Flashing Debian to BBB in order to use kali linux?

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1

i have a BBB that i bout years ago. i believe its rev c. at that time i was trying to flash it with debian but could never get it to work. i gave up put the thing away. got a soul crushing office job and havent looked at the thing sense. i want a new job/side gig and i figured i could learn ethical hacking. at this point i thought why don’t i trying running kali linux on the BBB. i put kali linux on an sd card so i could boot it and that has not been working at all. two of the user leds light up and then the device just sits there not doing anything.

My setup up is to connect an hdmi to a monitor, and hub for keyboard and mouse. im thinking because my bbb still runs Angstrom that i am having an issue running kali since kali is debian based. i have been trying to flash debian on to the bbb so that i can try booting kali that way.

i cant get the device to flash with debian. i have looked at different videos on youtube describing the proccess and nothing has worked for me.

i download the image with the gui and use win32 to burn the image. i put the sd chip in the device holding down the boot button and 3 leds turn on and the device just sits there, no flashing or knight rider pattern. i saw some tutorials that say to get into the boot folder and change the unev.txt file through the device itself and still nothing. can someone give me a hand in getting this done? or point me to a process that has worked for them?

also if you could give me some suggestions as to why kali is not booting from the sd chip that would be great.

Please tell me if this is wrong as well:
i want to use the BBB as a stand-alone computer with the latest version of debian. i want to pulg it into a monitor and have a keyboard and mouse with a GUI running debian. i can do this with angstrom but cant get the debian version of linux to flash and get this going.

i want to be able to insert the sd chip with kali and have it boot. so that i can continue to learn how to hack. then when im done with that i want to take the sd chip out and just run regular debian so that i can use the BBB to work with electronics.

i know i can use a vm on my computer which is what i am doing now but i want to do it this way sorry for being hard headed. also i apologize for this post being all over the place.

2

Also i did not connect ethernet cable when doing this, was that a problem as well?

3

Also i did not connect ethernet cable when doing this, was that a problem as well?

i have a BBB that i bout years ago. i believe its rev c. at that time i was trying to flash it with debian but could never get it to work. i gave up put the thing away. got a soul crushing office job and havent looked at the thing sense. i want a new job/side gig and i figured i could learn ethical hacking. at this point i thought why don’t i trying running kali linux on the BBB. i put kali linux on an sd card so i could boot it and that has not been working at all. two of the user leds light up and then the device just sits there not doing anything.

First off, by default the BBB boots from the internal eMMC. To make it boot any SD card you need to press the usr button that is near the SD card.

You are sure that you are using an image that works for arm?

https://www.offensive-security.com/kali-linux-arm-images/

When it really fails to boot, the distro might be missing the required kernel modules to support the hardware.
In that case, the kernel driver for the hdmi might not be loaded yet.

I think the only way to debug is connect a cable to the debug terminal.
https://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBone_Black_Serial

You need a tty client to use the cable.
That could be putty, picocom or something else.
With the terminal you can inspect the booting process and see which error it gives.

For some more detail on the system you might want to read the system reference manual https://github.com/beagleboard/beaglebone-black/wiki/System-Reference-Manual

My setup up is to connect an hdmi to a monitor, and hub for keyboard and mouse. im thinking because my bbb still runs Angstrom that i am having an issue running kali since kali is debian based. i have been trying to flash debian on to the bbb so that i can try booting kali that way.

The distro that is present on the eMMC should not have any impact when you boot a distro from the SD card.

i cant get the device to flash with debian. i have looked at different videos on youtube describing the proccess and nothing has worked for me.

This is typically the point where you want to provide more detail. Which steps did you follow exactly?
What did you expect?
What happened instead?
Any relevant information on the version of the software you are using?

i download the image with the gui and use win32 to burn the image. i put the sd chip in the device holding down the boot button and 3 leds turn on and the device just sits there, no flashing or knight rider pattern. i saw some tutorials that say to get into the boot folder and change the unev.txt file through the device itself and still nothing. can someone give me a hand in getting this done? or point me to a process that has worked for them?

also if you could give me some suggestions as to why kali is not booting from the sd chip that would be great.

Please tell me if this is wrong as well:
i want to use the BBB as a stand-alone computer with the latest version of debian. i want to pulg it into a monitor and have a keyboard and mouse with a GUI running debian. i can do this with angstrom but cant get the debian version of linux to flash and get this going.

That should be no problem.
That should work with any distro that supports the hardware.

4

Also i did not connect ethernet cable when doing this, was that a problem as well?

i have a BBB that i bout years ago. i believe its rev c. at that time i was trying to flash it with debian but could never get it to work. i gave up put the thing away. got a soul crushing office job and havent looked at the thing sense. i want a new job/side gig and i figured i could learn ethical hacking. at this point i thought why don’t i trying running kali linux on the BBB. i put kali linux on an sd card so i could boot it and that has not been working at all. two of the user leds light up and then the device just sits there not doing anything.

First off, by default the BBB boots from the internal eMMC. To make it boot any SD card you need to press the usr button that is near the SD card.

You are sure that you are using an image that works for arm?

https://www.offensive-security.com/kali-linux-arm-images/

When it really fails to boot, the distro might be missing the required kernel modules to support the hardware.
In that case, the kernel driver for the hdmi might not be loaded yet.

I think the only way to debug is connect a cable to the debug terminal.
https://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBone_Black_Serial

You need a tty client to use the cable.
That could be putty, picocom or something else.
With the terminal you can inspect the booting process and see which error it gives.

For some more detail on the system you might want to read the system reference manual https://github.com/beagleboard/beaglebone-black/wiki/System-Reference-Manual

/* the image of kali i am using is from that link and is the version made for the BBB. i do push the boot button and the three leds turn on, but the device just sits there. i can try formatting the chip and creating the image again. see what happens from there. i was trying to avoid connecting to my computer and using putty to do this because a lot of the “how to’s” that i read said i didnt have to, but the videos did. if i have to thats fine i can try doing things that way.*/

My setup up is to connect an hdmi to a monitor, and hub for keyboard and mouse. im thinking because my bbb still runs Angstrom that i am having an issue running kali since kali is debian based. i have been trying to flash debian on to the bbb so that i can try booting kali that way.

The distro that is present on the eMMC should not have any impact when you boot a distro from the SD card.

/so your saying that regardless of what is on the eMMC if i put in an sd chip that has a working version of BBB compatible Linux then it should boot right?/

i cant get the device to flash with debian. i have looked at different videos on youtube describing the proccess and nothing has worked for me.

This is typically the point where you want to provide more detail. Which steps did you follow exactly?
What did you expect?
What happened instead?
Any relevant information on the version of the software you are using?

/*
i was expecting the same things as these.
i used the following links:
http://derekmolloy.ie/write-a-new-image-to-the-beaglebone-black/

*/

i download the image with the gui and use win32 to burn the image. i put the sd chip in the device holding down the boot button and 3 leds turn on and the device just sits there, no flashing or knight rider pattern. i saw some tutorials that say to get into the boot folder and change the unev.txt file through the device itself and still nothing. can someone give me a hand in getting this done? or point me to a process that has worked for them?

also if you could give me some suggestions as to why kali is not booting from the sd chip that would be great.

Please tell me if this is wrong as well:
i want to use the BBB as a stand-alone computer with the latest version of debian. i want to pulg it into a monitor and have a keyboard and mouse with a GUI running debian. i can do this with angstrom but cant get the debian version of linux to flash and get this going.

That should be no problem.
That should work with any distro that supports the hardware.

/Here i am under the impression that once i fix the flashing issues and make sure that the kali image is the right image i should be able to do this no problem?/

5

ok so the link in blue is the one i used to make the image because it says GUI which is what i want. i just saw the one in red though that says flasher. with that one also have a gui ? Maybe thats my problem? or at least one of them?

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6

Sounds like your having lots of problems, do you have a usb serial adapter available to you too plug into j1?

https://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBone_Black_Serial

I’ve been in vacation, so replies will be late.

Regards,

Capture.PNG

7

yes i think i still have the one i made in college. i would have to look if not i could just cut up a spare usb cable

8

The links and movies are all about the ubuntu image.
There seem to be two approaches for flashing a ubuntu image on the eMMC:

  1. Use a flasher image
  2. Use a ubuntu image and configure it to automatically flash

I guess either approach should work.
If not I would connect a cable.

For the kali image, you want to flash it on an SD drive and then I would expect it to boot. If not, use a cable.

Note that the cable also should contain a chip from usb to uart (ftdi is the a known supplier of these chips).

9

The distro that is present on the eMMC should not have any impact when you
boot a distro from the SD card.

/*so your saying that regardless of what is on the eMMC if i put in an sd
chip that has a working version of BBB compatible Linux then it should boot
right?*/

  My understanding of the current boot scheme is that...

  IF the boot-select is held down when power is applied (not just a
reset!), booting takes place entirely from the SD card -- including loading
u-boot from the SD card.

  In MODERN images, if the boot-select is NOT held down, then u-Boot is
loaded from the eMMC -- and modern u-Boot then determines if a bootable OS
exists on the SD card, and transfers control to it (including, I believe,
the uEnv.txt file -- so if the SD card is a flasher image, it automatically
gets flashed)..

  One problem: older u-Boot images assumed the kernel would load device
tree overlays; newer u-Boot loads the overlays. As a result, if one boots
from an image using an old u-Boot -- no device tree overlays get loaded,
and the kernel likely fails to function.

  Angstrom is down-right ancient -- not even my first BBB had Angstrom on
it. Those older images (including the early Debian versions) made use of a
small FAT partition for booting. Newer Debian images do not use a FAT
partition (they create a virtual read-only FAT /after/ booting for purposes
of the "starting beaglebone" stuff that shows up in Windows).

  PLEASE verify you have a 4GB Rev-C board. I don't know if even the IoT
image will fit on a 2GB pre-Rev-C board.

  Given the age of the board, you may need to wipe the start of the eMMC
(SSH to the card after booting from eMMC, and using some "dd" command --
search the group for an example) -- wiping out the boot sector and u-Boot,
which should result in the boot sequence reverting to the SD card. Then use
(I recommend the IoT image just to give more free space) and confirm it
boots. If it boots (and you have 4GB eMMC), modify the uEnv.txt to turn the
card into a flasher. With luck it will reflash the eMMC with a working
Debian and update the u-Boot stuff (Caveat: I've never had to go to the
level of wiping the boot sectors -- regular flashing of Debian images has
been sufficient; I did have to use the boot-select to do that with Debian
Wheezy and I think the first Jessie images).

/*
i was expecting the same things as these.
i used the following links:
      Writing a new Image to the Beaglebone Black | derekmolloy.ie
      https://youtu.be/_nPj1cCFrRk
      https://youtu.be/oRGrm8RfGCE
*/

  "updated 2015" -- that page may be a bit out-of-date. Many sites have
deprecated Win32 Disk Imager -- the preference these days appears to be
Balena Etcher (though W32DI may be of use if trying to create an image file
FROM and SD card; Etcher does not do that direction, but does work directly
from compressed archives).

  As mentioned above -- my recommendation would be to download the IoT
image, write it to a 4+ GB card. Presuming you haven't yet wiped the eMMC
boot sectors... Insert the SD card, hold down the boot-select button (S2),
and insert the power adapter. If it boots it should be the IoT image.

  Presuming the IoT image booted, navigate to the uEnv.txt file and
uncomment the last line -- this converts the image to a flasher image.
Shutdown the unit, remove power supply. Repeat the above boot sequence (S2,
apply power). With luck you get the 4LED Larson scanner effect and the eMMC
will be flashed with the new image.

  Hmmm -- have you verified the SD card slot is functioning? Maybe boot
the eMMC Angstrom image, insert the SD card, and mount the card -- then
explore it to make sure you can read it.

  If the SD card slot is okay, but you can't get it to boot the SD card
image (even with S2 held down while applying power), it may be time to try
wiping the eMMC.

10

Uhm... That's a USB-Serial adapter for 3.3V TTL serial. And you need
the Serial end to connect to the BBB. You can't just hack a USB cable and
connect wires to the BBB (among other things, USB is 5V; even a 5V TTL
serial adapter will be a problem, and don't even think of using a
USB<>RS-232 [which may have 12V signal])).

11

how do i check the version of the board?

12

the Sd slot is working. the sd card i have with kali loaded on it, i can see the files on it when i plug it into the sd slot of the bbb. will using the iot image still let me hook up to a monitor and have a gui interface?

13

There is an onboard eeprom that holds this info https://github.com/beagleboard/beaglebone-black/wiki/System-Reference-Manual#64_Board_ID_EEPROM

You can read it out using i2c.
Maybe the link below can help on what tools to use: https://www.richud.com/wiki/Rasberry_Pi_I2C_EEPROM_Program

14

Take a picture of it from the side and top. And post it…

Regards,

15

‘before’ power is applied… once power is applied there state is already set.

Sysboot pins are read at power up .

Regards,

16

the Sd slot is working. the sd card i have with kali loaded on it, i can
see the files on it when i plug it into the sd slot of the bbb. will using
the iot image still let me hook up to a monitor and have a gui interface?

  My preference for the IoT image is that it takes up less storage, and
may be faster to get it running -- it is optimized for network connected
devices. The current LXQT image barely fits in the 4GB eMMC (others have
reported being unable to run "sudo apt update/sudo apt upgrade" due to lack
of space incurred by the amount of changes since the stock image was
created).

  My approach has been to try to get a working updated Debian/u-Boot
image into the eMMC, before attempting to use anything else.

  For running X-Window applications, one likely should use an 8+GB SD
card (using the partition resizer script to expand the 4GB image to use the
entire card).

debian@beaglebone:~$ uname -a
Linux beaglebone 4.14.108-ti-r113 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Jul 31 00:01:10 UTC
2019 armv7l GNU/Linux
debian@beaglebone:~$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev 220100 0 220100 0% /dev
tmpfs 49496 5496 44000 12% /run
/dev/mmcblk1p1 3704040 2307996 1188172 67% /
tmpfs 247476 0 247476 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 247476 0 247476 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 49492 0 49492 0% /run/user/1000
debian@beaglebone:~$

Note that the IoT (with updates) is using 67% of the eMMC (and obviously
can not be flashed to an older 2GB board. Don't know if the console-only
images are much smaller).

17

well i feel like an idiot. this whole time i thought i had a 4gb BBB and i just found the box of the kit i bought. turns out its the 2gb version. so now that i know its the 2gb version how does that change things and what are my options. i am probably gonna buy a new BBB along with a raspberry pi kit. but what can i do with the BBB that i have now. do i flash it with a different version of debian that is for the 2gb format? or should i just use it with putty?

20200213_212429[1324].jpg

18

The regular distros are made to be complete for the users.

An alternative is creating your own “distro”. That way you can select all features you want.
However, you still run the risk of wanting more than fits on the eMMC.
If you want to go that route you probably want to use a tool like buildroot and a cross compiler. Buildroot lets you select which packages to build and automate the build.
You should be able to run it in a VM.

The easier alternative is to just boot your system from the SD card. That way the size of the SD card is the limit.

20200213_212429[1324].jpg

19

ddchapa09@gmail.com wrote:

[-- multipart/alternative, encoding 7bit, 66 lines --]

well i feel like an idiot. this whole time i thought i had a 4gb BBB and i
just found the box of the kit i bought. turns out its the 2gb version. so
now that i know its the 2gb version how does that change things and what
are my options. i am probably gonna buy a new BBB along with a raspberry
pi kit. but what can i do with the BBB that i have now. do i flash it
with a different version of debian that is for the 2gb format? or should i
just use it with putty?

A basic non-Gui non-desktop Linux will work perfectly well, consumes
about 1Gb or so. I have 'console' Debian and Ubuntu running on 2Gb
BBBs without any problem. Lots of space to spare.

20

ok. so the image i was trying to flash to my BBB was a 4gb sd chip bootable. not a flash image. if i put the 4gb sd bootable version in the sd slot then i should have seen the device boot but it didnt. i was expecting a flash process. right there i see a red flag.
why would the bootable sd not boot? the image is corrupt? am i supposed to download and create the image using the BBB? Ive been doing everything on my laptop.