Getting Ubuntu on Riotboard with a Mac

Hi Shane,

Never having used a Mac I don't know if these instructions will be useable as they're written for doing the same using linux

http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/single-board_computers/riotboard/blog/2014/05/16/riotboard-ubuntu-image-on-sd-card

I know that OSX has at least some of the necessary tools like 'dd', but I'm not sure if it has a way to format a partition as ext4..  If not, I believe it should be possible to build e2fsprogs on a mac.

Hi Shane,

I use a Macintosh Powerbook to create SD-based versions of Linux OS for my Raspberry PI, Banana PI and Orange PI and Riotboard boards on a regular basis. I always use the current version of OSX.  (Also use a 2014 MacMini for the same purpose.)  I realize that this does not provide a link, hence, it might not be of direct use, but want to encourage your experimentation. 

(I have tried to create SD cards from a Windows 7 PC with internal SD card writer and three different external USB SD card writers and the same with Mint running on a 2-year old laptop.  Neither of those machines had success.)

With the Macintosh, it was as easy as:

• Download a ZIP image file of the desired file for the hardware
• Use UnArchiver to create the image file.
• Move image file to my home directory and rename (ex: ubuntu.img to make dd string simpler)
• Install an SD or microSD (in holder) into card slot
• Erase card when prompted (use defaults in Disk Utilities app,  as dd will redo it anyway)
• Unmount the formatted card from Terminal - diskutil unmountDisk disk2
• Use dd to write image.  sudo dd if=ubuntu.img of=/dev/disk2 bs=4m && diskutil eject disk2
  • Internal slot is disk2
  • Macintosh can handle 4m speed
  • Add the eject to simplify end process
• Card should now be ready for your single board computer.
• I created and evaluated 8 different SD cards for a current Banana PI board in one evening.
• There is a working version of Ubuntu for Riotboard on Element14:  RIoTboard BSP Images and Tools Download - Android and Linux

Good answer unfortunately this user not active.

thanks larry for the instructions,

can you post a small blog on this  ??