Angstrom on Beaglebone Black (Switched to Ubuntu)

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1

rh,

What wifi didn’t work? What commands?

The list is long and I’m not going to go through it here. For example, problems with the Realtek kernel modules not being “in sync” with the kernel. The “cook book” BBB WiFi example at Adafruit (I have one of their tiny USB Wifi modules) did not work at all—multiple tries over many days with two different BBB PCBs and multiple Angstrom releases. Trying to make Wifi work tended to “hose” my Ethernet connection. Also kernel panics. Lots and lots of “trash talk” in the system logs—the HDMI interface needs a “chill pill”. :slight_smile:

Clearly Anstrom on BBB looks like “a work in progress” to me. Out-of-the-box it did not do what was claimed—even after “opkg upgrade” (a bad mistake) and after installation of the very latest BBB Angstrom image—which clearly changed multiple times during my experiences.

work. The new-and-improved Linux configuration utility “systemctl”

Ubuntu uses systemctl.

You are correct. Ubuntu now uses “systemd” for lots of stuff—but not “networking”. (Maybe I should add “yet” to the end of that statement? :slight_smile:

does not work properly—for networking and/or for Wifi. Hours and
hours of wasted time. What bozo thought that Linux needed
yet-another-way to configure!!! Truly STUPID!

Not limited to angstrom, ubuntu uses systemd.

Again, my BBB Ubuntu system still honors “/etc/network/interfaces”. BTW: In the middle of all this that particular file seems to have completely disappeared from the BBB Angstrom image at BeagleBone.Org. That was the last straw for me!

And, the very latest (two-day old) BBB image from BeagleBoard.Org did
not help. Amazingly bad experience. Who at BeagleBoard.Org thought
that Angstrom was a good idea? They need to be shown out the door!

I was about to trash both of my Beaglebone Black PCBs and switch back
to Rasberry Pi when I discovered the Ubuntu port for BBB. Highly

Odd thing to say since you obviously chose bbb for the hardware.

I don’t understand your point. I have two Raspberry Pi PCBs. They worked out-of-the box perfectly!!! I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with my operating systems. For Unix/Linux I’ve spent lots and lots of time complaining about: Bell Labs Unix, System V, SunOS, Berkley Unix, Solaris, HP-UX, Sequent (SysV/Berkley), “Linux”, Redhat, Centos, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, Angstrom, Debian, ucLinux…and the list goes on! :slight_smile: BTW: I’'ve done kernel programming (e.g., drivers and kernel modules) of almost every one of those in the list.

recommended. USB Wifi worked out-of-the box as expected. Stable as a
rock.

What didn’t work under angstrom?

Very little for what I was trying to do… See above…

Great hardware…lousy software choices. (Someone has been smoking
way too much Python! :slight_smile:

I’m no big fan of angstrom…

From angstrom to ubuntu and everything’s solved? From the frying pan
into the fire. Your rant fails. You’re an ubunutu cheerleader and not
a good one.

I’m no Ubuntu cheerleader. I just expect something to work out-of-the-box. The BBB did not!!

Don’t get me started on MS Windows! :slight_smile:

Best regards,

Bruce

2

Hi Bruce,

My opinion after 2 days of trying Angstrom, Debian, and Ubuntu, is that Angstrom
comes configured for normal ssh login. Whereas in Debian/Ubuntu, I had to use
“shellinabox” at https:4200 which didn’t work properly (eg. minus key did not work
in Firefox-20 and CentOS-6.4). After I log in, I found that ssh is not set up at all,
so I had to generate host keys manually, and run “ssh” daemon manually. Try that
without minus (-) key!

At this point, all 3 OSs are minimum install and don’t have the packages that I’m
used to or expect to find.

3

I’m no Ubuntu cheerleader. I just expect something to work out-of-the-box. The BBB did not!!
Don’t get me started on MS Windows! :slight_smile:

Hi Bruce,

My opinion after 2 days of trying Angstrom, Debian, and Ubuntu, is that Angstrom
comes configured for normal ssh login. Whereas in Debian/Ubuntu, I had to use
“shellinabox” at https:4200 which didn’t work properly (eg. minus key did not work
in Firefox-20 and CentOS-6.4). After I log in, I found that ssh is not set up at all,
so I had to generate host keys manually, and run “ssh” daemon manually. Try that
without minus (-) key!

Actually I’m dropping shellinabox and going to use gate one too with the debian Ubuntu images… As it has caused issues with the default openssh server running on port 22.

At this point, all 3 OSs are minimum install and don’t have the packages that I’m
used to or expect to find.

Yet i see no list of packages you expect to find… So I’ll just answer… Does the network at least work such that you can install package x? As that is my only goal…

4

wtf is shell in a box. Been using Debian now for 2 + weeks and never seen it. Using openssh-server . . .

5

https://code.google.com/p/shellinabox/

It's: "Shell In A Box implements a web server that can export
arbitrary command line tools to a web based terminal emulator."...

Think of the newbie windows users, who do not have putty setup.. Now
they can click on a web page, login and then have terminal access...

and of course, a week after i enabled it, it turns out it's riddled with bugs...

Regards,

6

Robert, ah cool I did not eve notice it, lol. I just assumed that since the Debian install being so small in comparison to the desktop installs, well that something like this did not exist. I still have lots of exploring left to do it seems.

I am very impressed with Debian so far ( kind of always have been for years now ). Keep up the good work, thank you very much for the time you’ve invested in documenting, and setting everything up !

7

Think of the newbie windows users, who do not have putty setup.. Now
they can click on a web page, login and then have terminal access...

Not to pick on you but this just sounded funny. I was thinking
what's a newbie windows user going to do with linux terminal
access once they have it?

Well, first they will follow some random 'wiki' site and then when it
doesn't work, they will ask a question on this list...

Does windows still not have a native ssh terminal app in the year
Twenty-thirteen. Maybe they like to leave that secure feature to
putty. As-in not their fault when people find out putty has "issues".

i believe it still has the classic win 95 telnet application..

Regards,

8

Robert,

Is there a debian distro that is similar in scope to the BBB Angstrom distro? The version that you apparently put together does not have X11 or a window manager?

I am really struggling to get some simple packages onto the BBB (like msmstp or postfix) and it does not look like Angstrom supports them.

Thanks
Gerrie

9

Robert,

Is there a debian distro that is similar in scope to the BBB Angstrom
distro? The version that you apparently put together does not have X11 or
a window manager?

Take my wheezy image and:

"sudo apt-get install task-lxde-desktop"

done... :wink:

I am really struggling to get some simple packages onto the BBB (like msmstp
or postfix) and it does not look like Angstrom supports them.

Regards,

10

fwiw I felt the same frustrations and expectations that Bruce has. Also had a lot of the same networking issues he has mentioned. I do think the BeagleBoard team is doing an excellent job! I don’t find Angstrom to be particularly pleasing or palatable distro in the past and that continues on for today. I’ve found the Cloud9/BoneScript integration to be such an amazing step to lower the barrier of entry into embedded software development. It was really nice to see this software melded together. Hopefully this response helps with feedback collection.