Can't Flash BBB

GoogleGroups
1

New to the world of BBB and bought one and am stuck at flashing the eMMC on the BBB.
I followed the instructions on the BBB website, but the thing just won’t flash - I’m sure it’s something I’m not doing right, but it seems dozens/hundreds/thousands of similar folks have the same exact problem.

Here is what I did as per the manufacturer’s instructions: (http://beagleboard.org/getting-started)

  1. Connected the BBB to PC running Windows 8.1 with mini-USB cable
  2. Installed 64-bit Windows drivers - restarted Windows and resumed this process
  3. Used Windows Chrome to browse to BBB at http://192.168.7.2 - everything looked fine
  4. Updated BBB to latest software:
    a) downloaded latest BBB image at: http://beagleboard.org/latest-images
    b) downloaded and installed 7Zip and unzipped the .img.xz file to just a .img file
    c) downloaded and installed the Image Writer for Windows and it built the 16 GB SD micro flash - I looked at the directory and it seems just fine with all the files having today’s date
    d) unplugged BBB and inserted the SD
    e) Pressed and held the Reset button on the BBB while inserting the 5V 2A power cord - held button down 5 seconds and all 4 LEDs lit up
    f) LEDs flashing for about 1 minute then just LED 0 flashing the heartbeat for the next 5 hours - no 4 lit LEDs as the instructions promise.

If I connect the Mini USB I can see the SD card directory, with all files having today’s date, which means BBB booted from the card but when I remove the SD card and reset BBB I see the original 2013 files that were never flashed on the eMMC

So what the heck am I doing wrong?

Thanks for any help…this really should not be this hard for hundreds/thousands of users having the same exact problem…

2

you cannot use the USB power while flashing
you need a 2 amp power supply
i posted a few days ago a mail that tells you the links for the correct ones

3

a) downloaded latest BBB image at: http://beagleboard.org/latest-images

Which image ? The main link is for a 4GB sdcard image only. The smaller print link under that links to the elinux page which in turn has links for many different images including flasher images.

c) downloaded and installed the Image Writer for Windows and it built the 16 GB SD micro flash - I looked at the directory and it seems just fine with all the files having today’s date
d) unplugged BBB and inserted the SD
e) Pressed and held the Reset button on the BBB while inserting the 5V 2A power cord - held button down 5 seconds and all 4 LEDs lit up
f) LEDs flashing for about 1 minute then just LED 0 flashing the heartbeat for the next 5 hours - no 4 lit LEDs as the instructions promise.

It sounds as though you have the wrong image for flashing. As mentioned above. One thing to note however is that running from eMMC versus sdcard wont be much of a performance difference. So, running from sdcard is not necessarily a bad thing. Gives you an opportunity to test an image before “committing” it to eMMC.