BeagleBone Black Software Image Update Instruction

joeman — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 17:19:32 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by joeman on 1/5/2016 5:19:32 PM

Thank you for ordering the BeagleBone BlackBeagleBone Black.

Please note that the board may not have the latest Debian image installed. It is highly recommended that you always use the latest version of the Software. To check the version of Debian installed please refer to Section A.

To download the latest image, please visit http://beagleboard.org/latest-images

For more BeagleBone Black information, please visit www.element14.com/element14_BBB

A) Checking the Debian Image Version

The version of the image on the microSD/eMMC can be read by opening the ID.txt file in the FAT partition.

root@beaglebone:~# cat /boot/uboot/ID.txt
BeagleBoard.org BeagleBone Debian Image 2014-03-19

This file can also be accessed via a PC (Windows/Mac/Linux) via either mounting the FAT partition directly off the microSD card or via the USB interface (flash drive).

B) Download the latest Debian image to a microSD card

The following sections will walk through the installation of the latest Debian image on the BeagleBone Black onboard 4GB eMMC. These instructions are for users with a Windows computer.

Download the latest Debian image for the BeagleBone Black (eMMC Flasher) from http://beagleboard.org/latest-images/
After you have downloaded the .img.xz file you want, use a program such as 7zip to extract the image file.
- Once 7zip is installed, right click on .img.xz file you just downloaded and click 7zip > Extract Here, to extract the .img file.
This image can be written to a 2GB (or larger) microSD card. Insert the microSD card into your computer.
- Using a microSD-to-SD or microSD-to-USB adapter is fine
Use Win32 Disk Imager to write the image onto your micro SD.
- Instructions on how to use Win32 Disk Imager can be found here.
After Win32 Disk Imager has finished, remove the microSD card from your computer.

You are now ready to follow directions below that correspond to the version of Debian you downloaded.

C) Flashing Debian Wheezy to the eMMC

This section assumes you have completed the steps in Section A at the top of this page. This section shows you how to flash Debian Wheezy onto the eMMC of your BeagleBone Black.

1. After you have put the BeageBone Black Debian Flasher image on a micro SD card, insert it into the powered-off BBB.
  - Also make sure you have a keyboard, mouse, display, and Ethernet connected
2. While holding down the 'boot' button, apply power to the board. Continue to hold the 'boot' button until the USER LEDs begin to flash
  - You should use a 5V external power source, USB power may not work
3. After about a minute your screen should show the login prompt.
4. Leave the board be for about 10 minutes; the image is being flashed to the eMMC
5. After about 10 minutes have passed the 4 LEDs should be solid and not flickering. Remove the power, remove the mirco SD, and then re-apply power to the board
6. It will take a minute or two for the board to boot to the log-in screen

User is: debian

Password is: temppwd

- - Note: echo is turned off for typing in password

7. You should now be in the command line terminal for Debian and your BeagleBone Black will boot here from now on.

D) ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

For instructions on how to update, install and run the Debian software from microSD card please visit: http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:Debian_On_BeagleBone_Black

For the Debian image release information, please visit http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian

For any further questions or clarifications, please visit the wiki at http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack or

Contact element14 Technical Support: e14BBBsupport@element14.com

Tags: Black, element14, beaglebone_black, image, instruction, BeagleBone, element14_beaglebone_black, software, update