Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack Debian

This page is about running the armhf port of Debian distribution at BeagleBoard. The latest 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 /boot/uboot/ID.txt 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 =

Installing Java
Download: (jdk-8-linux-arm-vfp-hflt.tar.gz) http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-arm-downloads-2187472.html

Extract: sudo tar xfv jdk-8-linux-arm-vfp-hflt.tar.gz -C /opt/

Setup Environment Variables: export JAVA_HOME=/opt/jdk1.8.0/ export JRE_HOME=/opt/jdk1.8.0/jre/ export PATH=$PATH:/opt/jdk1.8.0/bin/:/opt/jdk1.8.0/jre/bin/

Verify: debian@arm:~$ java -version java version "1.8.0" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0-b132) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 25.0-b70, mixed mode)

= 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 setup the standalone microSD image to automatically flash the eMMC on powerup.

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:

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

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 setup 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"

sudo sh -c "echo 'something' >> /etc/privilegedfile"

Timezone
By default this image is setup 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

= 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

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

= Debian Image Testing Snapshots =

BBB Rev C (4GB eMMC)
Flasher: lxde: 1.7G Free wget https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-09-03/lxde-4gb/BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.6-lxde-4gb-armhf-2014-09-03-4gb.img.xz md5sum: 8c8c8da8be55a5741c534f713275936c

BBW/BBB (All Revs)
Flasher: lxde: 172Mb Free wget https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-09-03/lxde/BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.6-lxde-armhf-2014-09-03-2gb.img.xz md5sum: 1930b2e2b9de62f29c0b81b5892c0abb

microSD/Standalone: (lxde) wget https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-09-03/lxde-4gb/bone-debian-7.6-lxde-4gb-armhf-2014-09-03-4gb.img.xz md5sum: 28e4e9e0b3c5659097d77d641d353a90

Console: Flasher: (202Mb used) wget https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-09-04/console/BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.6-console-armhf-2014-09-04-2gb.img.xz md5sum: b99c13dceee6c798bf00c68c472ae079

Console: microSD/Standalone: (202Mb used) wget https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-09-04/console/bone-debian-7.6-console-armhf-2014-09-04-2gb.img.xz md5sum: e034330fc40de0ceee46c0c986eb9755

2014-09-03 changes
kernel: 3.8.13-bone64 Bootloader: MLO/u-boot.img no longer in fat partition. (FAT partition isn't even required anymore..)

2014-08-19
Flasher: (lxde) wget https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-08-19/lxde/BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.6-lxde-armhf-2014-08-19-2gb.img.xz md5sum: 41286564307d7524575dcaa391f99c8d

microSD/Standalone: (lxde) wget https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-08-19/lxde/bone-debian-7.6-lxde-armhf-2014-08-19-4gb.img.xz md5sum: 88b4e3bf34dc5a1603109983feee894b

Flasher: (console: 200Mb used) wget https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-08-19/console/BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.6-console-armhf-2014-08-19-2gb.img.xz md5sum: 167eeb6311492b9d7213f1a88de26eb8

microSD/Standalone: (console: 200Mb used) wget https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-08-19/console/bone-debian-7.6-console-armhf-2014-08-19-2gb.img.xz md5sum: e5a6e72100342f3a2670791601baa515

2014-08-19 changes
lcd4 fixed! (bone63)

2014-08-05
Flasher: (lxde) wget https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-08-05/lxde/BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.6-lxde-armhf-2014-08-05-2gb.img.xz md5sum: 4f998de87b1e0c18cbd430e4b0ff8bbf

microSD/Standalone: (lxde) wget https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-08-05/lxde/bone-debian-7.6-lxde-armhf-2014-08-05-4gb.img.xz md5sum: ee4736a77e8c997b15537851c5146de3

Flasher: (console: 200Mb used) wget https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-08-05/console/BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.6-console-armhf-2014-08-05-2gb.img.xz md5sum: 0667f635a6cfb0c25797506809f329bf

microSD/Standalone: (console: 200Mb used) wget https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-08-05/console/bone-debian-7.6-console-armhf-2014-08-05-2gb.img.xz md5sum: 3d1a10bcbe10f5a7f799565db816de13

2014-08-05 changes
microSD/Standalone: better compatibility with older bootloaders in eMMC Windows 8 certified drivers better nfs support (see nfs-uEnv.txt in boot partition) http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:U-boot_partitioning_layout_2.0#nfs_support xenomai: added xenomai and kmem groups U-Boot v2014.07 Actually include wireless firmware (forgot that in 2014-07-10) Simpler kernel updates: ( sudo apt-get install linux-image-xyz ; sudo reboot ) Console = around 200Mb's installed Improved flashing script kernel update: v3.8.13-bone60 New Partition setup: http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:U-boot_partitioning_layout_2.0

2014-05-14
Flasher: wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/debian.beagleboard.org/images/BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.5-2014-05-14-2gb.img.xz (mirror) https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-05-14/BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.5-2014-05-14-2gb.img.xz md5sum BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.5-2014-05-14-2gb.img.xz 74615fb680af8f252c034d3807c9b4ae BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.5-2014-05-14-2gb.img.xz

microSD/Standalone: wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/debian.beagleboard.org/images/bone-debian-7.5-2014-05-14-2gb.img.xz (mirror) https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-05-14/bone-debian-7.5-2014-05-14-2gb.img.xz md5sum bone-debian-7.5-2014-05-14-2gb.img.xz 35877ce21e8ed0eb1bdc6819ad71c317 bone-debian-7.5-2014-05-14-2gb.img.xz

2014-05-14 changes
Improved flashing script kernel update: v3.8.13-bone50

2014-04-23
Flasher: wget http://debian.beagleboard.org/images/BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.4-2014-04-23-2gb.img.xz (mirror) https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-04-23/BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.4-2014-04-23-2gb.img.xz md5sum BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.4-2014-04-23-2gb.img.xz 29c1e9c3e745a3966f9e749b6a89ea50 BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.4-2014-04-23-2gb.img.xz

microSD/Standalone: wget http://debian.beagleboard.org/images/bone-debian-7.4-2014-04-23-2gb.img.xz (mirror) https://rcn-ee.net/deb/testing/2014-04-23/bone-debian-7.4-2014-04-23-2gb.img.xz md5sum bone-debian-7.4-2014-04-23-2gb.img.xz b38f107faea671fc9074de5012ef82cb bone-debian-7.4-2014-04-23-2gb.img.xz