Encouragement for the disencouraged

Hi to you all out there, new to the BBB, new to Linux, new to whatever?

This is no request for a particular solution but somehow a thought to whats wrong with me, … or some of the others?

Never worked with Linux or Unix, never did anything else than windows and TI embedded stuff. I would think of me as a professional senior engineer for embedded systems, automotive and industrial control.

Now, I entered the embedded Linux world and I am thrilled and frustrated at the same time. Before some days system and software engineering was somehow deterministic to me, something you plan and do. yea, welcome to waynes world.

After reading some hundred hours in the internet, peeking through about 12 new books I bought like hands on the beagle bone black for hyperdummies down to realtime driver development in subatomicmicrokernels I am almost as clueless as before. almost :wink:
After trying to do some really complex stuff like hello world on a php web page I am beginning to understand that I have to let go some very basic principles of thinking like an engineer if I want to act in and survive this new scene.

My first impression on the BBB was somehow, oh wow now I can do everything I always wanted for free. Today I am more on the way of thinking what I could do if noone or nothing unavoidably unseen screws me up, kicks me in the back and stabs me with a fork in my ass (in my sleep).

After this esotheric discourse for all you out there finding yourself here I will come to the encouragement thing I promised.
You cannot make it run? its not there? dont know where, why, how or when?

Its there and it is quite simple and so much more complex you will ever imagine. Know what? give a damn, go get it and make it any way you can.

Newbie/Noob Rule 1: there is no correct way, there ist never only one way, and what ever way you find out, if ever, its the wrong one anyway.
Newbie/Noob Rule 2: dont do it on your own. its already there. dont even start thinking how you can solve a subtask. just go and get your component out of the internet. talking caipirinha serving robots doing your laundry, just call for it. it will never be a 100% solution. be happy if it works just good enough, more or less. On the other hand, if you do it on your own, how perfect would you think you would do it, after endless doing your stuff … There is just nothing you can do on your own against the 10.000 man years of productive work you buy with your cellphone :wink:
Newbie/Noob Rule 3: dont believe in all the creeps out there. my impression is that there are seemingly 50 people out there not talking crap. they are easy to find.
Newbie/Noob Rule 4: if you are confronted with the fishermans feed fish and net crap, skip the page, its not with it.
Newbie/Noob Rule 5: I dont know how, but all the people out there managed to make it somehow. even if you have no Idea what you are doing, in the end it works. you dont know why, or for how long, but it does. thanks and regards to all of you out there contributing to this vast community. With the stuff you do and how you do it, you would not have survived in any kind of industrial working environment. On the other hand this so professional industrial working environment is just loosing the edge against you. And that feels great :smiley:

In direct words to the BBB and my experiences of the first days:
after two days of stumbling around to understand how to get ubuntu on my BBB I was able to set up my SD Card and power up the ubuntu. Just early enough to undertsand that Angstrom ist not half as bad as everybody tries to state. Now I am back to angstrom and I like it (today).
After endless discussions from guys who tried to provide the perfect way of setting up a so much better web server and endless attempts from me to make those explanations work, I found out that the BBB comes with a webserver and to enable stuff like php its just a two lines command. it works fine to me (today).
After reading horrific stories of how not to find a working FTP server solution for the not usable and totally crappy Angstrom distribution, I found out that I had to load and start an SFTP capable transfer program on my windows machine, connect it to my BBB and do stuff I better had done but reading these stories.

Some more of this happened.

My conclusions are:

  1. No you dont have that problem! Its just that creep over there who fumbled his BBB or OS to death. Do your own stuff.
  2. No its probably not perfect but its great and it works (most of it)
  3. Angstrom server is currently down. I am missing documents on the distribution and some manuals or tutorials that are NOT written from the wise guys out there.
  4. I am looking forward to work with this great device, the good community and these damn ideas I still have with the BBB

My only real issue that I have no idea what the Angstrom is realling capable of and what really comes with it. Yes I know I can read the manifest, but it does not read like a Perry Rhodan SF Story to me, more like the matrix reverse with black letters on a dark screen :wink:

So does that mean we’ve converted you to Linux? Going to try using it on your pc?

In my long career I have had to work with about a dozen different OS’s on many different hardware platforms from PDP-11’s, Burroughs TC500, Univac Mainframes, IBM/Amdahl Mainframes, Sun/Fujitsu SPARC Enterprise servers and lots more, often dealing with multiples of them at the same time as part of earning a crust. It’s dangerous to approach a new OS or hardware platform with the attitude that you know all about computers and they must all work the same way or else they are in some way impenetrable. Forty-five or more years ago it was appreciated that different OS’s and hardware was the norm so you had to approach each one differently and there was no shock in dealing with anything new. My advice as always is to recommend saying daily to yourself “I don’t know jack about Linux” and just get on with it. Leave the baggage behind, it’s a handicap. Regards Sid.

Had a similar experience 28 yrs embedded many RTOS some linux/UNIX like DEVICE DRIVERS preference
I struggled just getting a kernel to build even after being trained by TI

LInux → to me access to lots of app code if thats what you need

the cost a ton of overhead and too many places to look when it doesn’t work

loss of bare metal control and embracing the printf debug model
Been able to finally build uboot and kernel from scratch then I realized the revolution was never coming
beyond handheld pc like devices Linux will never COMPLETELY replace bare metal or an RTOS
SO i have the boards have seen only one emebedded med device using am35x and linux/wifi drivers

Meanwhile
I’m back to using SMP VxWorks with 8 core POwerPC Serial Rapid IO, fibre channel, And guesss what
yes printfs. only the BSP team gets a JTAG

ARM has not replaced all other processors and RTOS or barebone on a multitude of DSP’s and uC AND sOC is where all the jobs are I get called for are

It all sounded so good and what a noble cause Linux on a TI chip in every American school and company (-:

Uhhhm all those H1Bs posting on LinkedIN “kindly revert to me my college project on BeagleBone so I can take your job”"

Looks like they are all now experts on a platform few use (-:

replacing us almost happened but It never happened and wont. There is a God

Hi to you all out there, new to the BBB, new to Linux, new to whatever?

This is no request for a particular solution but somehow a thought to whats wrong with me, … or some of the others?

Never worked with Linux or Unix, never did anything else than windows and TI embedded stuff. I would think of me as a professional senior engineer for embedded systems, automotive and industrial control.

Now, I entered the embedded Linux world and I am thrilled and frustrated at the same time. Before some days system and software engineering was somehow deterministic to me, something you plan and do. yea, welcome to waynes world.

After reading some hundred hours in the internet, peeking through about 12 new books I bought like hands on the beagle bone black for hyperdummies down to realtime driver development in subatomicmicrokernels I am almost as clueless as before. almost :wink:
After trying to do some really complex stuff like hello world on a php web page I am beginning to understand that I have to let go some very basic principles of thinking like an engineer if I want to act in and survive this new scene.

My first impression on the BBB was somehow, oh wow now I can do everything I always wanted for free. Today I am more on the way of thinking what I could do if noone or nothing unavoidably unseen screws me up, kicks me in the back and stabs me with a fork in my ass (in my sleep).

After this esotheric discourse for all you out there finding yourself here I will come to the encouragement thing I promised.
You cannot make it run? its not there? dont know where, why, how or when?

Its there and it is quite simple and so much more complex you will ever imagine. Know what? give a damn, go get it and make it any way you can.

Newbie/Noob Rule 1: there is no correct way, there ist never only one way, and what ever way you find out, if ever, its the wrong one anyway.
Newbie/Noob Rule 2: dont do it on your own. its already there. dont even start thinking how you can solve a subtask. just go and get your component out of the internet. talking caipirinha serving robots doing your laundry, just call for it. it will never be a 100% solution. be happy if it works just good enough, more or less. On the other hand, if you do it on your own, how perfect would you think you would do it, after endless doing your stuff … There is just nothing you can do on your own against the 10.000 man years of productive work you buy with your cellphone :wink:
Newbie/Noob Rule 3: dont believe in all the creeps out there. my impression is that there are seemingly 50 people out there not talking crap. they are easy to find.
Newbie/Noob Rule 4: if you are confronted with the fishermans feed fish and net crap, skip the page, its not with it.
Newbie/Noob Rule 5: I dont know how, but all the people out there managed to make it somehow. even if you have no Idea what you are doing, in the end it works. you dont know why, or for how long, but it does. thanks and regards to all of you out there contributing to this vast community. With the stuff you do and how you do it, you would not have survived in any kind of industrial working environment. On the other hand this so professional industrial working environment is just loosing the edge against you. And that feels great :smiley:

In direct words to the BBB and my experiences of the first days:
after two days of stumbling around to understand how to get ubuntu on my BBB I was able to set up my SD Card and power up the ubuntu. Just early enough to undertsand that Angstrom ist not half as bad as everybody tries to state. Now I am back to angstrom and I like it (today).
After endless discussions from guys who tried to provide the perfect way of setting up a so much better web server and endless attempts from me to make those explanations work, I found out that the BBB comes with a webserver and to enable stuff like php its just a two lines command. it works fine to me (today).
After reading horrific stories of how not to find a working FTP server solution for the not usable and totally crappy Angstrom distribution, I found out that I had to load and start an SFTP capable transfer program on my windows machine, connect it to my BBB and do stuff I better had done but reading these stories.

Some more of this happened.

My conclusions are:

  1. No you dont have that problem! Its just that creep over there who fumbled his BBB or OS to death. Do your own stuff.
  2. No its probably not perfect but its great and it works (most of it)
  3. Angstrom server is currently down. I am missing documents on the distribution and some manuals or tutorials that are NOT written from the wise guys out there.
  4. I am looking forward to work with this great device, the good community and these damn ideas I still have with the BBB

My only real issue that I have no idea what the Angstrom is realling capable of and what really comes with it. Yes I know I can read the manifest, but it does not read like a Perry Rhodan SF Story to me, more like the matrix reverse with black letters on a dark screen :wink:


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In my long career I have had to work with about a dozen different OS’s on many different hardware platforms from PDP-11’s, Burroughs TC500, Univac Mainframes, IBM/Amdahl Mainframes, Sun/Fujitsu SPARC Enterprise servers and lots more, often dealing with multiples of them at the same time as part of earning a crust.

It’s dangerous to approach a new OS or hardware platform with the attitude that you know all about computers and they must all work the same way or else they are in some way impenetrable.

Forty-five or more years ago it was appreciated that different OS’s and hardware was the norm so you had to approach each one differently and there was no shock in dealing with anything new.

My advice as always is to recommend saying daily to yourself “I don’t know jack about Linux” and just get on with it.
Leave the baggage behind, it’s a handicap.
Regards
Sid.

:smiley: thanks for the advice
I dont think of me as a converted one, because I am not a believer. Probably just get hands on stuff thats up the day it comes and sometimes it inspires me …
Yea I do use Linux on my PC, caged in a VM :wink:

@Sid:
agreed, but its not the technology that frightens me, its the creepy stuff that some people provide which you have to use for (commercial) live or death. In general you are absolutely right, its good to know what you dont know or at least to have a glimpse of that.
I like the 1ppm failure posters in the development departements of automotive companies. Yea, you probably have to dream of something :smiley:

the baggage thing is ok in a way but its always good to keep experiences in mind especially when it comes to trusting in something :wink: what I never do. as I said I am not a believer …

Sometimes, we joke that the whole “free” stuff in IT was created be the evil programmers. Kind of the virtual “doctor no”, to make the world depended on our knowledge, experience, services and … bring us lot of money. Yes it works!
There is more and more Linux everywhere. In my domain - STBs is almost 99% penetration (excluding Microsoft (actually Ericsson now) MediaRoom), millions of dollars spend on making it work, customizing, porting, writing drivers.

You get free drugs sample, then you will keep paying till the end. I like this model. I have to spend many ours to fix two drivers I had to use in my BBB project, I’ve shared results with the audience of this forum, but experience I’ve gained will stay with me.

My only real issue that I have no idea what the Angstrom is really capable of and what really comes with it.

I think the biggest hurdle for people is they have some embedded mindset with talk of processors and whatnot. Think of this as it is, a resource limited general purpose Linux computer in a small form factor. You develop for it just like you would a normal desktop computer.

Don’t think of it as what Angstrom is really capable of because Angstrom has nothing to do with it. Install Debian if you want and you’ll be able to accomplish the same (maybe with less free RAM) using almost identical code.

The biggest hurdle I had was to do things right the “Linux way”, as in using the abstracted to infinity drivers and sysfs interfaces to do something like access a single register for some hard ip. You can go bang registers and be done with it, but the whole point is that you don’t have to care about the specific platform if you use the standard interfaces allowing you to port your code to some other future embedded (or not) system.

2 ranty cents for you.

My Observations:

  • A large amount Linux documentation is out-of-date.
  • Take any advice from a newsgroup with a degree of skepticism
  • It seems like for every hour spent coding, more than hour is spent retrieving information and resolving Beagle/Linux issues.
  • Linux is not a real-time operating system
  • Angstrom Linux is OK for embedded applications with soft-real-time constraints
  • Ubuntu/Debian/Arch might be easier if your trying to make a mini personal computer with a binary distribution
  • You can create your own version of Linux for the Beaglebone black using Yocto
  • Yocto is supported by companies like Gumstix, Wind River and Atmel (3.10 is the LTS Kernel)
  • Microsoft Windows CE 6 runs on Beaglebone black quite well.
  • Microsoft Windows CE 6 works with the LCD7 cape/touchscreen
  • Microsoft Internet explorer on the Beaglebone black is slow
  • Microsoft Windows CE 6 worked better than Linux/xwindows/gnome on the LCD7 cape/touchscreen (my opinion)
  • Microsoft Windows Embedded 7 runs on the Beaglebone black
  • It would be great to have a real-time executive like RTEMS running on the Beaglebone Black.
  • If you want to do video, a multicore processor is a much better choice
  • Beaglebone black is a good starting point to evaluate Linux and other operating systems in an embedded environment
  • Beagle/Ti today, plenty of alternatives.
    Always confused …

Sure, it’s very nice to have a tiny and inexpensive computer that runs Linux, a TCP stack, etc. But you probably have your BBB connected to a PC that can do that stuff already, much faster and with a keyboard, mass storage, and so forth. BBB is a both an embedded Linux platform AND two very fast little real-time processors that can use the Linux platform for all of the higher level support functions. The PRUs have access to all of the fancy hardware interfaces in the AM3359 chip, with none of the “Linux way” layers and protocols in the way.

Of course, you should NOT let a Linux driver have access to or attempt to control any device you are using in a PRU program or you are asking for a lot of trouble. But as long as you are careful about that, you should be able to do all the high-speed, low-latency bare metal embedded stuff you want on one or both of the PRUs. (EG. about 1000 times the speed of going through the GPIO pin driver.)

Xenomai works on the BBB. You can get a script that will built a kernel with Xenomai in about 30 minutes
at http://blog.machinekit.io/p/machinekit_16.html

This was created to put the LinuxCNC package on the BBB, but you can use the OS
anyplace you need an RT kernel. We have been using RTAI for ages on X86, but RTAI
seems to be very slow in porting to recent ARM platforms.

Jon