pifiles

Configures Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (ARMv8) running Ubuntu Server 20.04.3 LTS (64-bit)

Setup

1. Using Raspberry Pi Imager, write Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) to an SD card (at least 8GB). Follow the instructions in Raspberry Pi 4 / 400 Ubuntu USB Mass Storage Boot Guide and Raspberry Pi 4: Boot Ubuntu 20.04 via USB to update EEPROM bootloader firmware, update config.txt, decompress the kernel, then automate decompression through a dpkg hook. Without this, the Raspberry Pi will not boot Ubuntu Server 20.04 from a USB drive.

2. Using Raspberry Pi Imager, write Ubuntu Server 20.04.3 LTS (64-bit) to a USB flash drive (at least 8GB).

3. If the system-boot volume is not mounted, remove and reinsert the USB flash drive.

4. Enable SSH by running touch /Volumes/system-boot/ssh.

5. Unmount and remove the USB flash drive.

6. Insert the USB flash drive in the Raspberry Pi, then connect the Pi to power. After a few moments, the Raspberry Pi should connect to your network and be assigned an IP address. You can find the assigned address (and reserve a static IP address) in the UniFi controller or by running ping 192.168.1.255 (broadcast) then arp -na | grep -i "dc:a6:32" (source).

7. Connect to the Raspberry Pi via SSH: ssh ubuntu@YOUR_PI_IP_ADDRESS. If warned about changed device fingerprint, remove the line with YOUR_PI_IP_ADDRESS from ~/.ssh/known_hosts, then try to connect again. When prompted for a password, use ubuntu. After you log in to the Raspberry Pi, you’ll be prompted to change the password for the default user, if you aren’t, run passwd.

8. (Optional) First, on the host, create a public + private RSA key pair (e.g. ~/.ssh/id_rsa & ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub): ssh-keygen -t rsa && chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa*, then add a section to ~/.ssh/config (below). Then, on the Pi, append the contents of the public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys, then prevent further writes: chmod 444 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys. Now, you’ll be able to connect to your Raspberry Pi using just ssh pi.

   tee -a ~/.ssh/config << EOF
   Host pi
   HostName YOUR_PI_IP_ADDRESS
   IdentityFile /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/.ssh/id_rsa
   User ubuntu
   EOF

9. (Optional) Immediately after first login, apt operations may fail with Waiting for cache lock: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend. It is held by process xxxx (unattended-upgr). Run tail -f /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades-dpkg.log to follow unattended-upgrades progress.

10. Clone this repository on the Pi, and run relevant lines from pifiles.sh to complete setup.