no 3D acceleration, fear not, you can get the same great user experience that your i386 cousins have in Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

Installing a Virtual Machine

My virtual machine software of choice on Ubuntu is the excellent VirtualBox. The easiest way to get this on Ubuntu is to apt-get install it on the command line. Open up a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and enter the following at the prompt.

Once installed you will have an option under Applications->Accessories->VirtualBox OSE. Click this and you should see the VirtualBox application in front of you. Select the “New” icon and follow the prompts. You need to name your image something that you will remember, maybe “Ubuntu NetBook Remix”, and make sure the operating system is set to Linux and the version, Ubuntu. Give the image 512mb of ram and at least 2GB of hard drive space (it can survive on less but I always like to leave some room).

Getting the image

If your helping test UNR you really want to be trying the ‘dailies’. These are complete UNR images that are built every day. The place to get them is at cdimage.ubuntu.com, specifically at

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-netbook-remix/daily-live/

The “Current” link always points to the most recent build. Select the iso image that looks something like below (karmic release in this example).

karmic-netbook-remix-i386.iso

Setting up the Virtual Machine

Once this is download you want to make sure your virtual machine image will boot into UNR when it first runs. To do this select the “Settings” icon from the VirtualBox screen (first make sure you have selected your image in the left-hand column).

What you are presented with now is a list of options for your virtual machine image. The one we are interested in is CD/DVD-ROM. Select this option. Below you can see an example of what it should look like once configured correctly.

Use the folder icon next to the ISO setting to browse for the image you downloaded.

Press OK then hit “Start” whilst your image is selected to run it.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix

If everything has been done correctly you should be presented with the boot screen from Ubuntu asking whether you want to try it, install, e.t.c (after you have selected your language). Go ahead and install it to your virtual hard drive.

Once installed remember to disconnect the CDROM (Devices->Unmount CDROM from the launch window) to ensure that you don’t boot up the install .iso again.

If everything was installed you should be presented with something like this.

If you get a message telling you to disable KVM in the kernel, a quick,

lsmod | grep kvm
sudo rmmod kvm-intel
sudo rmmod kvm

should fix it.

The lsmod finds any running modules that are related to KVM (which in my case are kvm-intel and kvm). The two commands afterwards remove them from the running kernel which enables VirtualBox to run.

Bugs?

If you find any bugs with Ubuntu Netbook Remix then be sure to either file them at the Launchpad site (Netbook Remix on Launchpad) or discuss them with the developers on irc at irc.freenode.net channel #ubuntu-mobile.

Most of all, have fun.

Additions

It was pointed out to me by Paul Larson that the resolution that VirtualBox gives you for UNR by default isn’t what is traditionally found of netbooks. The more widespread 1024×576 pixels is what most machines have.

To enable this in your virtual machine, head on over to Paul’s blog and read how to do it. What you should have at the end is something more like this.

Please note that you need to have the vbox additions installed to do this.