Difference between revisions of "BeagleBone Black"

Revision as of 15:56, 30 October 2014

Find below my experiences with the BeagleBone Black (BBB) revision 3.

First Boot

First boot with BeagleBone Black is best done by using a serial communication program like CuteCom or Putty.

Attach the USB connector to your PC and issue this command to find the tty-port that will be created:

$ ls -lart /dev

drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root            80 Aug 16 13:19 bsg
crw-rw----.  1 root disk       21,   1 Aug 16 13:19 sg1
drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root          3900 Aug 16 13:19 char
drwxr-xr-x. 22 root root          3560 Aug 16 13:19 .
brw-rw----.  1 root disk        8,  16 Aug 16 13:19 sdb
drwxr-xr-x.  6 root root           120 Aug 16 13:19 disk
drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root           200 Aug 16 13:19 block
crw-rw-rw-.  1 root dialout   166,   3 Aug 16 13:19 ttyACM3
crw-rw-rw-.  1 root tty         5,   0 Aug 16 13:20 tty
crw-rw-rw-.  1 root tty         5,   2 Aug 16 13:21 ptmx

The above list show the devices created when attaching the USB cable. The line of interest here is the ttyACM3 - might differ on your system.

Since users is normally not member of the dialout group the quickest way to gain access to the tty-port is to issue this command:

$ sudo chmod o+rw /dev/ttyACM3

This will give you access to the port.

Now open the CuteCom or Putty port on a serial line using /dev/ttyACM3 and 115200 bps as settings.

You should see an output like this:

Login timed out after 60 seconds.
 
\0x1b[r\0x1b[H\0x1b[J
 
Debian GNU/Linux 7 kolles-beaglebone ttyGS0
 
default username:password is [debian:temppwd]
 
Support/FAQ: http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian
 
The IP Address for usb0 is: 192.168.7.2
kolles-beaglebone login:

You can now login using the defaults given.

Also try to issue

$ ssh debian@192.168.7.2

This will open an ssh connection over the USB cable to the BBB.

Yocto Project

Yocto Project, see the home page for further details, can create a distribution for the BBB.

For instructions on how to build your own Yocto Project Distribution see Yocto Project Build Instructions.

If you are not interested in the u-boot messages, just connect the USB cable to your PC and start your favourite serial communication program, e.g. CuteCom, Putty or screen. The problem, at least on Linux, is that the tty device is first create a few seconds after boot and therefore the u-boot messages are long gone.

If your board won't boot a serial cable need to be connected to the board. Get your hands on a PL2303 cable - or build one your self... Connect the serial cable to the port as show on the picture below.

 Board       Wire    Function
 Pin 1.....Black.....Ground

 Pin 4.....Green.....Receive

 Pin 5.....White....Transmit