Desktopify

Convert Ubuntu Server for Raspberry Pi to a Desktop.

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Introduction

Desktopify is a simple script to convert Ubuntu Server for the Raspberry Pi to one of the official Ubuntu desktop flavours.

We have a Discord for this project:

Requirements

• SD Card (preferred 32 GB or more) & MicroSD to SD Adaptor (to connect sd card to your laptop/PC).
• Raspberry PI 4 model B (preferred with 8GB ram).
• Monitor, Keyboard and necessary cables to connect them to RaspberryPi.
• Mobile data (approx 2GB) for downloading dependencies.

Setup

• Download Raspberry Pi Imager software to choose your respective OS compatible with raspberryPi.
• Connect the SD card to your laptop/PC and then open RPI Imager software, you will see screen like below

• Select CHOOSE OS --> Other Support OS --> UBUNTU.
• Choose any server image file. For this i'm using ubuntu 20.04.05 64 bit server image file.
• Click CHOOSE STORAGE and then select your SD card.
• finally click on WRITE and wait for some time.
• After completion, insert sd card to your RaspberryPi and connect keyboard & Monitor to it. You can power RaspberryPI from your laptop in case your don't have powerbank.
• power on t your PI and wait for 1-2 minutes.
• Lgin to ubuntu OS. By default the username and password are both ubuntu.
• Change your password and then login again.
• Yo need to connect to a wifi to download necessary packages. Best way is to connect to your MObile hotspot.
• Now you need to know your wifi card name. For that type following command on the ubuntu server

ls /sys/class/net

On my system, the output is like this and my wifi card name is wlan0.

For further steps, i'll be assuming the same for you.

• Assuming that your Mobile network wifi name/SSID is MyWifi and password is MyPass.
• type the following command to edit your network configuration

sudo nano /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml

by default you will see the following data in this file

• Edit this file as follows

• After writing the above data, type ctrl + O to write, then Enter to save and then ctrl + X to exit from the file.
• type sudo reboot and then login again. Check if your are connect to your mobile wifi using the command

hostname -I

If you see some IP address as output, means you'r done.

Installation

1. clone this repo by typing following command on ubuntu server

https://github.com/wimpysworld/desktopify.git

2. go to the repo folder and download the desktop image using following commands

cd desktopify

./desktopify --de ubuntu

Here i'm choosing ubuntu as my desktop environent. You can choose other ubuntu desktops also.
Available desktop environments are:
lubuntu
kubuntu
ubuntu
ubuntu-budgie
ubuntu-kylin
ubuntu-mate
ubuntu-studio
xubuntu

3. Now wait for some time (may be an hour or so depending on your internet speed). After completion reboot your system using

sudo reboot

4. You'r done.

TODO

• Emoji status

DONE

• Install GPIO utilities and libraries
• Enable Bluetooth
• Make sure it's Ubuntu on a Pi
• Make Network Manager the default backend
• Prevent low power WiFi mode
• Disable overscan
• Enable fkms driver
• Enable boot splash
• Enable Firefox hardware acceleration
• Create a snap
• Kubuntu
• Lubuntu
• Ubuntu
• Ubuntu Budgie
• Ubuntu Kylin
• Ubuntu MATE
• Ubuntu Studio
• Xubuntu
• Drop dpkg-architecture requirement
• Optimise Ubuntu MATE (Marco) window manager
• Enable initial setup
• Prevent pointless re-installs
• Install snaps
• Install gpio tools

References :

• video demonstration
• medium blog for network setup