Trying to setup arch linux on bbb

[ericmagaha]

I have a beaglebone black this is currently running arch linux 3.14 on it's emmc. I set it up last year, it's partitioned with a FAT boot partition that I setup using BeagleBone-bootloader.tar.gz.

I wanted to install a fresh copy of Arch Linux on an SD card and boot to that to do some troubleshooting.

So I followed the instructions here http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7 ... bone-black.

I noticed that it only uses one partition on the sd card now. There is no FAT boot partition anymore.

Anyway, it doesn't work. I insert the SD card into my BBB, hold boot button, and apply power and it comes on but then the on board LEDs all stay on fixed and it does nothing.

If I remove the SD card and cycle power I can boot back to Arch I have on the EMMC.

Thoughts?

[WarheadsSE]

You might need to update the on-board mmc first.

[ericmagaha]

Update it with what?

The EMMC should have nothing to do with booting from the SD card.

What am I missing?

[ericmagaha]

Here is google's cache of the beaglebone install page, which is pretty much identical to what the bbb install page used to be.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... clnk&gl=us

"...
At the fdisk prompt, delete old partitions and create a new one:

Type o. This will clear out any partitions on the drive.
Type p to list partitions. There should be no partitions left.
Now type n, then p for primary, 1 for the first partition on the drive, enter to accept the default first sector, then +64M to set the size to 64MB.
Type t to change the partition type, then e to set it to W95 FAT16 (LBA).
Type a, then 1 to set the bootable flag on the first partition.
Now type n, then p for primary, 2 for the second partition on the drive, and enter twice to select the default first and last sectors.
Write the partition table and exit by typing w.

Create the FAT16 filesystem:mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/sdX1
Create the ext4 filesystem:mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX2
Download the BeagleBone bootloader tarball and extract the files onto the first partition of the SD card. These files contain the bootloaders needed to load the kernel. The file MLO needs to be the first file put onto the FAT partition, and extracting the tarball as-is should do this for you. If you have problems getting to U-Boot, re-format and place the files manually.
wget http://archlinuxarm.org/os/omap/BeagleB ... der.tar.gz mkdir boot mount /dev/sdX1 boot tar -xvf BeagleBone-bootloader.tar.gz -C boot umount boot
Download the root filesystem tarball and extract it (as root, not via sudo) to the ext3 partition on either the SD card or the USB drive. It is important to do this as root, as special files need to be created as part of the filesystem that can only be created by root.
wget http://archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM ... est.tar.gz mkdir root mount /dev/sdX2 root bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-am33x-latest.tar.gz -C root umount root
..."

The bootloader tarball does not exist anymore here -> http://archlinuxarm.org/os/omap/BeagleB ... der.tar.gz

Why doesn't my BBB boot with the NEW SD card setup?

[ericmagaha]

Ok I have figured this out.

I found the SD format instructions for BBB on http://www.armhf.com/boards/beaglebone- ... sd-install.

That worked, using 2 partitions on the card i.e. FAT and EXT4.

I then re-read the Arch Linux install page http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7 ... bone-black and noticed I wasn't following the instructions correctly. It was my fault, but I admit it was an easy mistake to make.

This was the key...
"...
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX1
..."
I read that as sdX, I didn't notice the '1' on the end which in my case would be mmcblk1p1. I was running that command with mmcblk1.

Hopefully this will help someone else.