Ubuntu 16.04 from canonical goes into infinite boot reboot cycle

Hi SVfpu,
 
Thanks for your interest in the Intel® Joule Platform.
 
We would like to share this link Intel® Joule™ Module User Guide, there you will find steps to install Ubuntu Desktop version, also, please take a look at the Troubleshooting and FAQ in order to discard that the rebooting is caused by power issue.
 
Regards,
-Yermi
 

I assume you are doing the install with the instructions at the *end* of the thread you reference (not the beginning, which is now obsolete), i.e. with the official Ubuntu beta release for Joule (desktop version), and after updating the bios to at least version 131.   This works fine for me, and yes, that process results in a full 16.04 desktop Ubuntu installation.

Rebooting as you describe might be a power issue, actually.   Are you sure your power supply is stable enough?   You need a 12V, 3A power supply.   I've seen reboots when I try to use a 12V 1.5A supply in particular (even though on average, the Joule uses a lot less than 1.5A...).   Even if your power supply SAYS it is 3A, you might want to try another one... some power supply specs are not completely... uhm, accurate.

Also, is it rebooting *during* the install, or after the install when you try to boot it?   Your message was a little unclear on that (the installer is, after all, running an instance of Ubuntu off the SD card or USB stick).

As a final point, I have always done installs from a USB stick, rather than from an SD card.   I've seen some issues with SD card mounting during boot that might be causing problems.   But my guess is it's your power supply.

Sounds like the power supply was likely your problem.   In another thread I have been discussing valid power supply ranges for the TuChuck carrier provided in the dev kit.   Technically the input power regulator on the TuChuck carrier board can accept a wide range of input voltages so 5V in *theory* should work, but in *practice* there is a soft (resettable) fuse on-board with around a 4A limit.   As the voltage goes down the current goes up for the same power draw, so...  likely the board was drawing enough current at 5V to trip the fuse.  It has been my experience that the Joule does not draw a lot of power on average, even when running a heavy compute load, but there is the occasional spike, especially during the boot process (I suspect a lot of that is not the SoC but various peripherals powering up, the boot kernel getting read out of eMMC into memory, USB, etc etc.)

Anyhow note the officially recommended power supply is 12V 3A.

I highly recommend using the official Joule installer image for Ubuntu (at least for now) if you want to run a desktop OS.

Hi SVfpu,
 
As McCool has mentioned your issue was likely caused by the power supply, Intel recommends a DC power supply with an output of 12V at 3 Amps. Moreover, we would like to know if you followed the McCool’s suggestions in order to install Ubuntu Desktop version or if you have any updates.
 
Regards,
-Yermi