Hi, I am a newbie and hope that someone can point me in the right direction. I have tried to find this information, but can’t find it anywhere.
I am really interested in using the Beaglebone Black in a remote control environment where we would add control features over time. I know that you can flash the installed image via the SD slot using the boot button.
But, I need to be able to field flash the installed image with a new image from a remote server. Ideally it would be through the WLAN cape, but it could be via the USB connected a host computer. Is there existing code for doing this? Does the “boot” button need to be pressed or can this be done without the user needing to go through that sequence?
Thanks in advance for pointing me in the right direction.
No, you can’t easily flash over ethernet, wifi or USB.
However, if you just want to add control features over time, you don’t need to completely reflash a new image to the device. You can copy executable code or data to the device using the network, and then it is basically installed. I have my BBB on my desk, but it’s only connection to the net is via wifi, and I upload new software to it all the time using SSH or SCP. Heck, you can even install compilers on the device and build new software from source code.
If you need to reboot it to complete the installation, (for example new kernel modules or device tree overlays), then just run Linux “shutdown -r” to reboot the device remotely after the files are in place. This assumes you have a startup script that initializes your remote controller software upon bootup, which you will want anyway, in order to deal with power failures. If you are doing this in a production environment, then you will need to track changes in a master image somewhere safe, so that you can reproduce the same configuration on new devices.
CM