BeagleBox

This past weekend I made the 0.4.0 release of BeagleBox.  This is a major milestone for the project because it establishes the baselines for two of the core software componets, the bootloader and the kernel.  I made a public release on SourceForge and updated the source and build pages on […]

BeagleBox: V0.4.0 released, wiki updated

 in BeagleBox / Hardware / Linux / Software Development / X11  tagged angstrom / BeagleBox / bootloader / BUI / dvi / dvi output / S-Video / sd card / sourceforge / u boot
Trying to come to grips with the myriad of source trees from which BeagleBoard related source can be pulled, I updated the BeagleBoard build system the other day to make it easier to pull from the various archives.  Technically there are four ways to get source related to BeagleBoard: A […]

BeagleBox: finding Mr. DSS2

 in BeagleBox / Hardware / Linux / Software Development  tagged angstrom / beagleboard / BeagleBox / bootloader / DSS / DVI-D / git / HDMI / kernel / omap / S-Video / TV-out / video display (updated 4898 days ago)
It’s a wonder what you can get done once the board actually boots up to a shell prompt.  Tonight I completed setup of inittab and boot scripts – along with customization of the rootfs build – to force writes normally bound for the rootfs to end up on a tmpfs […]

BeagleBox: tmpfs for writes, for now, but new u-boot ...

 in BeagleBox / Hardware / Linux / Software Development  tagged angstrom / BeagleBox / boot scripts / getty / git / inittab / S-Video / sd card / sysinit / tv screen
I finally got a rootfs working with the kernel tonight.  It’s a minimal rootfs built with buildroot and busybox but it boots up to a shell prompt and does just enough work to make sure ps displays the process list.  Whoopeeeee!!! Now, don’t get crazy here.  This is just booting […]

BeagleBox Milestone: the board boots with BeagleBox software!

 in BeagleBox / Hardware / Linux / Software Development  tagged BeagleBox / buildroot / busybox / cvs / initrd / kernel / u boot
This weekend I buckled down and merged the BeagleBoard validation images kernel configuration into my BeagleBox kernel configuration.  When I booted the resulting kernel with the validation images ramdisk image it worked.  Unfortunately, because there were a fair number of changes to merge in it isn’t clear exactly which ones […]

BeagleBox: kernel boots initrd, initramfs still doesn’t work

 in BeagleBox / Hardware / Linux / Software Development  tagged beagleboard / BeagleBox / boot messages / bootloader / BUI / cvs versions / INITRAMFS / initrd / inittab / kernel configuration / pivot / ramdisk / sd card / serial port
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I couldn’t figure out why my initrd or rootfs wouldn’t work and had exhausted all obvious solutions.  Jumping to Occam’s Razor, I decided the problem may be with the cross compiler toolchain.  So I grabbed Free Electron’s (FE) embedded Linux training lab (which focuses on the BeagleBoard) and decided to […]

BeagleBox: small steps – better xcc, u-boot/kernel boot but ...

 in BeagleBox / Hardware / Linux / Software Development  tagged beagleboard / BeagleBox / bootloader / buildroot / cross compiler / ext2 filesystem / free electron / kernel / occam s razor / omap / sd card (updated 4927 days ago)
With a better understanding of what’s happening with the Beagle Board validation images I’ve started to redesign the boot process for BeagleBox.  First, the SD card will be partitioned with two partitions.  The first is the FAT32 partition to hold the kernel image, boot scripts and an initial ramdisk (initrd).  […]

BeagleBox: understanding the boot process requirements

 in BeagleBox / Hardware / Linux / Software Development  tagged BeagleBox / boot process / bootloader / BUI / DDR / ext2 filesystem / fakeroot / fat32 partition / initial ramdisk / journaling file systems / kernel image / NAND / pivot / root filesystem / sd card / set top box / SGX / STB (updated 4937 days ago)
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I fiddled with the u-boot env variables tonight to try and resolve the S-Video problem.  One trick from the BeagleBoard mailing list said to set omapfb.mode=tv:ntsc and omapdss.def_disp=tv.  I tried this but found that if I tried to run the boot manually  to pick up these changes to the bootargs […]

BeagleBox: which u-boot am I fiddling with?

 in BeagleBox / Hardware / Linux  tagged angstrom / beagleboard / BeagleBox / NTSC / omapfb / S-Video / sd card (updated 4939 days ago)
All the parts arrived by last Tuesday and I was able to boot the board using the validation images.  I explored the u-boot environment and dug around the root file system to see what the BeagleBoard folks had put together.  I booted the board using the serial console and connected […]

BeagleBox: reality sets in – boot issues

 in BeagleBox / Hardware / Linux / TV  tagged beagleboard / BeagleBox / boot process / BUI / buildroot / DSS / dvi / Linux / LPDDR / mplayer / NTSC / omap / root filesystem / S-Video / sd card / SGX / Video (updated 4941 days ago)
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I ported over Angstrom’s recipe for the SGX libraries into the BeagleBox build this week.  It requires downloading the SGX SDK and unpacking it manually before you do the build.  Angstrom will unpack it for you.  And at the moment I’m not positive the layout I’ve created is completely correct […]

BeagleBox: SGX libs build, parts ordered, speeding up boot times

 in BeagleBox / Hardware  tagged beagleboard / BeagleBox / boot times / BUI / buildroot / Flash / flash player / gnash / kernel size / MontaVista / OpenGL / SDK / SGX / video playback (updated 4952 days ago)