Trouble flashing 2015-03-01 Debian image

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1

Hi all,

First post here. Is anyone having issues flashing the latest Debian image, 2015-03-01, on the Beaglebone Black? I’ve tried it maybe a dozen times now with both a 5V and USB power supplies. I have flashed other images on my BBB just fine before, and swear I am following the same procedure. I am:

  1. Inserting the microSD with the image,
  2. Holding down the boot switch
  3. Applying power
  4. Waiting for the user LEDs to all turn on then start to flash
  5. Release the boot switch.

The LED activity looks active for only a couple minutes then it switches to the regular heartbeat pattern, and it never goes to all 4 on again and shut down like when flashing other images even if I wait hours.

I have found that all its doing is booting from the microSD card. If I don’t power down after the flash attempt, keep the microSD installed, and check version, it indicates I’m running version 2015-03-01. If I power down, remove the card, then power back up, the old image is running.

Did something change with the flashing procedure? I’m guessing there is something I have to fiddle with on the image to make this work. I’m comfortable writing code in C, C++, C#, and Java, but I’m a newbie when it comes to Linux. Any help would be much appreciated.

Tom

2

Hi all,

First post here. Is anyone having issues flashing the latest Debian image,
2015-03-01, on the Beaglebone Black? I've tried it maybe a dozen times now
with both a 5V and USB power supplies. I have flashed other images on my BBB
just fine before, and swear I am following the same procedure. I am:

What was the full image name of the file?

1. Inserting the microSD with the image,
2. Holding down the boot switch
3. Applying power
4. Waiting for the user LEDs to all turn on then start to flash
5. Release the boot switch.

The LED activity looks active for only a couple minutes then it switches to
the regular heartbeat pattern, and it never goes to all 4 on again and shut
down like when flashing other images even if I wait hours.

Was it doing they cylon pattern?

The 2015-03-01 flasher should always shutdown when done...

I have found that all its doing is booting from the microSD card. If I
don't power down after the flash attempt, keep the microSD installed, and
check version, it indicates I'm running version 2015-03-01. If I power down,
remove the card, then power back up, the old image is running.

Did something change with the flashing procedure? I'm guessing there is
something I have to fiddle with on the image to make this work. I'm
comfortable writing code in C, C++, C#, and Java, but I'm a newbie when it
comes to Linux. Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards,

3

BTW, i should mention, with this newer image. Both the hdmi & serial
have the flashing debug info.. So if it's flashing you should see a
progress log happening on both outputs..

Regards,

4

I downloaded the image from here a couple days ago:
http://beagleboard.org/latest-images
md5: c848627722b7a5f7bc89791cc8949e3b

File name:
bone-debian-7.8-lxde-4gb-armhf-2015-03-01-4gb

It’s not doing the cylon scan. :slight_smile: I love that show by the way.

According to the reference manual I am getting a heart beat and an activity indicator after only a couple minutes just like you do after a normal boot. From the reference manual:
Page 26:
 USER0 is the heartbeat indicator from the Linux kernel.
 USER1 turns on when the microSD card is being accessed
 USER2 is an activity indicator. It turns on when the kernel is not in the idle loop.
 USER3 turns on when the onboard eMMC is being accessed. I’m relatively certain

USER0 is flashing a double flash every second or so. USER2 is filckering. This occurs just a couple minutes after I release the boot button.

Based on this and the fact that I get into Cloud 9 at this point and get 2015-03-01 version when I check, I am relatively certain its booting from the card, but not flashing.

Thanks for the help.

5

That is a standalone (microSD) image... Flasher's have the words
"eMMC-flasher" in the file name.

But you only have to remove one "#" in a single file to convert it an
"eMMC-flasher" so no worries about reflashing the microSD card...

In /boot/uEnv.txt:

##enable BBB: eMMC Flasher:
#cmdline=init=/opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh

Change to:

##enable BBB: eMMC Flasher:
cmdline=init=/opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh

and reboot..

Now that "microSD" will try to reflash the eMMC on every reboot..

Regards,

6

That did the trick. Thank you for the help.

7

This information really needs to be on the BeagleBone website at http://beagleboard.org/getting-started. At least the distinction between flashing and non-flashing images needs to be make much clearer in that write up. The text links to a non-flashing image and then goes on to talk about flashing. Quite confusing.

8

Well, It's right here:

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian#Flashing_eMMC

under the 'faq'..

The main link:

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian

is spammed everywhere on the image. :wink:

Regards,

9

This information really needs to be on the BeagleBone website at
Getting Started - BeagleBoard | How do I start using my board?. At least the distinction between
flashing and non-flashing images needs to be make *much* clearer in that
write up. The text links to a non-flashing image and then goes on to talk
about flashing. Quite confusing.

btw: "anyone" can submit bug/improvements to:

Regards,