Upgrading BeagleBoard kernel on Debian Wheezy

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Yesterday I spent sometime brushing off the dust on my BeagleBoard (rev C3) hardware. In the past I had put Debian Wheezy (stable) on it by way of these instructions: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardDebian
(Which have since split off into these more detailed instructions: http://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/BeagleBoard)

Anyway, I’m trying to use an ath9k_htc wireless card (TP-LINK TL-WN722N AR9271 0x0cf3 0x9271), but it has issues with the current kernel (3.6.0-x1). I attempted to update the kernel by referencing the eewiki.net instructions, but now my system hangs when u-boot attempts to boot the kernel w/ initrd. My boot partition (and u-boot) are setup a bit differently than the wiki currently shows, but it seemed rather straight-forward to reference and make the appropriate changes.

How should I approach this? I want to keep my existing rootfs, as it has system and user configuration/data that I need. Should I attempt to update my u-boot partition layout to be inline with the eewiki.net layout?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

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First I must say that I have no hands on with the Beagleboard C3, so i can not speak directly to any points concerning that hardware. However I have done a lot of tinkering with the kernel, and rootfs on a Beagelbone black A5A.

Secondly, if you have not done so already, use dd or tar to backup your rootfs just in case. If your data is important, this is a must do.

As to the generic stuff related to Debian.

  1. Make sure you have a proper uEnv.txt set up for your kernel. I see no mention of the current kernel version you’re trying to setup, and it is not clear to me what you did. Since that page is rather large, and it looks like there are multiple methods.

  2. Your rootfs must contain modules specific to your kernel version.

  3. An exact uboot message at time of failure would be very helpful.

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1) Make sure you have a proper uEnv.txt set up for your kernel. I see no mention of the current kernel version you’re trying to setup, and it is not clear to me what you did. Since that page is rather large, and it looks like there are multiple methods.

In relation to the above, make sure you’re loading the right board device tree file within uEnv.txt too.