Unable to get the boot process working.

General Discussion
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1

I’m having an issue just getting things to boot on a BBB.

I downloaded u-boot from https://openbeagle.org/beagleboard/u-boot, switched to v2022.04-bbb.io-am335x-am57xx, and cross compiled it. After installing, I end up with the following on a 4GB SD card.

$ tree /mnt/sdc1
/mnt/sdc1
├── MLO
└── u-boot.img

The second partition contains my Gentoo installation.
$ tree -L 1 /mnt/sdc2
/mnt/sdc2
├── bin → usr/bin
├── boot
├── dev
├── etc
├── home
├── lib → usr/lib
├── lost+found
├── media
├── mnt
├── opt
├── proc
├── root
├── run
├── sbin → usr/bin
├── stage3-armv7a_hardfp-openrc-20260401T224629Z.tar
├── sys
├── tmp
├── usr
└── var

The boot directory on sdc2 has these files.
$ tree boot
boot
├── am335x-boneblack.dts
├── uImage
├── uboot
└── zImage

The kernel images were cross compiled with the load address of 0x82000000using tag 6.18.21-bone26 and omap2plus_defconfig.

The problem is when I power the BBB, I’m not seeing any signs of life other than a solid blue light between the 5V and Ethernet. I insert the SD card into the BBB, press the boot button, insert power via USB client, and depress the boot button. I also have minicom connected to /dev/ttyS0 (/etc/inittab has ttyS0 and 115000) but not seeing anything.

I just don’t see anything happening and was hoping to get some advice. Any thoughts as to what I might be doing wrong?

2

You should use: MLO && u-boot-dtb.img

and then just use dd.

dd offset: Making sure you're not a bot!

You don’t need the load address anymore, we ship the rcn-ee_defconfig…

You’ll need am335x-boneblack.dtb (compiled) not am335x-boneblack.dts (source..)

Share your serial log, SPL should have had atleast loaded..

With nothing, you should at-least get a string of CCC's… check your RX/TX/GND lines on J6 header… make sure your user is in ‘dialout’… Making sure you're not a bot! the SC0889 from Raspberry Pi is a good serial adapter, available everywhere.. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/raspberry-pi/SC0889/17877576

Regards,

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