Well I'm back at home off my boat now and I didn't manage to get
Debian 9 onto my BBB there, it's still running Debian 7.
I still have remote access to the BBB from here at home so, if anyone
wants to help and needs answers to questions I can go and take a look.
The Debian 9 image I was trying was this one (expanded of course) :-
bone-debian-9.3-iot-armhf-2018-01-28-4gb.img.xz
As noted in my previous postings here this image successfully
self-installed automatically on another (I thought older) Debian 7 BBB
that I had.
When inserted in the BBB I want to update it did nothing on rebooting.
I also tried powering up with the 'boot' button held down but that did
no good either, it simply did nothing.
I tried running the script:-
/opt/scripts/tools/beaglebone-black-eMMC-flasher.sh
and that didn't work either (as reported above in an earlier posting),
it seems to have done something to the microSD which had Debian 9 on
it too.
So, how on earth am I going to get Debian 9 onto my BBB? Surely there
must be a reliable way to do this, especially as I have a running
Debian system on it. Is there a script I can get which can install an
OS from an image on a microSD? I'd really be happiest with a
script/program I can load and run on my existing system rather than
some sort of automatic load which requires a combination of buttons
pressed and power-up sequences.
What I need (help/information) is:-
What Debian 9 image to use (minimal non-GUI system)
How to write it to the microSD card (on a Linux system)
A script to run that will install it on the eMMC.
With: bone-debian-9.3-iot-armhf-2018-01-28-4gb.img.xz booted on the microSD
Run:
sudo /opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh
It should "work", but there is a good reason we moved to flashing the
eMMC in single user mode...
So IF it fails, follow the standard eMMC flashing directions here:
https://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian#Flashing_eMMC
Regards,
On Wed, 4 Apr 2018 20:52:50 +0100, Chris Green
<cl@isbd.net> declaimed the following:
When inserted in the BBB I want to update it did nothing on rebooting.
I also tried powering up with the 'boot' button held down but that did
no good either, it simply did nothing.
"nothing"? Did it even boot?
I tried running the script:-
/opt/scripts/tools/beaglebone-black-eMMC-flasher.sh
and that didn't work either (as reported above in an earlier posting),
it seems to have done something to the microSD which had Debian 9 on
it too.
Given what I could understand of the script (I'm no where near a BASH
script expert -- my heaviest "shell script" experience is VAX/VMS DCL,
AREXX [Amiga REXX]... I don't consider Python a "scripting language" (AREXX
could be used to control any application that opened an AREXX message port,
and any statement in a script that did not parse as native AREXX would be
sent to the current "command host" -- ie; the shell by default or an
application if one did "address application-name" first -- and the easiest
way to make a statement "not native" was to quote the first word) -- pardon
the harangue -- I understand the script to copy files from the /booted/
system media to the other media. If it booted from the eMMC, running the
script will copy the eMMC to the SD card.
I could be all wet with that hypothesis <G>
So, how on earth am I going to get Debian 9 onto my BBB? Surely there
must be a reliable way to do this, especially as I have a running
Debian system on it. Is there a script I can get which can install an
OS from an image on a microSD? I'd really be happiest with a
script/program I can load and run on my existing system rather than
some sort of automatic load which requires a combination of buttons
pressed and power-up sequences.
Boot with your existing system. Insert the SD card. MOUNT the SD card
if it isn't automatically mounted (there was a period of time where the
Wheezy images would auto-mount SD cards).
Edit the <SDCARDMOUNT>/boot/uEnv.txt file (NOT a file on the eMMC) as
described Latest Software Images - BeagleBoard
Reboot. If the reboot doesn't read the SD card a start flashing, reboot
with the boot button held down! Due to the changes in device tree handling
since Wheezy, a Wheezy era eMMC uBoot may not be compatible (hypothesis --
I don't think I've used the boot button since Wheezy) and my understanding
is that the boot button totally bypasses the eMMC uBoot for the one on the
SD card (newer versions, I believe, use the eMMC uBoot which transfers to
the SD card if installed to complete the boot).
.
On Wed, 4 Apr 2018 20:52:50 +0100, Chris Green
<cl@isbd.net> declaimed the following:
>
>When inserted in the BBB I want to update it did nothing on rebooting.
>I also tried powering up with the 'boot' button held down but that did
>no good either, it simply did nothing.
>
"nothing"? Did it even boot?
No, it didn't even boot, the single (power?) LED came on but that was
all. Had me worried for a minute but without the boot button down it
acted quite normally still and booted Debian 7,
>I tried running the script:-
>
> /opt/scripts/tools/beaglebone-black-eMMC-flasher.sh
>
>and that didn't work either (as reported above in an earlier posting),
>it seems to have done something to the microSD which had Debian 9 on
>it too.
>
Given what I could understand of the script (I'm no where near a BASH
script expert -- my heaviest "shell script" experience is VAX/VMS DCL,
AREXX [Amiga REXX]... I don't consider Python a "scripting language" (AREXX
could be used to control any application that opened an AREXX message port,
and any statement in a script that did not parse as native AREXX would be
sent to the current "command host" -- ie; the shell by default or an
application if one did "address application-name" first -- and the easiest
way to make a statement "not native" was to quote the first word) -- pardon
the harangue -- I understand the script to copy files from the /booted/
system media to the other media. If it booted from the eMMC, running the
script will copy the eMMC to the SD card.
I could be all wet with that hypothesis <G>
I think you're spot on actually! 
I didn't stare all that hard
at the code but it certainly did seem to copy from the eMMC to the
microSD card.
>
>So, how on earth am I going to get Debian 9 onto my BBB? Surely there
>must be a reliable way to do this, especially as I have a running
>Debian system on it. Is there a script I can get which can install an
>OS from an image on a microSD? I'd really be happiest with a
>script/program I can load and run on my existing system rather than
>some sort of automatic load which requires a combination of buttons
>pressed and power-up sequences.
>
Boot with your existing system. Insert the SD card. MOUNT the SD card
if it isn't automatically mounted (there was a period of time where the
Wheezy images would auto-mount SD cards).
Yes, my Debian 7 does automount SD cards.
Edit the <SDCARDMOUNT>/boot/uEnv.txt file (NOT a file on the eMMC) as
described Latest Software Images - BeagleBoard
Reboot. If the reboot doesn't read the SD card a start flashing, reboot
with the boot button held down! Due to the changes in device tree handling
since Wheezy, a Wheezy era eMMC uBoot may not be compatible (hypothesis --
I don't think I've used the boot button since Wheezy) and my understanding
is that the boot button totally bypasses the eMMC uBoot for the one on the
SD card (newer versions, I believe, use the eMMC uBoot which transfers to
the SD card if installed to complete the boot).
.
OK, thanks, that does seem to make sense to me. I'll need to wait
until I'm next back on the boat which will be a week or so now. The
boat is in France and I'm in England, it's not just down the road!
Thanks for continuing to help Robert.
> What I need (help/information) is:-
>
> What Debian 9 image to use (minimal non-GUI system)
>
> How to write it to the microSD card (on a Linux system)
>
> A script to run that will install it on the eMMC.
With: bone-debian-9.3-iot-armhf-2018-01-28-4gb.img.xz booted on the microSD
Run:
sudo /opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh
I don't have that script in the existing Debian 7 installation:-
chris@odin:~$ ls /opt/scripts/tools/eMMC
beaglebone-black-make-microSD-flasher-from-eMMC.sh
chris@odin:~$
Should I run it from the mounted Debian 9 image?
It should "work", but there is a good reason we moved to flashing the
eMMC in single user mode...
So IF it fails, follow the standard eMMC flashing directions here:
Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack Debian - eLinux.org
OK, thank you.
As I said above I'm away from the boat for a while now, I should be
able to retry in a week or two.
ALL the scripts assume you are directly "running" the image from a
fresh bootup, that you would like to "copy" to the secondary storage.
Don't do anything fancy beyond that.
Regards,
OK, thanks, that's all I needed to know (I hope).