Just received my BB xm.
I'm not a very experienced Linux user.
It appears to me the BB makes a few assunptions about user Level.
Now I managed to startup the BB and got the login prompt.
Then I type root and reach a beagleboard#~ prompt.
What next?
Is this the normal behavior?
Is this the boot promt where I have to choose the image.
Or do I need the serial connection like others suggest?
I'm a bit confused since many of the references refere to the BB C4.
The xm does not use Nand as I understand.
Can someone point me in the right direction.
That's normal for a serial or terminal (non gui) image..
Now it's up to you to do what ever you want to do with it.. It's a
blank canvas..
The xM is just the next revision of the C4, alot of references still
apply (minus the nand stuff)...
Regards,
I thought angstrom demo is on it and it will boot straight in to that.
That's what some manuals say.
If I get you right I have to put an image on the second partition and
point the bootloader to that.
Is the boot address the same?
setenv bootargs 'console=ttyS2,115200n8 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rw
rootwait'
I thought there is angstrom demo on it.
If I get this right I need to put an image on the second partition and
load it at boot time.
setenv bootargs 'console=ttyS2,115200n8 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rw
rootwait'
We had to back off on shipping the full desktop image due to some licensing issues. It can be downloaded from:
http://beagleboard-validation.s3.amazonaws.com/deploy/201008201549/sd/list.html
The file is:
deploy/201008201549/sd/beagleboard-demo-201008201549.img.gz
Gerald
There is an angstrom demo on it, just not a full desktop. Just copy the image onto a card using the dd command as instructed below. It will take care of the formatting of the card. Then you will have the full desktop demo. Or, you can use the Win32Diskimager to copy the image to a card as instructed below. It works very well.
To initialize your card under Windows, you can do the following:
- Download and install Ubuntu’s Win32DiskImager (also known as the win32-image-writer).
- Download and install 7-zip compression software.
- Download the BeagleBoard verification SD card image file.
- Decompress the verification image file using 7-zip.
- Insert the SD card writer/reader into the Windows machine.
- Insert >=128MB SD card into the reader/writer.
- Start the Win32DiskImager.
- Select the decompressed verification image file and correct SD card location.
- Click on ‘Write’.
- After the image writing is done, eject the SD card.
If you’re doing this under Linux, then just:
- wget http://beagleboard-validation.s3.amazonaws.com/deploy/201008201549/sd/beagleboard-validation-201008201549.img.gz
- zcat beagleboard-validation0201008201549.img.gz | dd of=/dev/your/sd/card bs=8225280
Gerald
Hi Rico & Gaby,
The short story is that when you get to the prompt
beagleboard#~
it means that Linux is booted and running on your system. What Gerald was saying is that there is no desktop component installed. In Windows parlance, it would be as if you booted DOS but not Windows. The main difference is that Linux can be quite useful from the command line, depending on what it is you want to do. If you want a window environment, you’ll need to download the latest image and put it on your SD card, and then reboot. There is also an Ubuntu release you could load in the same way. If you let us know what you want to accomplish with your Beagle, we may be able to help with more specific guidance.
The BeagleBoard does make a few (necessary) assumptions about the user’s experience level, that is true. The board isn’t really any more complex than any other computer system, but it does operate differently from, say, an x86-based desktop. It is also “bare”, meaning it is just the basic underpinnings on which a full system (desktop, appliance, robot, etc) can be built. Buying a BeagleBoard is sort of like buying an engine and transmission - you are then responsible for building the car around it. Whether you build a Ferrari or a pickup truck is up to you.
You can also download “cars” to fit around it, in the form of Linux distributions. Angstrom is like an SUV, a very good general-purpose system that can do a lot of hauling but also can get you to the store and back. Ubuntu is more like a coupe, small and sporty but not quite as multi-functional, and harder to modify - Android and MeeGo probably fit into this category as well.
I am currently working on a book that will hopefully alleviate some of the early frustration some users have. I am very interested to know what led you to buy a Beagle and what you hope to accomplish with it.
thanks,
Jeff
Thanks for all the responses
So after all I'm on the right track.
Your car comparison suits me 
Thanks Gerald, just what I was looking for
Lioric
The configured one will boot faster and has qmake2 and other components for the ICS Qt training given at ESC Chicago.
I have downloaded the 'full desktop image' (969Mbytes in a zip folder,
3.4Gbytes expanded) but all I see on the SD card after using the
Win32DiskImager are 7 files totalling about 44Mbytes. Is this correct
please?
Yes. All you see is the FAT partition. Windows can’t natively read EXT file partitions.
Gerald
But all I see on the beagleboard is the same 7 files, using 'fatls
mmc', and it just boots into the Angstrom desktop logon. So what am I
supposed to do next??
There are two different images. One is the validation image and the other is the demo image.
Insert the SD card int the slot and apply power.
- For the validation image you should get a Angstrom logo on the screen and a login prompt. At that point type “root” as the password. From there you can type in the various Linux commands. It is all text base. No desktop.
- If you load the demo image, then you should get a desktop that has a bunch of icons on it. Click the exit one using the mouse. Then it should show a desktop that looks similar to Windows. it has menus that you can click and do stuff, like Abiword or run various demos.
Gerald
It is possible to repartition and format the ext3 partition on the validation SD card and download/extract demo-XXXX.tar.bz2 from the same location as the validation and demo images directly from your BeagleBoard if you don’t have an SD card writer handy for your PC. I’m still in the process of writing up the instructions for that.
The idea is to provide something fairly generic that can be used to download kernels and root file systems for Android (Rowboat), Ubuntu, MeeGo, Gentoo, etc. that doesn’t require additional hardware or systems with unknown configurations.
Hi,
The idea is to provide something fairly generic that can be used to download kernels and root file systems for Android (Rowboat), Ubuntu, MeeGo, Gentoo, etc. that doesn't require additional hardware or systems with unknown configurations.
Since you mention MeeGo: Is anybody here working on MeeGo? I am the author of this meego on beagleboard howto:
http://wiki.meego.com/ARM/Meego_on_Beagleboard_from_scratch
I am facing a problem with the MeeGo UX and the 3D acceleration since some weeks: Fonts get corrupted during runtime as if something is writing into the font buffer. You can see two screenshots of this in the bug report:
http://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=5616
I need some ideas how to track the problem. I can repoduce it with twm/xterm (read: without the full meego ui) by just running the "widgetsgallery". This can be asked to use software rendering "option -software" and the problem goes away.
I have tested:
- Various kernels from the ubuntu on beagleboard project, someone else tested one for the iegpv2
- Various screen resolutions/depths
- TI SGX libs from 3_01_00_06 and 3_01_00_07
- The kernel drivers from 3_01_00_06 and 3_01_00_07
- Different frame buffers (fbdev and omapfb)
- Various settings in /etc/powervr.ini
and the results are always the same broken fonts.
I have no idea what else to test. On the n900 they don't have that problem. What else may be involved? The user space parts are the same for bb and n900 as they are installed from the very same rpm packages.
Till
"If you load the demo image" - how?! I have tried typing 'linux', 'run
linux' 'run demo'' and run out of ideas. Help please!
I'm still downloading the demo image and still don't have a desktop.
As far as I understand you have to save the image in tar or gz on a
Card or Drive and uncompress it to the second partition on your
systemcard.
In my case that is /dev/sdb2. If that is complete you can put the card
back in the beagleboard or restart the BB.
I'm not sure if it will laod the desktop automatically.
I will post the results when I'm done.
Chris:
It would really help if you send the text that you see on the
terminal. From what little you have written, I have no idea where you
are in the boot process. If successful, you should see something like
the messages shown on this page:
http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/wiki/HowToGetAngstromRunning
Once you get to the Angstrom (Linux) command line, you can run various
Linux commands, but without a GUI, you need to know their names.
Regards:
Mike Nelson, http://michaeltnelson.com
mobile: 1-650-291-7343
office: 1-650-257-7565
"If you load the demo image" - how?! I have tried typing 'linux', 'run
linux' 'run demo'' and run out of ideas. Help please!
The demo image is
http://beagleboard-validation.s3.amazonaws.com/deploy/201008201549/sd/beagleboard-demo-201008201549-configured.img.gz
Unzip it with 7-zip and write it to your SD card with
Win32DiskImager - Ubuntu Wiki.