Ubuntu Core

We will walk you through the steps of flashing Ubuntu Core on a Raspberry Pi 2 or 3. At the end of this process, you will have a board ready for production or testing snaps.

User account prerequisites

An Ubuntu SSO account is required to create the first user on an Ubuntu Core installation.

1. Start by creating an Ubuntu SSO account
2. Import an SSH Key into your Ubuntu SSO account on this page. Instructions to generate an SSH Key on your computer can be found here

Hardware and software requirements

• A Raspberry Pi 2 or 3
• A microSD card
• A monitor with an HDMI interface
• An HDMI cable
• A USB keyboard
• An Ubuntu Core image

Ubuntu Core images

• Raspberry Pi 2
  • Ubuntu Core 16 image for Raspberry Pi 2 (stable)
• Rapsberry Pi 3
  • Ubuntu Core 16 image for Raspberry Pi 3 (stable) – the older kernel shipped with this image can trigger Wi-Fi issues during first boot, a network cable is recommended.
  • Ubuntu Core 16 image for Raspberry Pi 3 (edge) – this image provides reliable Wi-Fi at first boot, but is a daily build and not deemed stable.

Installation instructions

1. Copy the Ubuntu Core image on the SD card by following the installation media instructions ›
2. Attach the monitor and keyboard to the board. You can alternatively use a serial cable.
3. Insert the SD card and plug the power adaptor into the board

First boot

1. The system will boot then become ready to configure
2. The device will display the prompt “Press enter to configure”
3. Press enter then select “Start” to begin configuring your network and an administrator account. Follow the instructions on the screen, you will be asked to configure your network and enter your Ubuntu SSO credentials
4. At the end of the process, you will see your credentials to access your Ubuntu Core machine:

   This device is registered to <Ubuntu SSO email address>.
   Remote access was enabled via authentication with the SSO user <Ubuntu SSO user name>
   Public SSH keys were added to the device for remote access.
   

User login

Once setup is done, you can login with SSH into Ubuntu Core, from a machine on the same network, using the following command:

ssh <Ubuntu SSO user name>@<device IP address>

The user name is your Ubuntu SSO user name, it has been reminded to you at the end of the account configuration step.

First boot tips

• During setup,console-conf will download the SSH key registered with your Store account and configure it so you can log into the device via ssh <Ubuntu SSO account name>@<device IP address> without a password.
• There is no default ubuntu user on these images, but you can run sudo passwd <account name> to set a password in case you need a local console login.

Install and develop snaps

Your board is ready to have snaps installed — get started with the snap command

You can install a classic Ubuntu environment on top of Ubuntu Core to have a fully-fledged development environment and develop snaps on target ›