Updating firmware without Micro SD Card?

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1

Hello,
I am a new user, I just received my BeagleBone Black.
When I bought it, on the product description it said “No Micro SD Card required”, so I didn’t order one.

Now I plugged in the device on my computer and it asks me to update the firmware, and the procedure shows me how to do it. And a Micro SD Card IS required.

I would like to know if there is a way to do it without the SD card, or if I am forced to get one.

Thank you

2

does eMMC has enough space to download an image in flash it?

3

It does, but I don’t know how to flash it directly.

4

something like this?
dd if=image.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M

5

This will require the usb-serial adapter..

First upgrade the bootloader:

Boot bbb.

Download the latest binaries, which now support U-Boot UMS (USB Mass Storage)

wget http://rcn-ee.net/deb/tools/am335x_evm/MLO-am335x_evm-v2015.01-r6
wget http://rcn-ee.net/deb/tools/am335x_evm/u-boot-am335x_evm-v2015.01-r6.img

sudo dd if=./MLO-am335x_evm-v2015.01-r6 of=/dev/mmcblk0 count=1 seek=1
conv=notrunc bs=128k
sudo dd if=./u-boot-am335x_evm-v2015.01-r6.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 count=2
seek=1 conv=notrunc bs=384k

Then reboot, stop uboot and type (over the usb-serial connection):

ums 0 mmc 1

Plug in usb cable, eMMC is now a flash drive on your host device.

Regards,

6

It isn’t always clear how to update the boatload ear without a microSD if you screw up the booting system. In that case, you could use the serial or USB boot modes of the ROM.

USB example: https://github.com/ungureanuvladvictor/BBBlfs

7

If you are going to change versions of the Operating System or kernel, it is best
to have a Micro SD card, and some kind of reader-writer device, since most host
computers will not directly read or write the Micro SD cards.

Good luck,
— Graham

8

Thank you everyone for the support. Eventually I gave up and I went out to buy a Micro SD.
Flashing process finished and last version of Angstrom running.