"Burning" microSD cards and first time boot of BeagleBone Black and PocketBeagle

OK, I have a BeagleBone Black and a PocketBeagle on their way to me and have
some microSD cards also on order. I am a long time Linux user and have 4
Raspberry Pis on my LAN. I generally prefer the command line. I have read
the Getting Started guide (http://beagleboard.org/getting-started) and have a
few questions:

1) What does Etcher do that 'xzcat image.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/mmcblk0' (this is
what I have done with my Raspbian images) does not do? Do I really need to
download this pointy-clicky app? I would rather not.

2) The BeagleBone Black has a proper Ethernet jack and I'd just as soon *not*
have the BeagleBone Black run its own DHCP server and instead use the DHCP
server I already have on my LAN. Is there something I can do (eg tweak a file
on the image once I put it on the SD card from my Linux laptop) to make it
just do that? I can find its MAC address and update my DHCP server to give it
an address of my choosing (and update my DNS database to give it a host name).

3) The PocketBeagle does not have a Ethernet jack, so I will be limited to
using it tethered to connect to it from my computers (either my Laptop or one
of my 'Pis). Will it be possible to ssh into it and use scp and/or rsync to
move files and not bother with its silly pointy-clicky web interface?

4) I guess the image files expand to a 4G file system, but the micro SD cards
I will be using are 32G. I presume there is a utility to expand the file
systems, once booted the first time? I didn't see anything about that on the
Getting Started page...

OK, I have a BeagleBone Black and a PocketBeagle on their way to me and have
some microSD cards also on order. I am a long time Linux user and have 4
Raspberry Pis on my LAN. I generally prefer the command line. I have read
the Getting Started guide (Getting Started - BeagleBoard | How do I start using my board?) and have a
few questions:

1) What does Etcher do that 'xzcat image.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/mmcblk0' (this is
what I have done with my Raspbian images) does not do? Do I really need to
download this pointy-clicky app? I would rather not.

It has a gui... Works on Windows/Mac/Linux... in your case just use dd..

2) The BeagleBone Black has a proper Ethernet jack and I'd just as soon *not*
have the BeagleBone Black run its own DHCP server and instead use the DHCP
server I already have on my LAN. Is there something I can do (eg tweak a file
on the image once I put it on the SD card from my Linux laptop) to make it
just do that? I can find its MAC address and update my DHCP server to give it
an address of my choosing (and update my DNS database to give it a host name).

Just plug it in, your dhcp server will give the BBB it's own ip.. We
only run a dhcp server on the "usbX" interface..

3) The PocketBeagle does not have a Ethernet jack, so I will be limited to
using it tethered to connect to it from my computers (either my Laptop or one
of my 'Pis). Will it be possible to ssh into it and use scp and/or rsync to
move files and not bother with its silly pointy-clicky web interface?

Just enable internet connection sharing on your "host" pc, connected
to the PocketBeagle over usb and then set your gateway/dns on the
PocketBeagle.

4) I guess the image files expand to a 4G file system, but the micro SD cards
I will be using are 32G. I presume there is a utility to expand the file
systems, once booted the first time? I didn't see anything about that on the
Getting Started page...

https://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian#Expanding_File_System_Partition_On_A_microSD

Regards,

>
> OK, I have a BeagleBone Black and a PocketBeagle on their way to me and have
> some microSD cards also on order. I am a long time Linux user and have 4
> Raspberry Pis on my LAN. I generally prefer the command line. I have read
> the Getting Started guide (Getting Started - BeagleBoard | How do I start using my board?) and have a
> few questions:
>
> 1) What does Etcher do that 'xzcat image.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/mmcblk0' (this is
> what I have done with my Raspbian images) does not do? Do I really need to
> download this pointy-clicky app? I would rather not.

It has a gui... Works on Windows/Mac/Linux... in your case just use dd..

OK, it just adds eye-candy....

>
> 2) The BeagleBone Black has a proper Ethernet jack and I'd just as soon *not*
> have the BeagleBone Black run its own DHCP server and instead use the DHCP
> server I already have on my LAN. Is there something I can do (eg tweak a file
> on the image once I put it on the SD card from my Linux laptop) to make it
> just do that? I can find its MAC address and update my DHCP server to give it
> an address of my choosing (and update my DNS database to give it a host name).

Just plug it in, your dhcp server will give the BBB it's own ip.. We
only run a dhcp server on the "usbX" interface..

OK, easy as Pi... I presume that sshd is enabled by default.

>
> 3) The PocketBeagle does not have a Ethernet jack, so I will be limited to
> using it tethered to connect to it from my computers (either my Laptop or one
> of my 'Pis). Will it be possible to ssh into it and use scp and/or rsync to
> move files and not bother with its silly pointy-clicky web interface?

Just enable internet connection sharing on your "host" pc, connected
to the PocketBeagle over usb and then set your gateway/dns on the
PocketBeagle.

I am not sure what that means under CentOS 6 or Raspbian.

>
> 4) I guess the image files expand to a 4G file system, but the micro SD cards
> I will be using are 32G. I presume there is a utility to expand the file
> systems, once booted the first time? I didn't see anything about that on the
> Getting Started page...

Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack Debian - eLinux.org

OK, I check that out.

Thanks.

> > 2) The BeagleBone Black has a proper Ethernet jack and I'd just as soon *not*
> > have the BeagleBone Black run its own DHCP server and instead use the DHCP
> > server I already have on my LAN. Is there something I can do (eg tweak a file
> > on the image once I put it on the SD card from my Linux laptop) to make it
> > just do that? I can find its MAC address and update my DHCP server to give it
> > an address of my choosing (and update my DNS database to give it a host name).
>
> Just plug it in, your dhcp server will give the BBB it's own ip.. We
> only run a dhcp server on the "usbX" interface..
>

OK, easy as Pi... I presume that sshd is enabled by default.

Correct, easier then the Pi, ssh is enabled by default..

> >
> > 3) The PocketBeagle does not have a Ethernet jack, so I will be limited to
> > using it tethered to connect to it from my computers (either my Laptop or one
> > of my 'Pis). Will it be possible to ssh into it and use scp and/or rsync to
> > move files and not bother with its silly pointy-clicky web interface?
>
> Just enable internet connection sharing on your "host" pc, connected
> to the PocketBeagle over usb and then set your gateway/dns on the
> PocketBeagle.

I am not sure what that means under CentOS 6 or Raspbian.

First on Host PC:

sudo sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

Assuming: eth0 is your PC port, and the Beagle is eth1

sudo iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface eth0 -j
MASQUERADE
sudo iptables --append FORWARD --in-interface eth1 -j ACCEPT

Second On the Beagle (as root): (login thru serial port to run: /dev/ttyACM0)

/sbin/route add default gw 192.168.7.1 || true
ping -c1 8.8.8.8
echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" >> /etc/resolv.conf

Regards,

> > > 2) The BeagleBone Black has a proper Ethernet jack and I'd just as soon *not*
> > > have the BeagleBone Black run its own DHCP server and instead use the DHCP
> > > server I already have on my LAN. Is there something I can do (eg tweak a file
> > > on the image once I put it on the SD card from my Linux laptop) to make it
> > > just do that? I can find its MAC address and update my DHCP server to give it
> > > an address of my choosing (and update my DNS database to give it a host name).
> >
> > Just plug it in, your dhcp server will give the BBB it's own ip.. We
> > only run a dhcp server on the "usbX" interface..
> >
>
> OK, easy as Pi... I presume that sshd is enabled by default.

Correct, easier then the Pi, ssh is enabled by default..

>
> > >
> > > 3) The PocketBeagle does not have a Ethernet jack, so I will be limited to
> > > using it tethered to connect to it from my computers (either my Laptop or one
> > > of my 'Pis). Will it be possible to ssh into it and use scp and/or rsync to
> > > move files and not bother with its silly pointy-clicky web interface?
> >
> > Just enable internet connection sharing on your "host" pc, connected
> > to the PocketBeagle over usb and then set your gateway/dns on the
> > PocketBeagle.
>
> I am not sure what that means under CentOS 6 or Raspbian.

First on Host PC:

sudo sysctl net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

Assuming: eth0 is your PC port, and the Beagle is eth1

sudo iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface eth0 -j
MASQUERADE
sudo iptables --append FORWARD --in-interface eth1 -j ACCEPT

Second On the Beagle (as root): (login thru serial port to run: /dev/ttyACM0)

/sbin/route add default gw 192.168.7.1 || true
ping -c1 8.8.8.8
echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" >> /etc/resolv.conf

More likely ssh in through the local connection, and then using sudo. I don't
have the serial <=> USB cable. (Although I'll use my local nameserver, since
I don't have a continiously live Internet connection and I might not bother
with the nat and just do direct routing.)