What is the version of Ubuntu?

The ubuntu version is LUbuntu v12.04 of Linaro.

How to install the software?

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install [your software name]

For more help, you can read the help of the apt-get command.

You can also install software by Synaptic package manager. The password is “ubuntu”.

How to switch to command line mode?

In the latest image, there is a simple utility called board-config.sh that can be used to for this purpose.

Press CTRL+ALT+F1 ~ CTRL+ALT+F6 to switch to the command line mode.

Press CTRL+ALT+F7 to switch back to ubuntu session.

Stop or Start GUI?

You can switch to command line or use the debug serial cable to stop or start GUI.

To stop GUI:

$ sudo stop lightdm

To start GUI:

$ sudo start lightdm

To restart GUI:

$ sudo restart 1lightdm

When the lightdm GUI start, the configure file /etc/X11/xorg.conf will be applied.

How to change/disable screensaver timeout?

Here are more settings that can be made here; see this link for details.

How to start a  a program at boot?

Say you want to always have an LXTerminal window open when the GUI loads. How do you go about doing this?

All you need to do is add the command to the end of the autostart file located here:

For instance, to launch LXTerminal at boot, add the line “lxterm” to the end of the file.

Stopping the GUI from automatically loading on boot

If you’re using a pcDuino in an embedded application, it may be helpful to prevent the GUI from loading, to conserve processor resources. To log in only as root, with access only via the debugging serial port, open this file:

Delete all of the content after [SeatDefaults]. This will stop it from launching the window manager and logging you in.

If you only want to stop the automatic login, just remove the last line (“autologin-user=ubuntu”) from the file, and you’ll be presented with a login screen at reboot.