Latest Image - Summer 2020 Release - RC1

Hi Everyone!

It's that time, things got way late with Covid/etc, plus we've merged
a lot of GSOC 2020 and MLH 2020 code into this release!

For the Summer 2020 release, this will be the last time we publish a
Debian 9 (Stretch) Build, that version is pretty much "oldstable" at
Debian and is not getting many updates..

Both Stretch and Buster have 3 base variants:

Console
IoT
LXQt

In level of installed package complexity..

For BBAI users, there are special IoT and LXQt variants of the TIDL,
just note these all still use the older v4.14.x-ti kernel.. I'm still
working on v4.19.x-ti support..

Otherwise, Stretch = v4.14.x-ti and Buster = v4.19.x-ti

We had some fun getting v5.4.x-ti ready, but just ran out of time.

But BEST of all, the v4.19.x-ti has a new overlay rewrite from our
2020 GSOC student that allows a "complex" overlay to be used on both
the AM335x and AM57xx devices.

I'm still fighting some fun AM57xx u-boot i2c read errors, but on a
clean startup, the BBAI will read the i2c eeprom and try to load the
proper overlay..

https://elinux.org/Beagleboard:Latest-images-testing#Latest_Images_Testing

So go please test! real release in a couple weeks..

Regards,

I should mention the location for "combined" overlays is this repo and branch:

https://github.com/beagleboard/BeagleBoard-DeviceTrees/tree/v4.19.x-ti-overlays

Here is the current list of tested overlays:

https://github.com/beagleboard/BeagleBoard-DeviceTrees/tree/v4.19.x-ti-overlays/src/arm/overlays

Overlays can now be loaded via:

uboot_overlay_addr0=<file0>.dtbo

vs:

uboot_overlay_addr0=/lib/firmware/<file0>.dtbo

As the updated u-boot will now search the two locations:

/boot/dtbs/<uname -r>/overlays/
and
/lib/firmware/

yet still know how to load the old way..

Regards,

Well, hopefully there won't be too many changes between now and actual
release -- at least, none that can't be captured via a routine apt update /
apt upgrade cycle.

  I say this as I decided to go ahead and grab these releases, and spend
an afternoon...

SD Card Formatter in Overwrite (and some with CHS adjustment) mode on NINE
SD cards)

Write BBB IoT to a (slow Kingston) card for use as a flasher image
Write BBB IoT to SanDisk cards for routine use (2x -- I have two BBB)
Write BBB LXQT to cards (2x)
Write BBAI IoT to SD card
Write BBAI IoT TIDL to SD card
Write BBAI LXQT to SD card
Write BBAI LXQT TIDL to SD card

For each card, boot, run grow_partitions script
sFTP my "home" directory configuration (.bash_aliases, etc) and a config
script to the device/card
reboot
Run the config script to install a version of vim, gnat, and some Python
packages.

{Interesting -- I'd swear the BBB IoT did not have gfortran installed, but
the LXQT image did}

  I have a feeling that BBB (and family) rarely get a
monitor/keyboard/mouse, so having just one LXQT image a year might save
some of your time -- especially as the eMMC doesn't have much space if
someone flashes an LXQT image on it.

  BBAI has enough space to maybe justify LXQT.