BeagleBoardUbuntu

(For BeagleBoardAngstrom, click here.) (Should Beagleboard:Ubuntu On BeagleBone Black be merged into this page?)

This page is about running a Linux distribution (ARM EABI) Ubuntu on the BeagleBoard. BeagleBoard will boot the (ARM EABI) Ubuntu distribution from the SD card. Since much of this page is generic, it has also been extended to help support devices such as the PandaBoard and BeagleBone.


 * For the best experience, make sure you have an LCD/HDMI monitor attached to the BeagleBoard's HDMI port, 2 GB/4 GB/8 GB SD card, and a known good USB 2.0 hub with mouse and keyboard.

= Help =

If you need any help:


 * Kernel related help:
 * Email Beagleboard user group *Recommended method
 * #beagle: Beagle IRC on Freenode, accessible also by web interface (logs)
 * Kernel Trees
 * v4.17.x kernel branch
 * Development Kernel source code


 * Ubuntu related help:
 * #ubuntu-arm: Ubuntu's ARM IRC on Freenode (logs -> year -> month -> day -> #ubuntu-arm.html)


 * When requesting help, please provide some debugging information:
 * U-Boot Version installed on board
 * Kernel Version: uname -a
 * pastebin dmesg
 * Copy from serial port or use "dmesg | pastebinit" (sudo apt-get install pastebinit)

= Required Beagle Software =

Mainline U-Boot:
 * All older BeagleBoard (classic) Ax, Bx, Cx and Dx boards are required to upgrade to at least these U-Boot versions
 * XM Boards have no NAND, so MLO/u-boot.img is always required on the first partition
 * Directions: Upgrade X-loader and U-Boot

= Omap Serial Changes =

boot.scr/boot.cmd changes:

With 2.6.35: console=ttyS2,115200n8

With 2.6.36/37+: console=ttyO2,115200n8

Serial console login: /etc/init/ttyO2.conf start on stopped rc RUNLEVEL=[2345] stop on runlevel [!2345] respawn exec /sbin/getty 115200 ttyO2

= Method 1: Download a Complete Pre-Configured Image =

Demo Image
git clone https://github.com/RobertCNelson/armv7-multiplatform.git cd armv7-multiplatform git checkout origin/v4.18.x -b tmp ./build_kernel.sh git clone https://github.com/RobertCNelson/ti-linux-kernel-dev.git cd ti-linux-kernel-dev git checkout origin/ti-linux-4.14.y -b tmp ./build_kernel.sh
 * Advanced Users only: BeagleBoard xM: Kernel source, used in these demo images: https://github.com/RobertCNelson/armv7-multiplatform
 * Advanced Users only: BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black/PocketBeagle: Kernel v4.14.x source, used in these demo images: https://github.com/RobertCNelson/ti-linux-kernel-dev/tree/ti-linux-4.14.y

Ubuntu (18.04.1)
Default username/password:
 * username: ubuntu
 * password: temppwd

Image Updated:
 * 2018-09-11
 * BeagleBoard xM: v4.18.7-armv7-x7 kernel
 * All BeagleBone Varients and PocketBeagle: v4.14.67-ti-r74 kernel
 * OMAP5432 uEVM: v4.14.67-ti-r74 kernel
 * BeagleBoard-X15: v4.14.67-ti-r74 kernel
 * 2018-08-10
 * BeagleBoard xM: v4.17.12-armv7-x12 kernel
 * All BeagleBone Varients and PocketBeagle: v4.14.62-ti-r69 kernel
 * OMAP5432 uEVM: v4.14.62-ti-r69 kernel
 * BeagleBoard-X15: v4.14.62-ti-r69 kernel
 * 2018-07-14
 * BeagleBoard xM: v4.17.6-armv7-x7 kernel
 * All BeagleBone Varients and PocketBeagle: v4.14.54-ti-r63 kernel
 * OMAP5432 uEVM: v4.14.54-ti-r63 kernel
 * BeagleBoard-X15: v4.14.54-ti-r63 kernel

Services Active: Note: Depending on your internal network these may work out of the box Apache, Port 80: http://arm.local/ (Bone: via usb) (Windows/Linux) http://192.168.7.2, (Mac/Linux) http://192.168.6.2 SSH, Port 22: ssh ubuntu@arm.local (Bone: via usb) (Windows/Linux) ubuntu@192.168.7.2, (Mac/Linux) ubuntu@192.168.6.2 Getty, Serial Port

Default user: ubuntu pass: temppwd

Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/2018-09-11/elinux/ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11.tar.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11.tar.xz 603686d49a0fa24c1f9fb40573729aa3bdb85284794101992caa78ad05d6e817 ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11.tar.xz

Unpack Image: tar xf ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11.tar.xz cd ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11

If you don't know the location of your SD card: sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --probe-mmc

You should see something like:

Are you sure? I don't see [/dev/idontknow], here is what I do see... fdisk -l: Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes <- x86 Root Drive Disk /dev/sdd: 3957 MB, 3957325824 bytes <- MMC/SD card lsblk: NAME  MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sda     8:0    0 465.8G  0 disk ├─sda1  8:1    0 446.9G  0 part /  <- x86 Root Partition ├─sda2  8:2    0     1K  0 part └─sda5  8:5    0  18.9G  0 part [SWAP] sdd     8:48   1   3.7G  0 disk ├─sdd1  8:49   1    64M  0 part └─sdd2  8:50   1   3.6G  0 part


 * In this example, we can see via mount, /dev/sda1 is the x86 rootfs, therefore /dev/sdd is the other drive in the system, which is the MMC/SD card that was inserted and should be used by ./setup_sdcard.sh...

Install Image:

Quick install script for [board] sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --dtb board

board options:
 * BeagleBoard Ax/Bx/Cx/Dx         - omap3-beagle
 * BeagleBoard xM                  - omap3-beagle-xm
 * All BeagleBone Varients         - beaglebone
 * OMAP5432 uEVM                   - omap5-uevm
 * BeagleBoard-X15                 - am57xx-beagle-x15

So for the BeagleBoard xM: sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --dtb omap3-beagle-xm

Advanced: Build Image:

git clone https://github.com/RobertCNelson/omap-image-builder.git cd omap-image-builder git checkout v2018.09 -b tmp

Stable:

./RootStock-NG.sh -c rcn-ee_console_ubuntu_bionic_armhf

eMMC: All BeagleBone Varients with eMMC
This image can be written to a 2GB (or larger) microSD card, via 'dd' on linux or on Windows/Mac/Linux: https://etcher.io First press and hold the boot select button (next to the microSD card), then apply power. On bootup the board should indicate it has started the flashing procedure visually via a Cylon Sweep pattern shown on the 4 LED's next to the ethernet jack. Progress is reported on both the serial debug and hdmi connectors, once completed all 4 LED's should be full ON. Simply remove power, remove the microSD card and Ubuntu will now boot directly from eMMC.

Script for reference: (this is the script that writes to the eMMC) https://github.com/RobertCNelson/boot-scripts/blob/master/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh

This script will only take about 5-6 Minutes after power on.

Notes:
 * If only two LED's stay lit and nothing happens, the board has crashed due to lack of power. Retry with a 5Volt DC power supply connected.
 * If the 4 LED's blink a constant pattern, the eMMC write has failed. First REMOVE ALL capes, then retry again.

User: ubuntu pass: temppwd

Image Updated:
 * 2018-09-11
 * All BeagleBone Varients with eMMC: v4.14.67-ti-r74 kernel
 * 2018-08-10
 * All BeagleBone Varients with eMMC: v4.14.62-ti-r69 kernel
 * 2018-07-14
 * All BeagleBone Varients with eMMC: v4.14.54-ti-r63 kernel

Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/2018-09-11/flasher/BBB-eMMC-flasher-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum BBB-eMMC-flasher-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb* 1d529f4b8b31ef04e4181d3853a6809bac21f6ac473aa7d83344c3eb989aa086 BBB-eMMC-flasher-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz

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

Linux: (dd) xzcat BBB-eMMC-flasher-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

eMMC: BeagleBoard-X15
This image can be written to a 2GB (or larger) microSD card, via 'dd' on linux or on Windows/Mac/Linux: https://etcher.io First press and hold the boot select button (next to the microSD card), then apply power. On bootup the board should indicate it has started the flashing procedure visually via a Cylon Sweep pattern shown on the 4 LED's next to the ethernet jack. Progress is reported on both the serial debug and hdmi connectors, once completed all 4 LED's should be full ON. Simply remove power, remove the microSD card and Ubuntu will now boot directly from eMMC.

Script for reference: (this is the script that writes to the eMMC) https://github.com/RobertCNelson/boot-scripts/blob/master/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh

This script will only take about 5-6 Minutes after power on.

Notes:
 * If only two LED's stay lit and nothing happens, the board has crashed due to lack of power. Retry with a 5Volt DC power supply connected.
 * If the 4 LED's blink a constant pattern, the eMMC write has failed. First REMOVE ALL capes, then retry again.

User: ubuntu pass: temppwd

Image Updated:
 * 2018-09-11
 * BeagleBoard-X15: v4.14.67-ti-r74 kernel
 * 2018-08-10
 * BeagleBoard-X15: v4.14.62-ti-r69 kernel
 * 2018-07-14
 * BeagleBoard-X15: v4.14.54-ti-r63 kernel

Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/2018-09-11/flasher/bbx15-eMMC-flasher-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bbx15-eMMC-flasher-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb* a0611731a82bdb1c133f4611f036ab1137bb6d184e5c68c6c35dad72634982fa bbx15-eMMC-flasher-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz

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

Linux: (dd) xzcat bbx15-eMMC-flasher-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

BeagleBoard xM
This image can be written to a 2GB (or larger) microSD card, via 'dd' on linux or on Windows/Mac/Linux: https://etcher.io

User: ubuntu pass: temppwd

Auto partition resize: cd /opt/scripts/tools git pull ./grow_partition.sh sudo reboot

Image Updated:
 * 2018-09-11
 * BeagleBoard xM: v4.18.7-armv7-x7 kernel
 * 2018-08-10
 * BeagleBoard xM: v4.17.12-armv7-x12 kernel
 * 2018-07-14
 * BeagleBoard xM: v4.17.6-armv7-x7 kernel

Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/2018-09-11/microsd/bbxm-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bbxm-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb* 74cf972c0c5059775ee1f0f9f94fd48f39654a05d5821f24c997cf327f8f2838 bbxm-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz

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

Linux: (dd) xzcat bbxm-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

All BeagleBone Varients and PocketBeagle
This image can be written to a 2GB (or larger) microSD card, via 'dd' on linux or on Windows/Mac/Linux: https://etcher.io

User: ubuntu pass: temppwd

Auto partition resize: cd /opt/scripts/tools git pull ./grow_partition.sh sudo reboot

Image Updated:
 * 2018-09-11
 * All BeagleBone Varients and PocketBeagle: v4.14.67-ti-r74 kernel
 * 2018-08-10
 * All BeagleBone Varients and PocketBeagle: v4.14.62-ti-r69 kernel
 * 2018-07-14
 * All BeagleBone Varients and PocketBeagle: v4.14.54-ti-r63 kernel

Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/2018-09-11/microsd/bone-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bone-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb* 39a4a24962e5241b7e0cb5b249f8dfddaa43b122d3826bcd923aa541321fb125 bone-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz

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

Linux: (dd) xzcat bone-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

OMAP5432 uEVM
This image can be written to a 2GB (or larger) microSD card, via 'dd' on linux or on Windows/Mac/Linux: https://etcher.io

User: ubuntu pass: temppwd

Auto partition resize: cd /opt/scripts/tools git pull ./grow_partition.sh sudo reboot

Image Updated:
 * 2018-09-11
 * OMAP5432 uEVM: v4.14.67-ti-r74 kernel
 * 2018-08-10
 * OMAP5432 uEVM: v4.14.62-ti-r69 kernel
 * 2018-07-14
 * OMAP5432 uEVM: v4.14.54-ti-r63 kernel

Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/2018-09-11/microsd/omap5-uevm-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum omap5-uevm-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb* 2054825c9546043ebda34e1a5895954ffd91b104f1bef38a06f5c1ba73853748 omap5-uevm-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz

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

Linux: (dd) xzcat omap5-uevm-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

BeagleBoard-X15
This image can be written to a 2GB (or larger) microSD card, via 'dd' on linux or on Windows/Mac/Linux: https://etcher.io

User: ubuntu pass: temppwd

Auto partition resize: cd /opt/scripts/tools git pull ./grow_partition.sh sudo reboot

Image Updated:
 * 2018-09-11
 * BeagleBoard-X15: v4.14.67-ti-r74 kernel
 * 2018-08-10
 * BeagleBoard-X15: v4.14.62-ti-r69 kernel
 * 2018-07-14
 * BeagleBoard-X15: v4.14.54-ti-r63 kernel

Get prebuilt image: wget https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/2018-09-11/microsd/bbx15-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz

Verify Image with: sha256sum bbx15-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb* e4064c6a22d77d6bdc92de7e302ccc8dcbf1f76e8a57d510f59e51c40b7a07d7 bbx15-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz

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

Linux: (dd) xzcat bbx15-ubuntu-18.04.1-console-armhf-2018-09-11-2gb.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX

= Method 2: Use the NetInstall method=

You will need a 1GB/2GB/4GB/8GB SD card or greater. Standard system : ~700 MB

Report Bugs/Issues to: https://github.com/RobertCNelson/netinstall/issues (anywhere else will be ignored..)

Download the netinstall script: git clone https://github.com/RobertCNelson/netinstall.git cd netinstall

Currently supported Ubuntu distributions: --distro oneiric (11.10) --distro precise-armhf (12.04) --distro quantal (12.10) --distro raring (13.04) --distro saucy (13.10)

Device: selection: *BeagleBoard Ax/Bx/Cx - omap3-beagle *BeagleBoard xMA/B/C  - omap3-beagle-xm *BeagleBone Ax        - am335x-bone-serial *BeagleBone (DVI cape) - am335x-bone-video *BeagleBone Black     - am335x-boneblack *PandaBoard Ax    - omap4-panda *PandaBoard A4+   - omap4-panda-a4 *PandaBoard ES    - omap4-panda-es

Installation script for new selection: (slowly migrating all devices to this method) sudo ./mk_mmc.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --dtb --distro

So for the xM: with quantal: sudo ./mk_mmc.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --dtb omap3-beagle-xm --distro quantal


 * Other Options:
 * --firmware : installs firmware
 * --serial-mode : debian-installer uses Serial Port

Place SD card into BeagleBoard and boot:

Configure the network: usb0: USB net <- (usually the OTG port) eth0: USB net <- (usually the smsc95xx adapter on the BeagleBoard and PandaBoard) wlan0: Wifi <- Your USDB-Wi-Fi device..

See my notes for my testing procedure: https://github.com/RobertCNelson/netinstall/blob/master/test.Ubuntu

Troubleshooting: If booting fails.. nand erase 260000 20000
 * Hold the user button down to force booting from MMC
 * Upgrade X-loader and U-boot Upgrade X-loader and U-Boot
 * Clear U-boot's Environment Variables in NAND:

NetInstall assumptions: Assume asll 's... Thanks you preseed.conf!!!

= Method 3: Manual Install (no automatic scripts)=

Note, this section used to have a lot of details, but maintenance of the two wiki's became a pain, so for now on we will just link to my other pages:

Beagle/Beagle xM
http://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBoard

BeagleBone
http://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBone

BeagleBone Black
http://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBone+Black

Panda/Panda ES
http://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/PandaBoard

= Advanced =

Install Latest Kernel Image
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

4.9.x-ti
beagleboard.org patchset: https://github.com/beagleboard/linux/tree/4.9 Based on: http://git.ti.com/gitweb/?p=ti-linux-kernel/ti-linux-kernel.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/ti-linux-4.9.y

4.9.x-ti BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black/BeagleBoard-X15 --ti-channel --lts-4_9

4.9.x-ti BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black/BeagleBoard-X15 + RT --ti-rt-channel --lts-4_9

4.9.x-ti BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black/BeagleBoard-X15 + Xenomai --ti-xenomai-channel --lts-4_9

4.14.x-ti
beagleboard.org patchset: https://github.com/beagleboard/linux/tree/4.14 Based on: http://git.ti.com/gitweb/?p=ti-linux-kernel/ti-linux-kernel.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/ti-linux-4.14.y

4.14.x-ti BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black/BeagleBoard-X15 --ti-channel --lts-4_14

4.14.x-ti BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black/BeagleBoard-X15 + RT --ti-rt-channel --lts-4_14

Mainline (4.9.x lts)
4.9.x BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black --bone-kernel --lts-4_9

4.9.x BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black + RT --bone-rt-kernel --lts-4_9

Mainline (4.14.x lts)
4.14.x BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black --bone-kernel --lts-4_14

4.14.x BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black + RT --bone-rt-kernel --lts-4_14

Reboot with your new Kernel Image.

Xorg Drivers
Script: cd /opt/scripts/tools/ git pull

BeagleBoard/PandaBoard: cd /opt/scripts/tools/graphics/ ./ti-omapdrm.sh

BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black: cd /opt/scripts/tools/graphics/ ./ti-tilcdc.sh

SGX BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black
Note, these are FBDEV only, no xorg/x11/etc...

Install the "4.1.x" lts/bone kernel: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#Mainline_.28lts.29

Build SGX userspace for 4.1.x (must be done on an x86, due to the TI 5.01.01.02 blob extractor) git clone https://github.com/RobertCNelson/bb-kernel.git cd bb-kernel/ git checkout origin/am33x-v4.1 -b tmp-sgx ./sgx_create_package.sh

Copy ./deploy/GFX_5.01.01.02.tar.gz to BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black and install sudo tar xfv GFX_5.01.01.02.tar.gz -C / cd /opt/gfxinstall/ sudo ./sgx-install.sh sudo reboot

Verify omaplfb & pvrsrvkm loaded debian@arm:~$ lsmod | grep omaplfb omaplfb               12065  0 pvrsrvkm             178782  1 omaplfb

Xorg Drivers
Script: cd /opt/scripts/tools/ git pull

BeagleBoard/PandaBoard: cd /opt/scripts/tools/graphics/ ./ti-omapdrm.sh

BeagleBone/BeagleBone Black: cd /opt/scripts/tools/graphics/ ./ti-tilcdc.sh

= Swapfile =

Using a File for Swap Instead of a Partition
On the Beagleboard you should expect to require a swap file given the limitation of how little RAM is available (between 256 MB and 512 MB). Some system programs like apt-get will only run properly when some swap space is present (due to 256 MB not being enough RAM).

Some images (such as those from Linaro.org) do not come with a swap partition or any swap space allocated.

Under Linux, swap space can be either a dedicated partition or a swap file. Both can be mounted as swap which the OS can access.

Creating a Swapfile
The following commands will create a 1 GB file, limit access only to root, format it as swap and then make it available to the OS:

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/swap/ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/var/cache/swap/swapfile bs=1M count=1024 sudo chmod 0600 /var/cache/swap/swapfile sudo mkswap /var/cache/swap/swapfile sudo swapon /var/cache/swap/swapfile

To tell the OS to load this swapfile on each start up, edit the /etc/fstab file to include the following additional line:

/var/cache/swap/swapfile   none    swap    sw    0   0

To verify that the swapfile is accessilble as swap to the OS, run "top" or "htop" at a console.

= Ubuntu Software =

/etc/network/interfaces
It is relatively easy to configure a Wi-Fi card from the command line.

You will need to edit the /etc/network/interfaces file. There are several guides available via Google.

This is a particularly useful guide https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=202834

A sample /etc/network/interfaces file for a WPA2 encrypted access point is:

auto lo iface lo inet loopback auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp wpa-driver wext wpa-ssid  wpa-ap-scan 1 wpa-proto RSN wpa-pairwise CCMP wpa-group CCMP wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK wpa-psk 

Your Wi-Fi card will automatically load these settings upon startup and initialize wireless network access.

Lightweight window managers
If you intend to use Ubuntu on the BeagleBoard you can install JWM or IceWM to improve performance.

JWM in particular uses little RAM. On a BeagleBoard with 256 MB, using JWM will leave about 60 MB free in which to run applications.

Midori
Given that the BeagleBoard has fewer resources than a desktop a lightweight browser is more responsive. Midori is a lightweight browser that still supports flash, etc. It is available from the standard repositories: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midori_%28web_browser%29

Motion
If you have a video source (webcam, IP cam, etc.) which appears as /dev/video0, etc. then you can use the Linux surveillance software "motion" to monitor the video stream and record periods of activity.

Motion is also available from the standard repositories: http://www.debian-administration.org/article/An_Introduction_to_Video_Surveillance_with_%27Motion%27 Using a 960x720 resolution webcam with a 15 fps rate under the UVC driver the Rev C BeagleBoard under Xubuntu reports ~60% CPU utilisation.

To make the BeagleBoard automatically start recording on boot, do the following:


 * Auto Login - run "gdmsetup" from a terminal and select a user to automatically login
 * Sessions - make sure you don't save any previous X Windows sessions so that it doesn't prompt you for which one you want
 * motion.conf - edit /etc/motion/motion.conf to use the settings you want (that is, video output directory, record only video, record in MPEG-4, set frame rate, etc). Do this with "sudo medit /etc/motion/motion.conf" at a prompt.
 * Boot script - create a new script in /etc/rc2.d called "S65motion_client" and set permissions appropriately ("sudo chmod 777 /etc/rc2.d/S65motion_client"). Then edit the file so it contains the following lines:

/usr/bin/motion -c /etc/motion/motion.conf
 * 1) ! /bin/sh

This will now launch the motion client as root when you boot up.

Also note that unless your BeagleBoard can remember the time (battery backed up clock installed), the timestamps will not be correct until you update the time. If your BeagleBoard has an Internet connection this can be achieved using the ntpdate application.

ROS
ROS (Robot Operating System) provides libraries and tools to help software developers create robot applications. It provides hardware abstraction, device drivers, libraries, visualizers, message-passing, package management, and more. ROS is licensed under an open source, BSD license.

There are currently builds of ROS for Ubuntu Bionic armhf. These builds include most but not all packages, and save a considerable amount of time compared to doing a full source-based installation:

http://wiki.ros.org/melodic/Installation/Ubuntu

Alternatively ROS can be installed from source and is generally easy to do so (although slow).

For more information about ROS, see www.ros.org.