Trying to Re-Image BeagleBone Black

General Discussion
1

I think the BeagleBone Black is going to be really good for me, but I am stuck. I have used Raspberry Pi’s quite a lot in the past. I have not done much with them for (maybe) 3 years. So, I am very rusty.

I bought 2 x BeagleBone Blacks. Both started off 100% perfectly. The on the first one I installed tightvncserver. Then when I re-booted, I could not get pas the log-in. The board was online and I could ssh into it. To be fair, I should have just left it in that state and ssh’d into it.

But I decided to try and re-image it. I tried Balena Etcher and BB-Imager. I tried lots of things. Bottom Line, that board is now shoved in a drawer …. very sad … . If anyone can tell me how to re-image it, that would be much appreciated.

I am not blaming the board. I am rusty on this. Not done much for a few years. But any advice much appreciated.

Thanks, Mike

2

Please share the steps and image you tried… BeagleBoard Imager (remember to select customizations and set you username and password)

3

And if push comes to shove, just image onto an SD card, and boot of that - then from there check the status of the MMC. At least if an sd card goes wrong, you can pull it and correct on a desk top machine.

4

Before you read this, I tried everything I could find. I even tried editing the boot file, full details below.
In my word version (my guidance notes) I have URL’s, but I am restricted from posting these in a “reply” as I am a new user.
But at least you should be able to see that I tried many things.
I wrote up some notes, to remind myself for next time, here’s a summary below;

Note. No re-imaging worked :frowning:

To Re-Image the BeagleBone Black see; (sorry had to delete the url to post this reply)
Tried to force BeagleBone to boot from newly flashed SD Micro Card. To do that I had to edit the boot file using sudo nano /boot/uEnv.txt
Steps;

  1. Install SD Micro Card with new Image. The BeagleBone will not yet boot from it.
  2. Power Up the Beagle Bone.
  3. Use laptop on same network.
  4. SSH into board … ssh debian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  5. Password XXXXXXXXX
  6. Run Command sudo nano /boot/uEnv.txt
  7. Go to bottom of that file.
    Will have something like;
    ##enable Generic eMMC Flasher: (or possibly BB flasher – but something similar)
    #cmdline=init=/usr/sbin/init-beagle-flasher (again maybe something similar)

Just delete the hash in the second line as below
##enable Generic eMMC Flasher: (or possibly BB flasher – but something similar)
cmdline=init=/usr/sbin/init-beagle-flasher (again maybe something similar)

The Use CTRL and O (to “Write Out” the changes”)
Hit Enter to save
Then close command window.

Then re-boot the BeagleBone.
This time it will boot from the SD Micro Card.
It will load the new image.

The problem is that the BeagleBone will keep looking for the SD Micro card on boot up. So, before closing the BeagleBone I need to change the Boot File back, so that it does not look to boot from the SD Micros card. To do that;

Edit the Run Command sudo nano /boot/uEnv.txt such that it does not boot from the SD Micro Card.
To do that, it’s just the reverse of above;

Just insert the hash back into the second line as below
##enable Generic eMMC Flasher: (or possibly BB flasher – but something similar)
#cmdline=init=/usr/sbin/init-beagle-flasher (again maybe something similar)

The Use CTRL and O (to “Write Out” the changes”)
Hit Enter to save
Then close command window.

Then shutdown
Then remove the SD Micro Card (else
Then re-boot.
It will then boot into the new Operating Systems.

Here is more details that I read and tried, unsuccessfully;

Note. I watched several youtubes. (sorry had to delete the url to post this reply)

Below is other instructions that I read, might be useful .
Looks like I need to use the BeagleBone Image Utility see (sorry had to delete the url to post this reply) installed at (sorry had to delete the url to post this reply)
Installing a New Image in BeagleBone Black

Other Instructions;
If you want or need to flash the micro SD Card image to the eMMC on the BBB, you can use that script that someone put together. I think @RobertCNelson threw it together for people to flash their eMMC from micro SD Card on the BBB (am335x supported SoC/SiP board).
Anyway, I think your questions is HOW to use it.

  1. try…
    a. enable-beagle-flasher on the command line
  2. If that does not work…
    b. sudo enable-beagle-flasher on the command line
  3. If that does not work…
    c. sudo apt install beagle-flasher
    and…
    From what I can tell, the enable-beagle-flasher command works on a reboot into the system. You might also try:
    beagle-flasher as a command to just copy the data from disk to eMMC.
    I just picked this up from DigiKey…

When Debian 11.x (Bullseye) came out, i took some time to re-write the flasher’s… This was back ported to 20.04, and should be pre-installed on your image…

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ dpkg --list | grep bb-beagle-flasher
ii bb-beagle-flasher 1.20220202.3-0~focal+20220301 armhf beagleboard.org beagle-flasher
There are two commands…

sudo enable-beagle-flasher
“enable-beagle-flasher” sets up the media to flash the ‘other’ media on the next reboot.

So, if you boot from microSD, that script would enable the microSD to flash the eMMC on the next boot.

The other:

sudo beagle-flasher
This is standalone and just copies the media over to the other media…

So, if you booted from microSD, it would directly copy that over to the eMMC… It’s not 100% safe, like the other, as you are running directly from it, but it’s good enough for most users. (if you have xorg/etc use the other…)…

So if your already running from the eMMC, i’d stick in a blank microSD and run:

sudo beagle-flasher
Once done, i’d then bootup ‘once’ with the microSD and run:

sudo enable-beagle-flasher
sudo systemctl poweroff

I tried many more things such as holding down the boot button, pressing on button etc etc.
Sorry nothing worked.

5

Smell’s like an old version of uboot..

What image do you want to run?

Please run… sudo beagle-version

6

Thanks, and I very much appreciate the responses. I can’t get into that board any more, no matter what I try. It’s quicker/easier to just bin it now. I have another that’s fine. I’ll need more in the near fture, and I’ll be more careful next time. But I would appreciate any notes about how to re-imege one? I have done this in the past on various computers and single board computers and on lots of Raspberry Pi’s. But I have come totally unstuck on re-imaging a BeagleBone Black? I really need a good/reliable way to re-image these. Thanks in advance.

7

Do you have a USB to serial adapter that can plug in to j1 6pin header?

8

Thanks. I just ordered one from Amazon. It’s due to be delivered tomorrow (probably late at night).

Re doing some preparation; I’m just revising voltage levels on 6 pin header and those that the USB to TTL Adapter use and both are 3.3 V, so that’s good. I’m planning to use Tera Term.

I think these are the config settings;
Baud Rate: 115200
Data Bits: 8
Parity: None
Stop Bits: 1
Flow Control: None

I really appreciate your help. It’s not the cost of buying a new board that would concern me. It’s the ability to de-bug things if/when I break something.

So … your help is especially useful. You are reminding me of things from my distant past :blush:

Thanks, Mike