INSTALLING UBUNTU RARING TO OUYA

This is tested on Debian Wheezy and adapted from https://github.com/kulve/tegra-debian

Note that these Ubuntu instructions use the first partition of the USB stick, unlike my Debian instructions.

OUYA IS EASILY BRICKABLE. READ NO FURTHER

That said, the goal is not to flash anything on Ouya. The kernel is booted from memory and Ubuntu from an USB stick or SD card.

The binaries mentioned in this readme can be found from http://tuomas.kulve.fi/tmp/ouya-ubuntu/ .

Distribution issues

• Debian Wheezy: Segfault in OMX_UseEGLImage with XBMC.
• Debian Jessie: X.Org Video ABI 15, no driver.
• Ubuntu 12.04: Old.
• Ubuntu 12.10: Old.
• Ubuntu 13.04: Works.
• Ubuntu 13.10: X.Org Video ABI 14, rendering problems.
• Ubuntu 14.04: X.Org Video ABI 15, no driver.

Known issues

• Not properly tested, so there is a bunch unknown issues.
• Low-power core doesn't work (kernel crash)
  • CPUfreq with ondemand governer works though.
• Gstreamer usually assumes xvimagesink as the video sink, but nvxvimagesink must be used.
  • Totem has moved to GStreamer 1.0 so no Tegra support anymore.
• Wifi firmware binaries not included, they need to be copied from the Android rootfs.

Setting up the rootfs

Prepare a USB stick

Partition an USB stick (I used SD card in a small USB reader) for EXT4. I recommend using at least 8GB stick.

Use mkfs.ext4 to initialise the partition. If your system is properly set you shouldn't need sudo for that while you would need sudo to format your actual root partition.

Mount the USB stick:

It is possible to create chroot to a directory and copy the contents later, or inside a loopback device and use dd. These instructions creates the chroot directly to the USB stick.

Change the sdX1 below to match your setup.

export TARGET=/mnt/rootfs
sudo mkdir -p $TARGET
sudo mount /dev/sdX1 $TARGET

Extract base system packages to the USB stick:

sudo debootstrap --verbose --arch armhf --foreign raring $TARGET http://ports.ubuntu.com/

Prepare for chroot:

sudo apt-get install qemu-user-static binfmt-support
sudo cp /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static $TARGET/usr/bin
sudo mkdir $TARGET/dev/pts
sudo modprobe binfmt_misc
sudo mount -t devpts devpts $TARGET/dev/pts
sudo mount -t proc proc $TARGET/proc

Finish the base system installation:

sudo chroot $TARGET

You should see I have no name!@hostname:/#

/debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage

At the end, you should see I: Base system installed successfully.

Configuring rootfs while still in chroot

Setup sources.list:

cat <<END > /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ raring main multiverse universe restricted
deb-src http://ports.ubuntu.com/ raring main multiverse universe restricted
END

apt-get update

Configure language:

export LANG=C
apt-get install apt-utils dialog language-pack-en
export LANG=en_GB.UTF-8

Install some important stuff:

apt-get install openssh-server wget curl ntp vim nano mc zip wireless-tools bluez rfkill

Hack around failing DBUS invoke:

ln -s /bin/true /usr/local/sbin/invoke-rc.d
apt-get install dbus
rm /usr/local/sbin/invoke-rc.d

Configure ethernet with dhcp and set hostname:

cat <<END > /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp
END

echo ouya > /etc/hostname

Create filesystem mounts:

cat <<END > /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
/dev/root      /               ext4    noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
tmpfs          /tmp            tmpfs   defaults          0       0
/.swap      none            swap    sw                0       0
END

Optionally create 512M swap file:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/.swap bs=1M count=512
mkswap /.swap

Activate remote console:

echo 'T0:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyS0 115200 linux' >> /etc/inittab

Set root passwd:

passwd

Add normal user with sudo rights:

adduser ouya
adduser ouya video
adduser ouya audio
adduser ouya plugdev
adduser ouya sudo

Install Slim login manager, XFCE:

apt-get install xfce4 xfce4-goodies midori slim gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-alsa gnome-icon-theme-full

Install Tegra 3 proprietary binaries and Ouya config files:

dpkg -i tegra30-r16_*_armhf.deb

Disable core hotplugging

vi /etc/init.d/ondemand

Change the options to match the following:

echo 1 >/sys/module/cpu_tegra3/parameters/no_lp
echo 0 >/sys/module/cpu_tegra3/parameters/auto_hotplug
echo 0 >/sys/module/cpuidle/parameters/lp2_in_idle

Remove pulseaudio

apt-get purge gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio pulseaudio

Finish up with the chroot:

Log out from the chroot and extract kernel modules to the target:

sudo mkdir -p $TARGET/lib/modules/
sudo tar zxf modules-3.1.10-tk*.tar.gz -C $TARGET/lib/modules/

Kill any process started in the chroot (lsof $TARGET) and finally unmount the target:

sudo umount $TARGET

Install adb and fastboot to the host Debian:

sudo dpkg -i android-tools*deb

Booting Ouya

Reboot Ouya to fastboot:

adb reboot-bootloader

Boot Ouya with the kernel:

WARNING: NEVER EVER FLASH THE KERNEL, JUST BOOT FROM RAM

fastboot boot zImage-3.1.10-tk*

Wifi

The BCM firmware binaries may not be redistributable so they need to be copied from the Android rootfs after booting to Debian:

sudo mount -o ro /dev/mmcblk0p3 /mnt/
sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/bcm4330/
sudo cp /mnt/etc/nvram_4330.txt /lib/firmware/
sudo cp /mnt/vendor/firmware/bcm4330/fw_bcmdhd.bin /lib/firmware/bcm4330/
sudo cp /mnt/etc/firmware/bcm4330.hcd /lib/firmware/bcm4330/
sudo umount /mnt

sudo modprobe bcmdhd

Bluetooth

The following command should set up BT but I have not got it working yet: sudo brcm_patchram_plus --enable_hci --use_baudrate_for_download --scopcm=0,2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 --baudrate 3000000 --patchram /lib/firmware/bcm4330/bcm4330.hcd --no2bytes --enable_lpm --tosleep=50000 /dev/ttyHS2 &