In follow up to this post I have remastered a daily build of Ubuntu 12.04, Precise Pangolin.
I have made a copy publicly available for those with one of these graphics cards. Please keep in mind it is an alpha release of 12.04
The gma500 should be working out of the box and works well live, and you can use a persistent home directory to preserve user data across boots.
Make a file in the root directory of any partition or your flash drive (after making a live flash drive from the iso)
# this will make a 1 Gb file for storage, increase / decrease the count as needed
dd if=/dev/zero of=./home-rw bs=1M count=1000
Make a file system on the file
mkfs.ext4 home-rw
mke2fs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
home-rw is not a block special device.
# Answer ‘yes’ here
Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
Remove the reserved blocks
tune2fs -m 0 -L home-rw home-rw
If you select the persistent option at the boot menu, the file system will then automatically be mounted at /home by the casper scripts.
If you install it, however, you would need to make some (minor) modifications.
using any editor, open /etc/default/grub
Change the line – GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash” to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="poulsbo.blacklist=yes console=tty1"
And then update grub
sudo update-grub
The iso and md5sum are here:
Nice pic. Where did you get the desktop wallpaper?
I don’t have the graphics card mentioned, so I don’t know if the iso would work for me. I’m curious though about your terminal window in the screenshot. How did you get it set up like that? (applications that are installed, configurations, etc)
Have a great day:)
Patrick.
@Patrick Dickey – the iso should work on any machine , virtual or otherwise, that will run Ubuntu 12.04. The psb_gfx driver is a kernel module, so it will not be loaded if you do not have a gma500 (or other hardware that needs the driver).
If you like, you can get my .bashrc from here :
http://bodhizazen.net/Tutorials/bashrc
Nice writeup, thanks for sharing.
Perhaps you could also mention “Poulsbo” in your post title, it will make it easier to find this post for people familiar with that name for this chipset.
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Hello!
Thanks for helping people out with gma500! I have an acer aspire 0751h and it has been really frustrating over the last six months since I got it.
I initially installed CrunchBang (Debian 6) with the EMGD driver, but that crashes everytime I shutdown. Then I successfully installed Ubuntu 11.10 after a lot of hours of work. Suddenly, it stopped booting…
So I decided to install arch linux, but I see now that it does not support psb-gfx driver at the native resolution.
What do you suggest? I just want a stable open-source system…
Also… Is there a way I can use your modifications to install a headless ubuntu 12.04 and then install my own openbox, conky, tint2, etc? I don’t like using unity or gnome.
Thanks!
@Wilheim Katastrof – you are most welcome. Personally I am running gentoo on my acer aspire 0751h as a “stable” installed OS with the custom live cd I posted here running from a usb + persistent home.
I would not suggest installing Ubuntu 12.04 until it is more stable.
You can use psb_gfx on any distribution, you may need to do one or two things.
1. blacklist the poulsbo stub driver ( poulsbo.blacklist=yes on the kernel line).
2. Build a custom kernel. See http://bodhizazen.net/Tutorials/kernel#GMA500 . If you compile a custom kernel, do NOT build the stub (poulsbo) driver.
The relevent options in .config are:
CONFIG_DRM_PSB=m
# CONFIG_FB_VGA16 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VESA is not set
# CONFIG_STUB_POULSBO is not set
# CONFIG_DRM_PSB_MRST is not set
# CONFIG_DRM_PSB_MFLD is not set
# CONFIG_DRM_PSB_CDV is not set
Thanks. I opt’d to reinstall using the methods I did the first time to get ubuntu 11.10 to work.
Here are the details from another post:
Instructions for getting 11.10 to work are here: [ http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1792777 ]
I had to use slightly different dummy kernel params than the one Luca gives. Someone on this fb page suggested I try them. They are: poulsbo.modeset=0 psb_gfx.modeset=0
Other than that, the instructions are the same. I used the minimum install cd since I prefer a #!-like minimal, less resource intensive setup with openbox, conky, and tint2 to unity or gnome.
Standby/Hibernate do not work, neither does the acpi stuff which allows brightness adjustment, the microphone, or the webcam. Been living w/ it for now.
Luckily I backed up my /home directory to an SD card on the machine just the day before it stopped booting! I could have still copied my files, but the backup was much easier to work with.
—-
I’ll keep your site bookmarked to keep an eye out on your work, and if I ever need to compile my own kernel. If only ubuntu was a rolling-release. I am dreading having to reinstall everything again.
Nice job, glad someone’s still working on these adapters, even gladder that someone is not me!
@Adam Williamson – Hope the bug in Fedora 17 is resolved soon, then if needed I can release a custom Fedora 17 iso ;)
Thanks! the SSD in my Sony Vaio X died, but at last i have an operating system again even if it’s juts a USB stick poking out the side.
Given that many of us have to cope with GMA500-equipped
netbooks, could you please prepare a Lubuntu-based version
as well?
@Marinos Trantalides – There are a pair of bug reports on Launchpad for 12.04. Once they are resolved, lubuntu should work out of the box.
I will try to do a lubuntu respin over the next few days if time allows.
thanks !!! the live cd works great on my fujitsu u2010 ( Asia version of U820 ) , I have being using ubuntu 9.10 , but after reinstall , a lot of packages are missing . so now the umpc is live again on ubuntu 12.04
@Boon Pin – thank you for the feedback, glad you like it.
Hello,
I have a EeePC 1101HA with GMA500. I download the last daily-build, but I can’t boot on it … X fail.
I do that :
Ctrl-Alt-F2
sudo -i
rmmod poulsbo
modprobe psb_gfx
exit
startx
Did you have another solution to boot on Ubuntu 12.04 ?
@Kookaburra – They have not made the changes to the kernel yet in 12.04.
I suggest you subscribe to the bug report
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/899244
Alternately, you can use the live CD I made or boot the daily build with the options “poulsbo.blacklist=yes console=tty1″ (as outlined in this blog).
Ok.
I still not able to boot on the last daily build : X did not start !. I try the options of the wiki (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupportComponentsVideoCardsPoulsbo/) or with your option (poulsbo.blacklist=yes console=tty1) : same result, X fail …
But I succeed to boot on the “Alpha1″ version and install it successfully !!! The update is also OK … Great news to install an ubuntu distribution with just few manipulation !!
I don’t understand why I can do it on the Alpha and not on the last daily build ? strange, no ? o_O
I have Precise install in my Eeepc 1101HA, it’s cool ! ;-)
@Kookaburra – Depends on the kernel in the daily build. Again see the bug report I gave you.
Glad you got the Alpha one going .
Epic stuff! Your 12.04 started on 1201Ha (eeepc). The only problem is only half of the screen is visible.
@bodhi ,
With 12.04 Alpha 2 on USB / HardWare Acer Aspire ONE 751H
Plug Second screen for DualScreen (Extend not mirroir)
Boot USB
Unload poulsbo
load psb_gfx
startx
Damm xrandx not detect 2 screen :( / Just Mirror mode
Have you some Tweak for this config ?
Really nice iso, thanks for taking the time to do this. Would you be planning to build an updated iso once 12.04 final is released?
Also, I would second the request for an lubuntu iso!
I am trying to get the grub to update, but when I boot from the memory stick it gives the error:
sudo update-grub
/usr/sbin/drub-probe: error: cannont find a device for / (is /dev/ mounted?)
I can’t get it to boot other than the memory stick. I guess the poulsbo.blacklist is critical?
How can I update the grub on the internal disk when I don’t boot to it?
Thanks
Glen
@Glen Biegel
After you install it, you then have to edit /etc/default/grub as outlined above. Sounds as if you are trying to make a change while running the live CD, which will not work.
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I made a bootable USB stick from your ISO with UNetbootin and it works great. Every hardware of my Nookia Bootlet 3G works.
But when I want to install Ubuntu from this USB stick it doesn’t work.
The installation process starts but the check for installation requisites (electricity, internet connection, …) takes for ever, although fulfilled. The real installation never starts.
Any idea?
Thanks a lot for your work. In principle my system (Sony Viao P11) is really usable BUT:
- the screen is flickering a bit. Especially some shades of the gray of your wallpaper are terribly. Running xrandr shows the reason: the screen works with 65 Hz instead of the normal 60 Hz
- i really would love to use an external monitor in its native resolution. No extended desktop is required, only the external would be enough. But all I get when connecting an external monitor is a mirror mode with both screens @ 1024×768.
Do you know any possibility to tweak that? I guess if i could disable the internal screen the external would run at native resolution out of the box, but how to do that?
However, thanks a lot for your work! And perhaps somebody could help
yo