Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack Debian

This page is about running the armhf port of Debian distribution at BeagleBoard. The latest release beagleboard.org image can be found at: http://beagleboard.org/latest-images

= Checking The Debian Image Version =

You should check the version of the image on the microSD/eMMC by opening the ID.txt file in the FAT partition.

root@beaglebone:~# cat /etc/dogtag BeagleBoard.org BeagleBone Debian Image 2014-03-19

This file can also be accessed via a PC (Windows/Mac/Linux) via either mounting the FAT partition directly off the microSD card or via the usb interface (flash drive).

= Installing =

Oracle Java 8
Information: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html

Install: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer

Verify: debian@beaglebone:~$ java -version java version "1.8.0_60" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_60-b27) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 25.60-b23, mixed mode)

TI PRU Code Generation Tools
http://software-dl.ti.com/codegen/non-esd/downloads/download.htm#PRU

Install: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install ti-pru-cgt-installer

Older rootfs (when above package doesn't exist): wget http://downloads.ti.com/codegen/esd/cgt_public_sw/PRU/2.1.1/ti_cgt_pru_2.1.1_armlinuxa8hf_busybox_installer.sh chmod +x ti_cgt_pru_2.1.1_armlinuxa8hf_busybox_installer.sh sudo ./ti_cgt_pru_2.1.1_armlinuxa8hf_busybox_installer.sh

= FAQ =

Expanding File System Partition On A microSD
By default the microSD image is only about 2GB in size, to fully expand the partition to the full size of your microSD card simple run.

cd /opt/scripts/tools/ git pull sudo ./grow_partition.sh sudo reboot

On the next reboot, [df -h] should show the full microSD card size.

Flashing eMMC
To set up the standalone microSD image to automatically flash the eMMC on powerup. *Note, img files with the words "eMMC-flasher" already had this enabled...*

In /boot/uEnv.txt:
 * 1) enable BBB: eMMC Flasher:
 * 2) cmdline=init=/opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh

Change to: cmdline=init=/opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh
 * 1) enable BBB: eMMC Flasher:

Optional, update Flasher Scripts: cd /opt/scripts/ git pull

and reboot the system, it'll flash the eMMC on the next bootup. (make sure to remove the microSD after flashing is complete)

Kernel Upgrade
We can't ship support for everything on release day, so we push out new kernels as fixes, support for new capes, etc are posted on the beagleboard.org mainline list.

cd /opt/scripts/tools/ git pull sudo ./update_kernel.sh sudo reboot

Installing kernel headers
If you want to build a kernel module natively, you'll need to install the correct kernel headers.

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

In a Makefile, perform:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(shell uname -r)

Loading custom capes
Due to limitations in debian wheezy's userspace, the use of an initramfs, and having firmware builtin to the kernel. It is currently not possible to load "custom" capes via: capemgr.enable_partno=xyz. Instead an init script has been set up to load the cape/capes as soon as possible.

Built-in Cape: capemgr.enable_partno=BB-SPIDEV1 slot #7: Requesting part number/version based 'BB-SPIDEV1-00A0.dtbo slot #7: Requesting firmware 'BB-SPIDEV1-00A0.dtbo' for board-name 'Override Board Name', version '00A0' slot #7: dtbo 'BB-SPIDEV1-00A0.dtbo' loaded; converting to live tree

Custom External Cape: capemgr.enable_partno=BB-SPI1-01 slot #7: Requesting part number/version based 'BB-SPI1-01-00A0.dtbo slot #7: Requesting firmware 'BB-SPI1-01-00A0.dtbo' for board-name 'Override Board Name', version '00A0' failed to load firmware 'BB-SPI1-01-00A0.dtbo' loader: failed to load slot-7 BB-SPI1-01:00A0 (prio 0)

Workaround: add "CAPE=BB-SPI1-01" to /etc/default/capemgr

Privileged echo
As a normal user, you can not "sudo echo 'something' >> /etc/privilegedfile"

echo 'something' | sudo tee /etc/privilegedfile

Timezone
By default this image is set up to display time in utc mode. If you would like to change this to your local region.

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

or: echo "Europe/Zurich" > /etc/timezone dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive tzdata

Jessie Timezone
List of available timezones: timedatectl list-timezones

Set timezone: sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/North_Dakota/Center

W: GPG error: http://debian.beagleboard.org wheezy-bbb
W: GPG error: http://debian.beagleboard.org wheezy-bbb Release: The following signatures were invalid: KEYEXPIRED 1418840246 KEYEXPIRED 1418840304 KEYEXPIRED 1418840246 KEYEXPIRED 1418840246 KEYEXPIRED 1418840304

Note this directions are version dependent, so double check your version:

debian@beaglebone:~$ cat /etc/dogtag BeagleBoard.org BeagleBone Debian Image 2014-05-14

2014-05-14 GPG error: Disable: http://debian.beagleboard.org repo:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Change: deb [arch=armhf] http://debian.beagleboard.org/packages wheezy-bbb main
 * 1) deb-src [arch=armhf] http://debian.beagleboard.org/packages wheezy-bbb main

To:
 * 1) deb [arch=armhf] http://debian.beagleboard.org/packages wheezy-bbb main
 * 2) deb-src [arch=armhf] http://debian.beagleboard.org/packages wheezy-bbb main

sudo apt-get update

2014-05-14 GPG error: Optional enable: http://repos.rcn-ee.com/
Download archive-keyring: wget https://rcn-ee.com/repos/debian/pool/main/r/rcn-ee-archive-keyring/rcn-ee-archive-keyring_2016.04.24~bpo70+20160424+1_all.deb sudo dpkg -i rcn-ee-archive-keyring_*_all.deb

Add repo to /etc/apt/sources.list sudo sh -c "echo 'deb [arch=armhf] http://repos.rcn-ee.com/debian wheezy main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list" sudo sh -c "echo '#deb-src [arch=armhf] http://repos.rcn-ee.com/debian wheezy main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

Update packages: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade sudo apt-get install npm c9-core-installer --reinstall

Adding bb.org-overlays to jessie console image
Currently by default, the console image doesn't include the *.dtbo overlays.

Install build requirements: (add's 145Mb to the console image) sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install build-essential git-core device-tree-compiler

Clone bb.org-overlays repo: git clone https://github.com/beagleboard/bb.org-overlays/ cd ./bb.org-overlays/ ./install.sh

i take full responsibility for knowing my beagle is now insecure
as of 2017-02-19, BeagleBoard images now longer enable these insecure options by default, you are free to recreate them as you wish.

remove root password
root_password=$(cat /etc/shadow | grep root | awk -F ':' '{print $2}') sed -i -e 's:'$root_password'::g' /etc/shadow

ssh root@beaglebone.local
sed -i -e 's:PermitEmptyPasswords no:PermitEmptyPasswords yes:g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config sed -i -e 's:UsePAM yes:UsePAM no:g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config sed -i -e 's:PermitRootLogin without-password:PermitRootLogin yes:g' /etc/ssh/sshd_config

sudo no password required
echo "debian ALL=NOPASSWD: ALL" >>/etc/sudoers

U-Boot Overlays
Check via serial U-Boot SPL 2017.03-rc3-00002-g16d7481d17 (Mar 09 2017 - 14:55:03) Trying to boot from MMC2 U-Boot 2017.03-rc3-00002-g16d7481d17 (Mar 09 2017 - 14:55:03 -0600), Build: jenkins-github_Bootloader-Builder-529

Check via system debian@test-bbb-1:~$ cd /opt/scripts/tools/ debian@test-bbb-1:/opt/scripts/tools$ git pull debian@test-bbb-1:/opt/scripts/tools$ sudo ./version.sh | grep bootloader bootloader:[/dev/mmcblk1]:[U-Boot 2017.03-rc3-00002-g16d748]

To upgrade your version of U-Boot: debian@beaglebone:~$ cd /opt/scripts/tools/developers/ debian@beaglebone:/opt/scripts/tools/developers$ sudo ./update_bootloader.sh debian@beaglebone:/opt/scripts/tools/developers$ sudo reboot

U-Boot /boot/uEnv.txt configuration
Note, do not have a "/uEnv.txt" file, backwards compatibility for ancient U-Boot's is not currently supported, so make sure to "sudo rm /uEnv.txt"... At a minimum, "enable_uboot_overlays=1" must be in /boot/uEnv.txt for U-Boot to take over loading overlays.

/boot/uEnv.txt: enable_uboot_overlays=1

U-Boot Disable on-board devices
To Disable eMMC: disable_uboot_overlay_emmc=1

To Disable HDMI VIDEO & AUDIO: disable_uboot_overlay_video=1

To Disable HDMI AUDIO: (first added in: 2017.03-rc1-00003-gb401af09b2 Build 515) disable_uboot_overlay_audio=1

To Disable WL1835: disable_uboot_overlay_wireless=1

U-Boot Override external capes
Cape device tree overlays: https://github.com/beagleboard/bb.org-overlays/

uboot_overlay_addr0=/lib/firmware/ .dtbo uboot_overlay_addr1=/lib/firmware/ .dtbo uboot_overlay_addr2=/lib/firmware/ .dtbo uboot_overlay_addr3=/lib/firmware/ .dtbo

Plus one custom cape: dtb_overlay=/lib/firmware/ .dtbo

U-Boot Cape Universal
Utilize https://github.com/cdsteinkuehler/beaglebone-universal-io config-pin.

To enable, in /boot/uEnv.txt add: (first added in: 2017.03-rc1-00003-g15396d3873 Build 516) enable_uboot_cape_universal=1

= Debian Build Instructions =

You'll want a fairly beefy ARM system to run this script.

git clone git://github.com/beagleboard/image-builder.git cd image-builder ./beagleboard.org_image.sh

Output of the autobuilder can be found at http://builds.beagleboard.org.

= Debian Releases = http://beagleboard.org/latest-images

BeagleBoard-X15 weekly
Bug tracker: http://bugs.elinux.org/projects/beagleboard-x15

microSD/Standalone: (lxqt-4gb) (BeagleBoard-X15) Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-03-12/lxqt-4gb/bbx15-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bbx15-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb* 75ce60d7682153f78e6e470f99fa46e45a8d390881053fea2580b411f27b597e bbx15-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat bbx15-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

= Debian Image Testing Snapshots =

microSD/Standalone: (machinekit) Based on Debian Jessie
Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-02-12/machinekit/bone-debian-8.7-machinekit-armhf-2017-02-12-4gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bone-debian-8.7-machinekit-armhf-2017-02-12-4gb* 18361e0426715974b5a0e7f014ff1bf26db2421cbf8d61622efd2856cd8c6214 bone-debian-8.7-machinekit-armhf-2017-02-12-4gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat bone-debian-8.7-machinekit-armhf-2017-02-12-4gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

Jessie Snapshot lxqt
2017-03-12 notes * U-Boot: v2017.03-rc3 * Kernel: 4.4.52-ti-r92

Flasher: (lxqt-4gb) (All BeagleBone Variants with a 4GB eMMC)
Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-03-12/lxqt-4gb/BBB-blank-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum BBB-blank-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb* 2026a1ca31bea3d7fa3576030459086176ac954611aca74a82d34211c5b4eb99 BBB-blank-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat BBB-blank-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

microSD/Standalone: (lxqt-4gb) (All BeagleBone Variants)
Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-03-12/lxqt-4gb/bone-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bone-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb* 7a6d7a0ffc9a2c5f70e8bdb04e63eeace6519f8a5581d25fef87d8fc056a7453 bone-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat bone-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

microSD/Standalone: (lxqt-4gb) (BeagleBoard-X15)
Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-03-12/lxqt-4gb/bbx15-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bbx15-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb* 75ce60d7682153f78e6e470f99fa46e45a8d390881053fea2580b411f27b597e bbx15-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat bbx15-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

microSD/Standalone: (lxqt-2gb) (All BeagleBone Variants)
Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-03-12/lxqt-2gb/bone-debian-8.7-lxqt-2gb-armhf-2017-03-12-2gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bone-debian-8.7-lxqt-2gb-armhf-2017-03-12-2gb* e65adee489ea7502a261e3effbd1d85e141ed60fdfc8154875b0aff0718c2e63 bone-debian-8.7-lxqt-2gb-armhf-2017-03-12-2gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat bone-debian-8.7-lxqt-2gb-armhf-2017-03-12-2gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

microSD/Standalone: (lxqt-xm-4gb) (BeagleBoard xM)
Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-03-12/lxqt-xm-4gb/bbxm-debian-8.7-lxqt-xm-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bbxm-debian-8.7-lxqt-xm-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb* 6cd7ee5868c3616a4144cde6cbfe4523313733c8fd4bcacfd1b2fe588083b1e8 bbxm-debian-8.7-lxqt-xm-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat bbxm-debian-8.7-lxqt-xm-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

U-Boot Overlay Flasher: (lxqt-4gb) (All BeagleBone Variants with a 4GB eMMC)
Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-03-12/lxqt-xm-4gb/BBB-blank-uboot-overlay-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum BBB-blank-uboot-overlay-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb* bcff0447a5b6ebbd8a0fcb80d435a990ff83d9339c93d166fe32b11610a4579b BBB-blank-uboot-overlay-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat BBB-blank-uboot-overlay-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

Flasher: (iot) (All BeagleBone Variants)
Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-03-12/iot/BBB-blank-debian-8.7-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum BBB-blank-debian-8.7-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb* 6e6c73b884e3afbb0de265b730818b6f3a3895ec72dc9aa1a315e33691e8e1bd BBB-blank-debian-8.7-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat BBB-blank-debian-8.7-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

microSD/Standalone: (iot) (All BeagleBone Variants)
Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-03-12/iot/bone-debian-8.7-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bone-debian-8.7-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb* 909eeb27dfd0201ca55db2ba8c0536f264a4339d8e0394c87bfb0d01162f04f0 bone-debian-8.7-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat bone-debian-8.7-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

microSD/Standalone: (console) (All BeagleBone Variants)
Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-03-12/console/bone-debian-8.7-console-armhf-2017-03-12-2gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bone-debian-8.7-console-armhf-2017-03-12-2gb* fba8c77db79bc21959cbbeb84ec9ad2b2bc6abb73ebd583c6efdf7888cc2ba41 bone-debian-8.7-console-armhf-2017-03-12-2gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat bone-debian-8.7-console-armhf-2017-03-12-2gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

microSD/Standalone: (console) (BeagleBoard-X15)
Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-03-12/console/bbx15-debian-8.7-console-armhf-2017-03-12-2gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bbx15-debian-8.7-console-armhf-2017-03-12-2gb* 040e125511b175356efc4e328cf9d8b936615b9ecf1e2f54bb12fd1d4b1f977a bbx15-debian-8.7-console-armhf-2017-03-12-2gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat bbx15-debian-8.7-console-armhf-2017-03-12-2gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

Stretch testing
https://wiki.debian.org/DebianStretch

2017-03-12 notes * U-Boot: v2017.03-rc3 * Kernel: 4.9.13-ti-r24

microSD/Standalone: (testing) (All BeagleBone Variants)
Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-03-12/stretch-iot/bone-debian-stretch-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bone-debian-stretch-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb* 69b9d0d2e96e8c66fd62ec9c9aa31dc4f9c13a3a77ee7d2425b629d6913a1116 bone-debian-stretch-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat bone-debian-stretch-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

microSD/Standalone: (testing) (BeagleBoard-X15)
Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/bb.org/testing/2017-03-12/stretch-iot/bbx15-debian-stretch-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bbx15-debian-stretch-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb* be51f1ce4f641066b021514c612840a72045aa144379927abd04813243d04d71 bbx15-debian-stretch-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz

Windows/Mac/Linux gui http://etcher.io

Linux: (dd) xzcat bbx15-debian-stretch-iot-armhf-2017-03-12-4gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

= Kernel Options =

General apt syntax for searching and installing a specific kernel: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-cache search linux-image | grep sudo apt-get install linux-image- sudo reboot

Latest kernel script cd /opt/scripts/tools/ git pull sudo ./update_kernel.sh 

3.8.x
This is the first beagleboard.org long term kernel tree with capemanager support, it's been the default install for Debian Wheezy beagleboard.org patchset: https://github.com/beagleboard/linux/tree/3.8

3.8.x BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black FULL Cape Support --bone-channel --stable

3.8.x BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black FULL Cape Support + Xenomai --bone-xenomai-channel --stable

4.4.x-ti
beagleboard.org patchset: https://github.com/beagleboard/linux/tree/4.4 Based on: http://git.ti.com/gitweb/?p=ti-linux-kernel/ti-linux-kernel.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/ti-rt-linux-4.4.y

4.4.x-ti All BeagleBone Variants and BeagleBoard-X15 --ti-channel --lts-4_4

4.4.x-ti All BeagleBone Variants and BeagleBoard-X15 + RT --ti-rt-channel --lts-4_4

4.4.x-ti All BeagleBone Variants and BeagleBoard-X15 + Xenomai --ti-xenomai-channel --lts-4_4

4.9.x-ti
beagleboard.org patchset: https://github.com/beagleboard/linux/tree/4.9

4.9.x-ti All BeagleBone Variants and BeagleBoard-X15 --ti-channel --lts-4_9

Mainline (4.4.x lts)
4.4.x All BeagleBone Variants --bone-kernel --lts-4_4

4.4.x All BeagleBone Variants + RT --bone-rt-kernel --lts-4_4

Mainline (4.9.x lts)
4.9.x All BeagleBone Variants --bone-kernel --lts-4_9

Debian 8: jessie
sudo apt-get install linux-image-armmp