Minnowboard:Preparing microSD Card

=Linux=

Please note that this section is completely optional. The MinnowBoard already comes with a microSD card that is preloaded with a working Angstrom Linux image. In case you want to use a newer image or want to program the microSD from scratch, this section covers it all. These steps were created using an Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit system.

Step-1:

First download the latest Angstrom Linux image for MinnowBoard using the following link:

Latest Angstrom Image for the MinnowBoard

At the time of writing this guide, the latest image available for download was 'Angstrom-development-GNOME-image-eglibc-ipk-v2012.12-minnow-2013.07.10.img.xz'

Step-2:

Insert the microSD card into a microSD compatible writer in your desktop computer. Now, identify the disk device filename for your microSD card. You can do this by opening the Disk Utility application (sometimes also called Disks) in Ubuntu and clicking on the microSD card entry. See the Device field to determine the raw device name of your microSD card. Note that this device name should specify an entire disk device (e.g, /dev/sde), and not an individual disk partition (e.g, /dev/sde1)

Step-3:

Now, make sure all possible disk partitions from the microSD card are unmounted by typing the command below into your terminal:

$ sudo umount /dev/sdX?*

Here 'sdX' stands for the raw device id of the microSD card.

Step-4:

Now unpack the image to the microSD card by typing the command below in a terminal window:

$ xzcat Angstrom-development-GNOME-image-eglibc-ipk-v2012.12-minnow-2013.07.10.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

=Windows=

Obtaining and extracting the image
This section will explain how to download the latest Angstrom image and how to convert the downloaded .xz format image to .img.

Step-1:

First, download the latest Angstrom Linux image from the link below:

Latest Angstrom Image

Step-2:

Next, download the 7-zip utility from the link below and install it:

7zip

Step-2:

Decompress the previously downloaded Angstrom image using 7-zip as shown in Figure - 1 below. The resulting file should have an extension '.img'.



Method -1: Using Image Writer for Windows
This is the recommended method to be used. Should this method not work out for you, scroll down below and give the other methods a shot.

Step-1:

Image Writer for Windows is needed to write the .img file to a microSD card. Download and install Image Writer using the link below: :

Image Writer for Windows

Step-2:

Insert the mircoSD card into the computer using an appropriate adapter. Next, launch the Image Writer software we just installed earlier.

''Note:- You may need to run Image Writer as Administrator! Right-click on the file, and select 'Run as Administrator'''

Step-3:

Select the Angstrom image and write it to the microSD card as shown in Figure - 2 below:



=Mac= Step-1:

First, download the latest Angstrom Linux image from the link below:

Latest Angstrom Image

Step-2:

Next, install the “The Unarchiver” application(it is free) from the app store on Mac OS X as shown in Figure - 1



Step-3:

Then unpack the downloaded angstrom image using the unarchiver application as shown below in Figure -2



Step-4:

Insert the microSD card into a microSD compatible writer in your computer. Now, identify the disk device filename for your microSD card. You can do this by typing the command below, before and after you insert the microSD card and comparing the outputs to see the newly added device:

$ df-h

''Note:- If you notice closely, the microSD card entry will be in the form of /dev/diskNsX where 'N' and 'X' are numbers. diskNsX is basically the device id of your microSD card. So, to obtain the raw device id from this, remove the 's' and 'X' from the device id. The raw device id should be in the form of diskN .''

Step-5:

Now, make sure all possible disk partitions from the microSD card are unmounted by typing the command below into your terminal: $ sudo umount /dev/diskN?* Here 'diskN' stands for the raw device id of the microSD card.

Step-6:

Now unpack the image to the microSD card by typing the command below in a terminal window:

$ sudo dd bs=1m if=Angstrom-development-GNOME-image-eglibc-ipk-v2012.12-minnow-2013.07.10.img of=/dev/rdiskN

Note:- In the above command we subtly replaced “diskN” with “rdiskN” because in the latter case, you are writing to a buffered device and hence the process becomes much faster!