Linaro Precise ALIP on i.MX6

We've recently been testing the ALIP (ARM Linux Internet Platform) release from Linaro and just uploaded an image:

• linaro-precise-alip-20121124-519.tar.gz

This platform has many of the things we love about Ubuntu without the bloat of the Unity package. Instead, it includes a simple LXDE Desktop manager, the Chromium browser, MPlayer and not much else.

This makes it quick to boot and relatively lightweight, at ~250 MB gzipped.

We added just a handful of things to the stock release:

• OpenSSH Server - because we can't live without it, and
• Changed the root password to "Boundary" to allow root login over SSH, and
• Our latest kernel (including audio patches and modules in /lib/modules), and
• Our 6x_bootscript for automagic detection of displays, and
• The firmware for the TiWi module (/lib/modules/ti-connectivity), and
• A small patch to /etc/init.d/x11-common. For some reason, the ownership of /dev/shm required root access, so Chromium refused to start.