BeagleBoard

The USB-powered BeagleBoard is a low-cost, fan-less single board computer that unleashes laptop-like performance and expandability without the bulk, expense, or noise of typical desktop machines.

OMAP3530 processor highlights:

  • Over 1,200 Dhrystone MIPS using the superscalar ARM Cortex-A8 with highly accurate branch prediction and 256KB L2 cache running at up to 600MHz
  • OpenGL ES 2.0 capable 2D/3D graphics accelerator capable of rendering 10 million polygons per second
  • HD video capable TMS320C64x+ DSP for versatile signal processing at up to 430MHz
  • USB power via complete chip-set with minimal additional power-consuming logic

Expansion capability and power options to satisfy your imagination:

  • DVI-D for connecting digital computer monitors
  • Compatibility with a huge collection of USB peripherals including hubs, keyboards, mice, WiFi, Bluetooth, web cameras, and much more
  • MMC+/SD/SDIO interface for memory or wireless connectivity
  • S-Video out for connecting your NTSC or PAL television or wearable visor
  • Stereo audio in and out for a microphone and headphones or speakers
  • Power via typical USB chargers for cell phones from your laptop, from an automobile adapter, from batteries, or even from a solar backpack
Architecture
ARMv7 Cortex-A8
Processor
TI OMAP 3530 720MHz
RAM
256MB
NAND
256MB
SD
Full SD
USB
1
Ethernet
10/100

Install to a SD card

Replace sdX in the following instructions with the device name for the SD card as it appears on your computer.

  1. Zero the beginning of the SD card:
    dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8
  2. Start fdisk to partition the SD card:
    fdisk /dev/sdX
  3. At the fdisk prompt, delete old partitions and create a new one:
    1. Type o. This will clear out any partitions on the drive.
    2. Type p to list partitions. There should be no partitions left.
    3. Type c to set the DOS Compatibility flag.
    4. Now type n, then p for primary, 1 for the first partition on the drive, 63 for the first sector, and then +100M for the default last sector.
    5. Type t, then c to set the first partition to type W95 FAT32 (LBA).
    6. Type a to set the bootable flag on the first partition.
    7. Type n, then p for primary, 2 for the second partition on the drive, then press ENTER twice to accept the default first and last sector.
    8. Write the partition table and exit by typing w.
  4. Create and mount the FAT filesystem:
    mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/sdX1
    mkdir boot
    mount /dev/sdX1 boot
  5. Create and mount the ext4 filesystem:
    mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX2
    mkdir root
    mount /dev/sdX2 root
  6. Download and extract the root filesystem (as root, not via sudo):
    wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz
    bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz -C root
    sync
  7. Move boot files to the first partition:
    mv root/boot/* boot
  8. Install the U-Boot bootloader:
    wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/omap/boot/beagleboard/MLO
    wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/omap/boot/beagleboard/u-boot.img
    mv MLO u-boot.img boot
  9. Add the boot partition to fstab:
    echo "/dev/mmcblk0p1  /boot   vfat    defaults        0       0" >> root/etc/fstab
  10. Unmount the two partitions:
    umount boot root
  11. Insert the SD card into the BeagleBoard, connect ethernet, and apply 5V power.
  12. Use the serial console (with a null-modem adapter if needed) or SSH to the IP address given to the board by your router.
    • Login as the default user alarm with the password alarm.
    • The default root password is root.
  13. Initialize the pacman keyring and populate the Arch Linux ARM package signing keys:
    pacman-key --init
    pacman-key --populate archlinuxarm

Install the U-Boot package

  1. In order to receive updates to the U-Boot bootloader, after logging into the system type:
    rm /boot/{MLO,u-boot.img}
    pacman -Sy uboot-beagleboard

Permanent MAC address

  1. Edit /boot/uEnv.txt
  2. Set smsc95xx.macaddr in the optargs variable, for example:
    optargs=smsc95xx.macaddr=ce:1a:7d:93:2f:f9
  3. Reboot.

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