**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Sat Jul 12 02:59:59 2014
Jul 12 14:44:12 <virtouni> Hey, folks. Do I get access to software repositories with ARM images, the same way I get apt-get on x86?
Jul 12 14:47:30 <infinity> virtouni: Yes.
Jul 12 14:48:58 <virtouni> infinity: All three architectures listed on the Ubuntu Wiki ARM page?
Jul 12 14:49:52 <infinity> virtouni: I'm not sure which wiki page or arches you're referring to, to be honest.
Jul 12 14:50:33 <virtouni> infinity: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM
Jul 12 14:51:12 <infinity> virtouni: We support two architectures (armhf, which is ARMv7 hard float, and arm64, which is the 64-bit ARMv8)
Jul 12 14:51:24 <virtouni> No forget that, tell me where I can read more about it.
Jul 12 14:51:31 <infinity> You mean subarches, or platforms, I guess, if you're referring to that page, though it's 2 years out of date.
Jul 12 14:52:41 <virtouni> Apparently so. Where can I get newer info?
Jul 12 14:53:10 <infinity> To be fair, I'm not sure if anyone's been updating the wiki docs, so the answer might be "nowhere".
Jul 12 14:53:41 <virtouni> Eh, well, let me describe the situation, if it can be of help to help me.
Jul 12 14:54:17 <infinity> The d-i netboot images are sort of self-documenting in the "which boards can you boot without putting a bunch of time into it" way.
Jul 12 14:54:22 <infinity> http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/dists/trusty/main/installer-armhf/current/images/generic/netboot/
Jul 12 14:54:40 <virtouni> My friend wants a tablet for general purpose computing. Of course Android or Windows RT is out of the question. So we'd like to know what devices we can get so that we may flash it and have our way with.
Jul 12 14:54:55 <infinity> Oh.
Jul 12 14:55:12 <infinity> I think you'll find that pretty much no tablet works "out of the box" with any general purpose Linux.
Jul 12 14:55:26 <infinity> There's going to be a lot of hacking on your end.
Jul 12 14:55:32 <virtouni> That's a given.
Jul 12 14:55:38 <virtouni> But we need a starting point.
Jul 12 14:55:54 <infinity> Well, by which I mean there won't be disrto provided kernels, which extends to not having distro images or installers either.
Jul 12 14:56:13 <virtouni> The main issue, as I see it, are GPU driver and the ability to flash, going beyond arch compatibility.
Jul 12 14:56:14 <infinity> You'll get to hack up a kernel on your own, then build a distro root on there (using a rootfs tarball like Ubuntu Core can help a bit)
Jul 12 14:56:25 <virtouni> Ugh...
Jul 12 14:56:39 <virtouni> I thought at least some Ubuntu release would be able to be used.
Jul 12 14:56:44 <virtouni> What of the Nexus devices?
Jul 12 14:56:49 <infinity> Granted, if it's an Android device, it already has a Linux kernel. :P
Jul 12 14:57:16 <virtouni> Can I flash a Nexus device with standard Ubuntu instead of Touch?
Jul 12 14:57:29 <infinity> We ship unsupported kernels for some Nexus devices.  Still no installers or "images", though, you get to put the bits together yourself.
Jul 12 14:57:50 <infinity> Unless, as you note, you install Ubuntu Touch instead.
Jul 12 14:58:11 <infinity> But, spoiler alert, those are all still Android kernels and Android drivers, just with a regular Linux userspace stuffed on top. :)
Jul 12 14:58:13 <virtouni> Can't I strip Touch packages from the image and introduce desktop packages?
Jul 12 14:58:43 <infinity> Sure, if you put the image in read-write mode, it's just a normal Ubuntuish thing you can apt-get install and remove with.
Jul 12 14:59:00 <infinity> Except for the weird container setup required to make the android/linux hybrid work.
Jul 12 14:59:06 <virtouni> Well, that's quite straight-forward isn't it?
Jul 12 14:59:20 <virtouni> Can I get repo though?
Jul 12 14:59:37 <infinity> Yeah.  It all uses the same repositories.
Jul 12 14:59:43 <virtouni> YEAH!
Jul 12 14:59:50 <infinity> And most everything is built on all 6 architectures.
Jul 12 15:00:04 <virtouni> Which six?
Jul 12 15:00:27 <infinity> i386, amd64, armhf, arm64, powerpc, ppc64el
Jul 12 15:00:50 <infinity> My point being that there's no "Ubuntu ARM" product, per se, it's all just Ubuntu, once you manage to get a userspace going on some device, it's all the same thing.
Jul 12 15:01:03 <virtouni> So, we need to mount the image, and the chroot? And what's the weird container? (I need to know so that I don't mess with it accidentally)
Jul 12 15:01:17 <infinity> Just that kernel, bootloader, and installer support on ARM devices sucks, because ARM device OEMs suck. :P
Jul 12 15:01:47 <infinity> I actually know shockingly little about how Touch devices are laid out.
Jul 12 15:02:00 <infinity> You might be better off asking ogra_ for more details if/when he's around.
Jul 12 15:02:19 <virtouni> I'm just concerned that ARM packages available though they might be, they won't work on some devices due to the clusterfuck of of implementations
Jul 12 15:02:23 <infinity> But, in theory, it should be simple to install touch on a Nexus device, flip to read-write, and remove all the bits you don't like.
Jul 12 15:02:29 <infinity> And add the bits you want.
Jul 12 15:03:20 <virtouni> Yes, now I only need to know how to get to the point of apt-geting them. chroot, as I suggested?
Jul 12 15:04:57 <infinity> A chroot tarball on a working Android system is a simple way to go.  But that's not the same as "installing a touch image", which should be covered here: http://developer.ubuntu.com/start/ubuntu-for-devices/installing-ubuntu-for-devices/
Jul 12 15:06:04 * infinity wanders off to start his weekend.
Jul 12 15:06:12 <virtouni> By chroot, I meant chrooting into the mounted Ubuntu Touch. Mounted on a desktop PC or something. Before flashing the device with it.
Jul 12 15:08:22 <virtouni> I don't see where the image comes in in the instructions. :(
Jul 12 15:08:35 <virtouni> Well, I'll be back later, thanks a lot infinity.
**** ENDING LOGGING AT Sun Jul 13 02:59:59 2014