Ubuntu Server RPI4B

Ubuntu Server on RPI

Programming instructions

1. Download and copy this latest ubuntu rpi image to the VM and cd into the directory with it
2. Confirm the file is in your current directory

   
    $ ls ubuntu-24.04.2-preinstalled-desktop-arm64+raspi.img.xz
    

3. (Optional step, as you can dd the compressed image later) Extract the image $ unxz ubuntu-24.04.2-preinstalled-desktop-arm64+raspi.img.xz
4. Verify it extracted

   
    $ ls ubuntu-24.04.2-preinstalled-desktop-arm64+raspi.img
    

5. Plug in your sd-card into the USB reader and attach it to the VM
6. Identify the block device for your sd-card (SIZE should be close to your SD card size, my sd-card is 64GB and was /dev/sdc)

   
    $ lsblk -p
    NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
    /dev/sda      8:0    0    50G  0 disk 
    ├─/dev/sda1   8:1    0    42G  0 part /
    ├─/dev/sda2   8:2    0     1K  0 part 
    └─/dev/sda5   8:5    0     8G  0 part [SWAP]
    /dev/sdc      8:32   1  59.5G  0 disk 
    ├─/dev/sdc1   8:33   1 122.1M  0 part 
    └─/dev/sdc2   8:34   1  58.6G  0 part 
    /dev/sdd      8:48   1  57.8G  0 disk 
    └─/dev/sdd1   8:49   1  57.8G  0 part /media/kali/TRAVELER1
    /dev/sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  
    

7. Don't worry if there are existing logical partitions on your device, you will clear them in the next command
8. Write the image to the sd-card using dd (have the block size be at least half of the max speed!)

   
    $ sudo dd if=ubuntu-24.04.2-preinstalled-desktop-arm64+raspi.img of=/dev/sdc status=progress bs=16M && sync
    

   • If the image is compressed via xz, then use something like:

     
       $ xzcat ~/Downloads/ubuntu-24.04.2-preinstalled-desktop-arm64+raspi.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdd status=progress bs=32M && sync
       

9. Mount the first logical partition to edit cmdline.txt and config.txt $ sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt
10. Edit /mnt/cmdline.txt and make sure the following are present console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty1 fsck.repair=yes zswap.enabled=1 zswap.zpool=z3fold zswap.compressor=zstd multipath=off dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=tty1 root=LABEL=writable rootfstype=ext4 rootwait fixrtc quiet splash
11. Edit /mnt/config.txt and make sure the following line is present enable_uart=1
12. Unmount the first logical partition $ sudo umount /mnt
13. Eject the sd-card before you remove it $ sudo eject /dev/sdc
14. Attach the FTDI-USB-Serial cable to your RPI4's UART0 and attach the USB to your PC (see https://github.com/jhu-information-security-institute/NwSec/wiki/RPI4B for wiring); attach the device to your VM and it should be /dev/ttyUSB0
15. Open minicom on /dev/ttyUSB0; Settings should be 115200,8N1,No,No $ sudo minicom -D /dev/ttyUSB0

Basic setup

1. Insert the sd-card into the RPI4
2. Power on the RPI4
3. First boot could be slower if the sd card is large and needs to be resized
4. Wait for the RPI4 to boot and login with ubuntu, ubuntu, source
5. Setup networking (see the section below)
6. Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and change from kali-rolling to kali-last-snapshot
7. Run an update sequence

   
    $ sudo apt-get update
    

8. Get the ip address of your rpi $ ifconfig
9. openssh-server should be already installed, and you can SSH into the RPI4 by using its ip address, e.g., $ ssh root@ipaddressofpihere
10. login using a KVM and disable Screensaver and Lock Screen from the Screensaver Preferences
11. Disable Display power management in Power Manager
12. install terminator $ sudo apt-get install -y terminator

• Default credentials to login are: ubuntu, ubuntu