Pocketbeagle 2 and rpi debug probe for internet connection? (from MACOS)

General Discussion
1

Dear forum,

The quick start guide is confusing and there seems to be typos at the crucial stage as well, but am I right that in order to connect the pocketbeagle 2 to the internet when you use MACOS (or windows) that you need a rpi debug probe? Or are there other methods as well?

Best, Hans.

2

is only needed for direct access to the boot console.

The default images enable a usb-gadget on startup that contains usb-cdc (serial) and usb-ncm (networking) 192.168.7.2 (on mac, windows and linux)ā€¦

Regards,

3
  1. Connect USB from PocketBeagle2 to Windows 11 PC
  2. SSH into the PocketBeagle2 using 192.168.7.2 and modify /etc/systemd/network/usb0.network by adding the following under the [Network] section
Gateway=192.168.7.1
DNS=8.8.8.8

It should now look like the following

image
image971Ɨ593 26.5 KB

  1. Run sudo systemctl restart systemd-networkd.service

  2. On your windows 11 pc, press WIN+R.

  3. Type ncpa.cpl and press enter

  4. Note down what Ethernet # your PocketBeagle2 is being detected as. In my case its Ethernet 5
    image

  5. Right click the adapter that you are using for your PCs internet connection(most likely WiFi) and click Properties
    image

  6. Click the Sharing tab, then check ā€œAllow other network users to connectā€¦ā€ and in the drop down box select the Ethernet # of your PocketBeagle2 and press OK. It might pop up a warning saying that the LAN adapter will be set to use a random IP address. Press Yes to continue.

  7. Now right click the Ethernet adapter of your PocketBeagle2 like in step #6 and press properties.

  8. There should be an item called Internet Protocol Version 4 in the list and it should be checked/enabled. Click this text(Not the checkbox as doing so will disable it) and press properties.

  9. Enter the following information following by pressing the OK button.

    image
    image401Ɨ456 11.3 KB

  10. Now you can SSH into your PocketBeagle2 using the same 192.168.7.2 and do a ping www.google.com to verify connectivity to the outside world

4

MACOSā€¦ :wink: Itā€™s the same procedure, just using Appleā€™s network configuration.

Regards,

5

Thanks all, but on MAC this does not seem to work yet. I modified usb0.network as suggested. I connect manually with the pocketbeagle in the network settings on the MAC using 192.168.7.1 for both IP-address and router address.
I have enabled internetsharing for 192.168.7.1 and then ssh into the board (ssh debian@192.168.7.2). When I subsequently ping 8.8.8.8 there is no response. I can ping within the local debian network (192.168.7.1) and the IP adresses connected to my WiFi connection, but not my WiFi router. I guess that the Ethernet number thingy mentioned in the Windows recipe isnā€™t relevant since I see the PocketBeagle2 as a choseable connection in the sharing tab (internet sharing, share connection from WiFi to devices using PocketBeagle2).

I already made sure that the PocketBeagle2 is at the bottom of the service order list. (if it is above the internet service you use, it brakes the internet connection).

Should I perhaps try to modify usb1 as well or any of the others?

Thanks, Hans.

6

Hereā€™s an old guide of what you have to setup in Mac to share the network connectionā€¦ Sharing Internet With The PocketBeagle On OSX - BeagleBoard

Only big change is only one network now, 192.168.7.x, as we removed the RNDIS that Mac couldnā€™t useā€¦

Regards,

7

Ok, I had it working, but just for one (the first) session. I used the distro from the WEBpage and not the one that comes automatically in the imager software. And I also purely followed the instructions here and not this one from the quick start guide: ā€œFirst you have to create pb2-internet.sh file on PocketBeagle 2 with the following content.ā€

And after reboot it was again stuckā€¦ As in, no ping response.

I again installed from scratch and it worked until the first reboot. Now I also did update and upgrade, which fixed the reboot problem. ā€˜sudo dhclient usb0ā€™ was used again and I also restarted the network service.

Finally, If I change /etc/systemd/network/usb0.network back to what it was originally, restart the service and then change it back again with sudo dhclient usb0, ping works again. Is that similar to what pb2-internet.sh is supposed to do? (but which does not work)
Maybe there is a service that is not starting up automatically at boot that the board needs for this to work (but somehow is triggered automatically when changing usb0.network) and that is somehow invisible? Or maybe something doesnā€™t run as root?

Although I now have a workaround, I hope there is a quicker way to make this work or better to let it work permanently after a reboot.

Best, Hans.

8

Just to document this (maybe for myself in the future). Steps to rewake up network connection when you canā€™t reach internet while you have internet sharing enabled on MacOs (Sonoma in this case).

Ok, this can be done much easier of course. Still I am curious how to do this automatically. After having done the steps above to configure usb0, the board will not connect automatically to the internet when you reboot the board. This is a fairly quick workaround to (re)awaken that connection:

  1. Connect the board and SSH into it using debian@beaglebone.local or username@beaglebone.local
  2. sudo dhclient -r usb0 Youā€™ll probably lose the connection temporarily. Donā€™t disconnect!!!
  3. in a new window reconnect to the board
  4. sudo dhclient usb0
ping 8.8.8.8

PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.

64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=57 time=24.0 ms
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