How to install raspistill on Ubuntu Core?

Question

I would like to be able to take pictures with the Raspberry Pi camera while running Ubuntu Core (Snappy). How can I install/enable the camera?

This question is about Ubuntu Core, not Raspbian.

Answer 1

This question is about Ubuntu Core, not Raspbian. There is no /boot/config.txt file on Ubuntu Core.

Then create one. The /boot directory on Raspbian -- and I would presume any Pi oriented distro, although it is not necessarily the case -- is a mount point for the first (vfat) partition. That partition is non-optional regardless of distro, and nothing in it has anything directly to do with anything outside of that partition. In fact, it does not even have to be mounted except to simplify updates via the package manager; it is never used once the kernel loads.

So "/boot/config.txt" really refers to a file in the boot partition; the other files there are the kernel, firmware, device tree overlays, etc. (although much of that, including config.txt, is optional).

The default config.txt on Raspbian is actually only one line and a lot of comments and commented out directives. The one line is for loading the audio driver, which evidently is not built in to the stock kernel.

Here's what you need for the camera:

start_x=1
gpu_mem=128

You can assign more GPU memory but not less. Reboot, then try raspistill. If it is not available in Ubuntu Core, it can be installed easily enough. Follow the directions here for adding /opt/vc:

https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/a/27545/5538

raspistill and raspivid are in /opt/vc/bin. You'll want to add that to your $PATH or else move them somewhere. You must tell the linker about the libraries using /etc/ld.so.conf(.d) and ldconfig.

Answer 2

Go here and follow the instructions: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-pi-flavour-makers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

Add the repository as instructed and then issue this command: sudo apt-get install raspi-config this will install the raspi-config on the Ubuntu server. Menu items are off by one, but it works!