Installing Ubuntu 19.10 for IoT on a Raspberry Pi 4 including setting up WiFi

  • Download the latest ARM 64 bit image from ubuntu.com/download/iot
  • Write the downloaded image on an SD card (preferably a 32gb or less FAT32 formatted, fast speed) using, for example, the Balena Etcher which is available for Mac and Windows
  • Put the flashed SD card into the Raspberry Pi and connect a monitor and keyboard. Note, the Raspberry Pi 4 has 2 HDMI ports.
  • Power-on the Raspberry 4 and wait for it to boot. This process can take a long time, up to 10 minutes.
  • Log in with username ubuntu and password ubuntu and change the latter to something you can remember
  • Next you need to connect your RPI to a wifi network using netplan: There is an example file available under /usr/share/doc/netplan/examples/wireless.yaml You probably want to enable the DHCP configuration and remove the static parts. Just copy the example to the /etc/netplan/ directory and edit it, so it may look similar to this:
network:
  version: 2
  wifis:
    wlan0:
      dhcp4: yes
      dhcp6: no
      access-points:
        "<your network ESSID>":
        password: "<your wifi password>"
  • Run sudo netplan try and accept the configuration
  • You should now be connected to the internet

Bonus:

Install net-tools by entering the command sudo apt install net-tools (you may have to reboot before doing so). This allows you to find out the IP address, so you can log in from another computer using SSH.

What now?

Now, with this setup, you can install the Gravio platform to start building your own IoT applications. More info can be found under https://medium.com/@cburgdorfer/installing-ubuntu-19-10-for-iot-on-a-raspberry-pi-4-for-the-gravio-iot-platform-6d00404d5120