i/o and peripheral configuration for beaglebone black

[pmc6370]

I am entirely new to developing with a system running archlinux or any other linux distribution for that matter. I have a beaglebone black and have managed to successfully install archlinux, i am connecting to the beaglebone black over an ethernet connection through ssh.

For the project i am undertaking i need to configure the i/o and peripherals of the hardware. From reading the various forums i believe that this can be achieved using device tree overlays. Initially i want to understand exactly what my current i/o/peripheral configuration of the hardware is but i don't know where to find or which file describes this. I have been unable to find any .dts files on my system but have managed to find a number of .dtbo files which i believe are essentially compiled .dts files that can be run at boot time.

I have found information on how to produce my own .dts files and compile them on my beaglebone black but again i have failed to make any progress with this.

Essentially all i want to do is configure the i/o and peripherals and i am sure that this must be straightforward but i have been unable to make much progress despite spending a significant amount of time trying to find out how to do this.

If someone could point me in the right direction or at least aid my understanding it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Paul