As well as RISC OS, Titanium owners have had the option of using Linux on their system since the motherboard’s launch; it could be purchased from Elesar Ltd bundled with either RISC OS or Linux – and since April 2016, owners of the RISC OS version have had the ability to enjoy the best of both worlds; a RISC OS-based Titanium that could launch from RISC OS into Linux via the GoLinux application.
The Linux build in use for both the Linux-based board and the GoLinux launcher for RISC OS was Debian (Jessie), with Debian being the specific distribution, and the bracketed Jessie the ‘code-name’ of all 8.x versions. Version 9.x, meanwhile, was known as Stretch, and version 10.x is known as Buster – and there is now a port of Debian (Buster) available from Elesar for the Titanium.
Running on a long term stable Linux kernel (4.14), this new Titanium offering benefits from more improvements than just being a more up-to-date build; the previous release from Elesar was a minimal affair, dropping users in at the command line – this version is supplied with XFCE, a graphical desktop, and the Firefox web browser.
If you have a RISC OS-based Titanium and want to use the new Linux build via the GoLinux application, you’ll need to download the updated version of the application. Version 1.07 can be downloaded from the Titanium page via the Resources tab. Instructions for building the kernel itself, along with the necessary U-boot, can be found on Elesar’s github page, along with instructions on how to put that on a suitable micro-SD card for booting.
If you are a mere user, and would just like to skip straight to the point where you can just plug in the card and boot into Debian (Buster) via GoLinux, you can also just buy a suitable card directly from Elesar. This is as now supplied with the Titanium board if you opt for the Linux variant.
If you’re already using Linux (Jessie) on a Titanium and you have an active support token, you can also open a support ticket, and Elesar will re-image your micro-SD card for you. This will obviously necessitate sending it off – and it will result in any existing data being wiped, so be sure to take backups first