BeagleBoardUbuntu

(For BeagleBoardAngstrom, click here.)

This page is about running a (ARM EABI) Ubuntu distribution at BeagleBoard. BeagleBoard will boot the (ARM EABI) Ubuntu distribution from SD card.

Note: for the best experience, make sure you have an LCD attached to the HDMI port, 2GB/4GB/8GB SD card, and a known good usb2.0 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 Tree's
 * Stable Kernel 3.1.x src
 * Development Kernel src


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


 * When asking for 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 =

Angstrom's X-loader/MLO & U-Boot
 * All Bx, C2/3/4 Boards are required to upgrade to atleast these MLO and U-Boot versions.
 * XM Boards have no NAND, so u-boot.bin 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 =

Canonical/Ubuntu Images
Support: #ubuntu-arm: Ubuntu's arm irc on freenode (logs -> year -> month -> day -> #ubuntu-arm.html)

Just follow: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/OMAP

Demo Image
Note, these Demo Images contain a custom kernel from rcn-ee.net. If you'd like to use ubuntu's 'kernel' edit "/etc/flash-kernel.conf" disable the rcn-ee kernel variable then install flash-kernel which should bring ubuntu's kernel with it. Once you do this, it's not trivial to reverse the process..

If the script in these demo images fail: email "bugs@rcn-ee.com" I need: terminal command, terminal log, distribution name, arch...

Oneiric 11.10
Image Updated:
 * Dec 23rd:
 * Updated v3.1.6 kernel for Beagle/Panda
 * BeagleBone: mmc -110 timeout fix, updated the Realtek rtlwifi drivers to v3.2-rc6 "some" small wifi devices now work 50/50...
 * Dec 4th: Fix reboot lockup regression
 * Nov 30th: updated v3.1.4 kernel for the Beagle/Panda, 7inch CircuitCo ulcd now works (needs a little tweaking), 2nd ti-psp-3.1 based linux kernel now with BeagleBone support. (Note: Not as cool as the BeagleBone Angstrom Default Image)...

Services Active: Note: Depending on your internal network these may work out the box Apache, Port 80: http://omap/ SSH, Port 22: ssh ubuntu@omap Getty, Serial Port

Default user: ubuntu pass: temppwd

Get prebuilt image:

wget http://rcn-ee.net/deb/rootfs/oneiric/ubuntu-11.10-r3-minimal-armel.tar.xz mirrors (will take some time to update): wget http://ynezz.ibawizard.net/beagleboard/oneiric/ubuntu-11.10-r3-minimal-armel.tar.xz

Verify Image with: md5sum ubuntu-11.10-r3-minimal-armel.tar.xz 551e66185c5ce3c6270a8e38b8ac6457 ubuntu-11.10-r3-minimal-armel.tar.xz

Unpack Image: tar xJf ubuntu-11.10-r3-minimal-armel.tar.xz cd ubuntu-11.10-r3-minimal-armel

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/mmcblk0: 3957 MB, 3957325824 bytes <- MMC/SD card mount: /dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0) <- x86 Root Partition


 * In this example, we can see via mount, /dev/sda1 is the x68 rootfs, therefore /dev/mmcblk0 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 --uboot "board"

"board" Options:
 * BeagleBoard Ax/Bx - beagle_bx
 * BeagleBoard Cx   - beagle_cx
 * BeagleBoard xMA/B/C   - beagle_xm
 * BeagleBone Ax   - bone
 * PandaBoard Ax - panda
 * PandaBoard ES - panda_es

So For the BeagleBoard xM: sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --uboot beagle_xm


 * Additional Options
 * --rootfs
 * --swap_file 
 * --addon pico
 * --addon ulcd 
 * --svideo-ntsc <use ntsc over dvi for video)
 * --svideo-pal <use pal over dvi for video)

You should now be able to unmount the SD card from you PC, insert into your BeagleBoard, reboot and have Ubuntu Maverick loaded.

For a full gui install run this on your beagle (make sure network is setup): Ethernet: "sudo ifconfig -a" and "sudo dhclient usb1" or "sudo dhclient eth0" Wireless: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#Wifi_Networking_.28command_line.29 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install gdm xubuntu-desktop

Advanced: Build Image:

Built with a fork of project-rootstock (ARM native mode, run directly on beagleboard), using a script from omap-image-builder:

git clone git://github.com/RobertCNelson/omap-image-builder.git cd omap-image-builder git checkout v2011.12.1 -b v2011.12.1 ./build_image.sh

Precise 12.04 armhf testing
Notes: this 'armhf' hf= hard float, should be faster then 'armel', sgx/dsp bits probally won't work, as they are built for softfp..

Image Updated:
 * Dec 23rd:
 * Updated v3.1.6 kernel for Beagle/Panda
 * BeagleBone: mmc -110 timeout fix, updated the Realtek rtlwifi drivers to v3.2-rc6 "some" small wifi devices now work 50/50...

Services Active: Note: Depending on your internal network these may work out the box Apache, Port 80: http://omap/ SSH, Port 22: ssh ubuntu@omap Getty, Serial Port

Default user: ubuntu pass: temppwd

Get prebuilt image:

wget http://rcn-ee.net/deb/rootfs/precise/ubuntu-precise-alpha1-minimal-armhf.tar.xz mirrors (will take some time to update): wget http://ynezz.ibawizard.net/beagleboard/precise/ubuntu-precise-alpha1-minimal-armhf.tar.xz

Verify Image with: md5sum ubuntu-precise-alpha1-minimal-armhf.tar.xz c2b4cfa3cc7d7bdc38c8a5ba52bf5016 ubuntu-precise-alpha1-minimal-armhf.tar.xz

Unpack Image: tar xJf ubuntu-precise-alpha1-minimal-armhf.tar.xz cd ubuntu-precise-alpha1-minimal-armhf

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/mmcblk0: 3957 MB, 3957325824 bytes <- MMC/SD card mount: /dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0) <- x86 Root Partition


 * In this example, we can see via mount, /dev/sda1 is the x68 rootfs, therefore /dev/mmcblk0 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 --uboot "board"

"board" Options:
 * BeagleBoard Ax/Bx - beagle_bx
 * BeagleBoard Cx   - beagle_cx
 * BeagleBoard xMA/B/C   - beagle_xm
 * BeagleBone Ax   - bone
 * PandaBoard Ax - panda
 * PandaBoard ES - panda_es

So For the BeagleBoard xM: sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --uboot beagle_xm


 * Additional Options
 * --rootfs
 * --swap_file 
 * --addon pico
 * --addon ulcd 
 * --svideo-ntsc <use ntsc over dvi for video)
 * --svideo-pal <use pal over dvi for video)

You should now be able to unmount the SD card from you PC, insert into your BeagleBoard, reboot and have Ubuntu Maverick loaded.

For a full gui install run this on your beagle (make sure network is setup): Ethernet: "sudo ifconfig -a" and "sudo dhclient usb1" or "sudo dhclient eth0" Wireless: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#Wifi_Networking_.28command_line.29 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install xfce4 gdm xubuntu-gdm-theme xubuntu-artwork xserver-xorg-video-omap3 network-manager

Advanced: Build Image:

Built with a fork of project-rootstock (ARM native mode, run directly on beagleboard), using a script from omap-image-builder:

git clone git://github.com/RobertCNelson/omap-image-builder.git cd omap-image-builder git checkout v2011.12.1 -b v2011.12.1 ./build_image.sh

= Method 2: Use the NetInstall method=

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

Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric)
git clone git://github.com/RobertCNelson/netinstall.git cd netinstall

Install script for "board" sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --uboot "board" --distro oneiric

"board" Options:
 * BeagleBoard Ax/Bx - beagle_bx
 * BeagleBoard Cx   - beagle_cx
 * BeagleBoard xMA/B/C   - beagle_xm
 * BeagleBone Ax   - bone
 * PandaBoard Ax - panda
 * PandaBoard ES - panda_es

So For the BeagleBoard xM: sudo ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --uboot beagle_xm --distro oneiric


 * Options:
 * --uboot : beagle_bx, beagle, panda
 * --distro : maverick, oneiric
 * --firmware : installs firmware
 * --serial-mode : debian-installer uses Serial Port
 * --addon ulcd : (ulcd from: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?vendor=0&keywords=ULCD7-ND)

Place SD card into Beagle and boot:

Configure the network: usb0: USB net <- (usually the OTG port) eth0: USB net <- (usually the smsc95xx adapter on the beagle and panda) wlan0: Wifi <- Your usb-wifi device..

Troubshooting: If boot 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: Continue with out Kernel Modules Partition 

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

For this section, you can use the files from above: Demo Images: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#Demo_Image Rootstock: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#Build_an_Ubuntu_root_file_system_with_RootStock

Partition SD Card
You will need a 1GB SD card or greater. Standard Console System : ~286MB + Desktop environment (lxde,gdm) : ~479MB

Starting with an empty SD card and using gparted, create: 50 MiB Primary Partition, fat16/fat32 Rest as ext2/ext3/ext4/btrfs

Note: The boot partition can be hard to make bootable at times, here's a quick command line:

First blank the MMC card's partition table with parted: (/dev/sdX as an example) sudo parted -s /dev/sdX mklabel msdos

Then create the new boot partition: sudo fdisk /dev/sdX << MMC_END n p 1 1 +64M t e p w MMC_END

Notes: GNU Fdisk doesn't and won't work... fdisk (util-linux-ng 2.18.x) (just Fedora) add: "-c=dos -u=cylinders" ... "sudo fdisk -c=dos -u=cylinders /dev/sdX"

Make sure to set the partition boot flag sudo parted --script /dev/sdX set 1 boot on

And format it as vfat: sudo mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/sdX1

The rootfs partition, doesn't need any special options, so just use fdisk, gparted, etc to create and format your rootfs partition..

Gparted Example: http://nishanthmenon.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-boot-beagle.html

For Reference: Disk /dev/sdd: 2038 MB, 2038431744 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 247 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x0008e471 Device Boot     Start         End      Blocks   Id  System /dev/sdd1              1           6       48163+   6  FAT16 /dev/sdd2              7         247     1935832+  83  Linux

Boot Partition
Requirements:

sudo apt-get install uboot-mkimage Mount the fatfs partition of your SD card.

Mount such as: (/dev/sdX1 is the fat Boot Partition) mkdir -p ./tmp sudo mount /dev/sdX1 ./tmp

MLO and U-Boot
Download and copy MLO and U-Boot from here: http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/

First copy "MLO-beagleboard-1.44+rX+gitX-rX" as MLO to the Boot Partition Then copy "u-boot-beagleboard-20XX.XX+r62+gitX-rX.bin" as u-boot.bin to the Boot Partition

U-Boot uImage and uInitrd
U-Boot needs a compatible kernel image to boot. To do this, we are using mkimage from (uboot-mkimage) to create an image from the vmlinuz kernel file.

mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel -C none -a 0x80008000 -e 0x80008000 -n "Linux" -d ./vmlinuz-* ./uImage Copy "uImage" to the Boot Partition

Next create a uInird (this contains a script to fix the rtc on boot, otherwise fsck/reboot/fsck/reboot/repeat happens..)

mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n initramfs -d ./initrd.img-* ./uInitrd Copy "uInitrd" to the Boot Partition

U-Boot Boot Scripts
The version of U-Boot installed or recommended to install uses boot scripts by default. This allows users to easily switch between multiple SD cards with different OS's with different parameters installed. Ubuntu/Debian requires a slight modification to the bootargs line vs. Angstrom, 'ro' vs 'rw'.

fixrtc: (only uInitrd) Resets RTC based on last mount buddy=${buddy}: (both) Kernel Zippy1/2 Support mpurate=${mpurate}: (recommended core clock)

boot.scr -> uEnv.txt
Newer version's of u-boot now look for a uEnv.txt file vs the older boot.scr, since most boards still use the older boot.scr here's an easy compatibility script:

create a new file: uEnv.txt bootenv=boot.scr loaduimage=fatload mmc ${mmcdev} ${loadaddr} ${bootenv} mmcboot=echo Running boot.scr script from mmc ...; source ${loadaddr}

Beagle Bx/Cx & xM
create a new file: boot.cmd setenv dvimode 1280x720MR-16@60 setenv vram 12MB setenv bootcmd 'fatload mmc 0:1 0x80300000 uImage; fatload mmc 0:1 0x81600000 uInitrd; bootm 0x80300000 0x81600000' setenv bootargs console=ttyO2,115200n8 console=tty0 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait ro vram=${vram} omapfb.mode=dvi:${dvimode} fixrtc buddy=${buddy} mpurate=${mpurate} boot

Use mkimage create to actual *.scr file for U-Boot:

mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n "Ubuntu" -d ./boot.cmd ./boot.scr Copy "boot.scr" to the Boot Partition For "igepv2" users, rename this to "boot.ini"

Umount the Boot Partition:

sudo umount ./tmp

RootFS Partition
Root File System

Mount your SD card's larger root file system partition (assuming /dev/sdX2) and 'untar' the rootfs into it.

mkdir -p ./tmp sudo mount /dev/sdX2 ./tmp sudo tar xfp armel-rootfs-*.tgz -C ./tmp sudo umount ./tmp

Enable Network Access
Modify /etc/network/interfaces auto eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp

Manual: From the Command line sudo ifconfig -a sudo dhclient ethX (or wlanX/etc..)

Additional Network Setup Information can be found HERE

= Advanced =

Script File
Latest Stable is : https://github.com/RobertCNelson/stable-kernel

export DIST=oneiric (options are lucid/maverick/natty/oneiric/precise/squeeze/wheezy) export ARCH=armel (options are armel/armhf (armhf only for precise)) Beagle/Panda export BOARD=omap BeagleBone export BOARD=omap-psp wget http://rcn-ee.net/deb/${DIST}-${ARCH}/LATEST-${BOARD} wget $(cat ./LATEST-${BOARD} | grep STABLE | awk '{print $3}') /bin/bash install-me.sh

Reboot with your new uImage

Upgrade X-loader and U-boot
Compatible with Bx,C2/3/4

Note: Sometimes on these older boards, you just have to clear out the stored u-boot environment variables in nand to make this script work: nand erase 260000 20000

Requires MMC card..

git clone git://github.com/RobertCNelson/flash-omap.git cd flash-omap

For the Beagle Bx sudo ./mk_mmc.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --uboot beagle_bx

For the Beagle Cx sudo ./mk_mmc.sh --mmc /dev/sdX --uboot beagle_cx

1: Plug Serial Cable in and Start Serial terminal program 2: Place MMC card in Beagle 3: Push and Hold User Button 4: Plug-in Power 5: Wait for U-boot countdown to finish, Let Off User Button 6: Wait for Flashing/script to end 7: Power down, remove and reformat MMC card to final OS

If you don't know the location of your SD card: sudo ./mk_mmc.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/mmcblk0: 3957 MB, 3957325824 bytes <- MMC/SD card mount: /dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0) <- x86 Root Partition


 * In this example, we can see via mount, /dev/sda1 is the x68 rootfs, therefore /dev/mmcblk0 is the other drive in the system, which is the MMC/SD card that was inserted and should be used by ./mk_mmc.sh...

SGX Video Acceleration
Requirements: stable-kernel (the Demo Images hosted on rcn-ee.net meet this requirement) https://github.com/RobertCNelson/stable-kernel

Note: Due to a bug (seems to only effect older Beagle Bx/Cx boards, use v3.0.8-x3 based kernels) https://github.com/RobertCNelson/stable-kernel/issues/8 oneiric: wget http://rcn-ee.net/deb/oneiric/v3.0.8-x3/install-me.sh /bin/bash install-me.sh

SDK unPackage Script
Download the latest version of the "create_sgx_package.sh" script 2.6.37 wget https://github.com/RobertCNelson/stable-kernel/raw/master/create_sgx_package_2.6.37.sh 2.6.38+ wget https://github.com/RobertCNelson/stable-kernel/raw/master/create_sgx_package.sh

Make script executable chmod a+x ./create_sgx_package.sh

Run script ./create_sgx_package.sh

After Successfully running:

GFX_Linux_SDK.tar.gz                           : -> Copy to Beagle (DEMO's) Graphics_SDK_setuplinux_X_XX_XX_XX.bin SDK SDK_BIN

Beagle: GFX_*_libs.tar.gz
tar xf GFX_4_00_00_01_libs.tar.gz (extracts install-SGX.sh and run-SGX.sh) ./install-SGX.sh (copies necessary SGX libs and startup script) ./run-SGX.sh (force run the new init script, or you can just reboot...)

On Successful install: Stopping PVR Starting PVR Starting SGX fixup for ES2.x (or ES3.x) (or ES5.x xM)

Reboot for good measure (Maverick's Alpha-1 needs this....) sudo reboot

Beagle: GFX_Linux_SDK.tar.gz
tar xf GFX_Linux_SDK.tar.gz cd GFX_Linux_SDK tar xf OGLES.tar.gz

Test SGX with a DEMO
cd OGLES/SDKPackage/Binaries/CommonX11/Demos/EvilSkull ./OGLESEvilSkull

Trouble Shooting
sudo rm /etc/powervr-esrev sudo depmod -a omaplfb sudo /etc/init.d/pvr restart

gst-dsp
Seems to work on all Beagle's, with atleast 2.6.38+ now...

Requirements: 2.6-stable from launchpad or 2.6.38+ deb's from rcn-ee.net. (the Demo Images hosted on rcn-ee.net meet this requirement) https://github.com/RobertCNelson/stable-kernel

Download the latest version of the "create_dsp_package.sh" script wget https://github.com/RobertCNelson/stable-kernel/raw/master/create_dsp_package.sh

Make script executable chmod a+x ./create_dsp_package.sh

Package script: ./create_dsp_package.sh

Copy DSP_Install_libs.tar.gz to beagle

Setup network...

Extract: tar xf DSP_Install_libs.tar.gz

Install ./install-DSP.sh

Build gst-dsp stuff.. ./install-gst-dsp.sh

Playbin: sudo gst-launch playbin2 uri=file://(file)

Xorg omapfb Drivers
By default Ubuntu will try to use the FBDEV video driver, however for the beagleboard we can take advantage of a more software optimized driver (still not using the sgx video hardware) using the NEON extensions of the Cortex-A8 core.

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep FBDEV (II) FBDEV: driver for framebuffer: fbdev (II) FBDEV(0): using default device (II) FBDEV(0): Creating default Display subsection in Screen section (==) FBDEV(0): Depth 16, (==) framebuffer bpp 16 (==) FBDEV(0): RGB weight 565

Login into Ubuntu and open a new terminal, xorg has to be running..

xvinfo -display :0.0 X-Video Extension version 2.2 screen #0 no adaptors present

Drivers
Note: These are built with neon optimizations: http://git.debian.org/?p=collab-maint/xf86-video-omapfb.git;a=blob;f=debian/rules;h=c2f0d5391c96c5abb60b1e691ad86bb27e0c17d8;hb=HEAD (line 48/49)

Lucid: sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-omap3

To verify it was correctly installed, reboot and:

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep omapfb (II) LoadModule: "omapfb" (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//omapfb_drv.so (II) Module omapfb: vendor="X.Org Foundation" (II) omapfb: Driver for OMAP framebuffer (omapfb) and external LCD controllers: (WW) Error opening /sys/devices/platform/omapfb/ctrl/name: No such file or directory (II) omapfb(0): VideoRAM: 1800KiB (SDRAM) (II) omapfb(0): Creating default Display subsection in Screen section (**) omapfb(0): Depth 16, (--) framebuffer bpp 16 (==) omapfb(0): RGB weight 565 (==) omapfb(0): Default visual is TrueColor (--) omapfb(0): Virtual size is 1280x720 (pitch 1280) (**) omapfb(0): Built-in mode "current" (==) omapfb(0): DPI set to (96, 96) (II) omapfb(0): DPMS enabled (II) omapfb(0): Video plane capabilities: (II) omapfb(0): Video plane supports the following image formats: (II) omapfb(0): XVideo extension initialized

Login into Ubuntu and open a new terminal, xorg has to be running..

xvinfo -display :0.0 X-Video Extension version 2.2 screen #0 Adaptor #0: "OMAP XV adaptor" number of ports: 1 port base: 56 operations supported: PutImage supported visuals: depth 16, visualID 0x21 number of attributes: 1 etc..

Changing DVI output resolution
Ubuntu 10.10 above defaults to a resolution of 1284x768@16. This is set in the boot.cmd file in the boot partition of the SD card. To change the resolution the DVI output, edit boot.cmd accordingly then recreate the boot.scr file by:

mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n "Ubuntu 10.10" -d ./boot.cmd ./boot.scr

Then reboot the BeagleBoard

S-Video
(For configuring S-Video on Angstrom, click here).

Process for setting up S-Video
S-video is tested to be working on 2.6.35-rc5-dl9. BeagleBoard s-video output has traditionally been enabled by "using bootargs (boot arguments) at uboot". In newer versions of the BeagleBoard, the developers have made things easier by instructing u-boot to look for a .scr file about a dozen lines long that is called cmd.boot.scr, and then follow said parameters. In Angstrom, no boot.scr file is needed, instead, an even easier system is used, where a simple editable .txt file called uEnv.txt containing these parameters suffices (Env is for "environment"). For some reason, in the Ubuntu download files, typically there a bit of convoluted process where uEnv.txt is called up, uEnv.txt says "Go read conf.boot.scr", and cmd.boot.scr sets up the s-video.

To make cmd.boot.scr, create a text file named cmd.boot, then convert it into a .scr file with mkimage by running the following commands on the terminal:

First, you will probably need to get mkimage with apt-get. Run

sudo apt-get install mkimage

Next, convert your cmd.boot.scr

mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n 'Execute uImage' -d boot.cmd boot.scr

Bootargs: make this cmd.boot to set s-video

 * NTSC

omapfb.mode=tv:ntsc omapdss.def_disp=tv

Bootargs that has been validated.

setenv bootargs 'console=tty0 console=ttyO2,115200n8 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait ro vram=12M omapfb.mode=tv:ntsc omapdss.def_disp=tv fixrtc buddy=unknown'

Screen cutoff problem
NTSC resolution is supposed to be 640x480. However the edge bands around the TV screen differ from TV to TV. Output of fbset shown below:

mode "720x482-30" # D: 13.500 MHz, H: 15.734 kHz, V: 29.970 Hz        geometry 720 482 720 482 32 timings 74074 16 58 6 31 64 6 rgba 8/16,8/8,8/0,0/0 endmode

Depending on your TV device, and what desktop you are running a certain amount of screen cutoff is likely to occur. This is called Overscan. Typically, around 5-10% of the left and right edges of display are off the screen (using Ubuntu with xfce). This seems to be due to the fact that there is only one display resolution that is set for NTSC: 720 X 482. It is not possible to change this setting in the xfce4 Settings Manager like one would normally be able to do, because other options are greyed out/do not exist. Normally, even if the Settings Manager did not allow for it, a different resolution setting could be obtained by editing the xorg.conf file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf-4, or some similar place. HOWEVER there is no xorg.conf file in the Beagle version of xfce. xrandr shows the display is set to the minimum of 720x574. Adding an xorg.conf does not fix the problem, because Beagle takes its (analog) display resolution settings directly from the display driver, where 720 X 480 (720 X 574 for PAL ) is hard coded in.

An inelegant but usable workaround for the xfce desktop environment is simply to create vertical and horizontal panels that fill up the space that is cut off on the screen. This is not a complete solution, but at least it will prevent maximized windows from going off into nowhere land.

Truly fixing this would involve going into the display driver and reprogramming it to include additional S-video settings besides just NTSC and PAL. Specifically, to make the whole framebuffer fit on the screen you would need to adjust the overlay in the display driver, the OMAP DSS2. (Didn't test this yet. Some pointers from the driver's documentation below)

/sys/devices/platform/omapdss/overlay? directory: enabled		0=off, 1=on input_size		width,height (ie. the framebuffer size) manager		Destination overlay manager name name output_size		width,height position		x,y screen_width	width global_alpha  	global alpha 0-255 0=transparent 255=opaque

Building Kernel
https://github.com/RobertCNelson/stable-kernel

Download SRC git clone git://github.com/RobertCNelson/stable-kernel.git

Build Kernel ./build_kernel.sh

Optional Building Deb File ./build_deb.sh

= Ubuntu Software =

/etc/network/interfaces
It is possible and relatively easy to configure a wifi 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 http://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 < INSERT KEY XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX>

Your wifi card will automatically load these settings on start up and give 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 256MB, using JWM will leave about 60MB free to run apps in.

Midori
Given that the BeagleBoard has fewer resources than a desktop a light weight browser is more responsive. Midori is a light weight 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 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 xwindows sessions so that it doesn't prompt you for which one you want
 * motion.conf - amend /etc/motion/motion.conf to the settings you want (ie video output directory, record only video, record in mpeg4, 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 has the following text in it:

/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 with the ntpdate app.

ROS
Willow Garage hosts the open source Robotic Operating System (ROS). Whilst it is natively supported in Ubuntu, the official packages are only for the x86 platform. ROS can be installed from source and is generally easy to do so (although slow).

Following the instructions from here will build and install ROS on your beagleboard:

http://www.ros.org/wiki/cturtle/Installation/Ubuntu/SVN

You will need an Internet connection for your Beagleboard for these scripts to work.

For more information about ROS see www.ros.org