Trouble booting Beagle Board XM rev C with latest Angstrom demo image

[David Ragle]

I'm having a problem trying to boot the current demo Angstrom image
from http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/. Boot
makes it through "Uncompressing Linux... ...done, booting the kernel."
and stops. Board works fine with the SD card that came with it, and
is connected to a touch LCD from Circuitco (I think it was called the
"uLCD"), and is powered by a 5v 4A supply. I'm monitoring on a serial
connection that has been working fine with the "factory" SD card.
Only evidence of life is that the heartbeat LED on my board blinks
regularly.

I can't say for sure that I'm not doing something wrong but I followed
the "How to Unpack and Boot the Demo Image" instructions at the bottom
of the page carefully. I have also tried adding a uEnv.txt and
user.txt to the boot partition since the instructions do not address
those files (files are from the SD card that does boot properly that
came with the board & LCD, acquired at ESC Boston 2011, that
identifies itself as "Angstrom 2010.7-test-20110220").

I'm reasonably familiar with Linux on x86 from a user perspective but
certainly not expert, and I'm pretty new to the Beagle Board and ARM
so I'm flying a bit blind as to what to look at. Any help much
appreciated.

Regards,

Dave

[babu reddy]

hi, please check the boot arguments in the u-boot command prompt, better u build new image, and load it into nand flash then u boot it, even if there is a minute mistake, it wont work..

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[David Ragle]

How would I check the boot arguments?

As far as building a new image, I'm working on getting to that point
but right now I just wanted to get the current reference build from
Angstrom working because if I can't do that then there is no way I'll
be able to get my own image built and working. One step at a time...

REgards,

DAve

On Oct 27, 12:42 am, babu reddy <babu.de...@gmail.com> wrote:
> hi, please check the boot arguments in the u-boot command prompt, better u
> build new image, and load it into nand flash then u boot it, even if there
> is a minute mistake, it wont work..
>
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 1:26 PM, David Ragle <da...@theragles.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm having a problem trying to boot the current demo Angstrom image

> > fromhttp://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/.  Boot

> >http://groups.google.com/group/beagleboard?hl=en.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Mustafa Aldemir]

2011/10/26 David Ragle <da...@theragles.com>

Hi Dave,

can you try without any USB devices?

[John Weber]

You might also look at the boot arguments.  The console port should be set to console=ttyO2,115200n8.  If you made an error with this in uEnv.txt, then you would have problems seeing boot messages from the kernel. 

 

Note that this a capital O, not a zero, in ttyO2.

 

Also, here is a very basic uEnv.txt file for you, that gives you an idea of syntax.  This also sets up for NFS.   If you are copying this from a Windows file, make sure you get rid of the extra carriage return characters in the lines.  I have found that U-boot doesn’t like those characters.  Windows automatically inserts them into text files.   In Ubuntu, there is a utility called ‘fromdos’ which takes them out for you, or dos2unix might be available on other machines.

 

ipaddr=192.168.0.10

serverip=192.168.0.20

consoleargs=ttyO2,115200n8

nfspath=/home/training/beagleboard/sdk/targetNFS

nfsargs=setenv bootargs console=${consoleargs} root=/dev/nfs ip=${ipaddr} nfsroot=${serverip}:${nfspath},nolock rw noinitrd;

bootfile=uImage

loadkernel=usb start; tftp ${bootfile}

tftp_nfs_boot=run loadkernel; run nfsargs;bootm;

uenvcmd=run i2cinitcmd; run tftp_nfs_boot;

i2cinitcmd=i2c dev 1; i2c mw 0x40 0x00 0x00;

 

Another way to get custom uEnv.txt file is to power up or reset the BBxM, then halt the boot process.  Run ‘printenv’ and copy all of the environment to uEnv.txt (using copy-paste is easiest).   Then, you can change it how you see fit and put that in your boot partition.

John

--

[David Ragle]

On Oct 27, 3:55 pm, Mustafa Aldemir <must...@aldemir.net> wrote:
> 2011/10/26 David Ragle <da...@theragles.com>
>
> > I'm having a problem trying to boot the current demo Angstrom image

> > fromhttp://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/.  Boot

I get the same problem whether or not there are any USB devices
connected. Also, I get the same problem without the LCD connected.
And finally, I get the same problem with an older BeagleBoard-XM A2 I
was able to borrow.

Regards,

Dave

[David Ragle]

If by checking the boot arguments you mean the contents of uEnv.txt,
by strictly following the instructions at http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/
I ended up without a uEnv.txt at all. After the first boot attempt
failed, I copied the uEnv.txt from an SD card that boots properly that
is also an Angstrom based image (though slightly older). Here are the
contents:

console="tty0 console=ttyO2,115200n8"
buddy=bbtoys-ulcd
camera=none
defaultdisplay=lcd
optargs="mem=99M@0x80000000 mem=384M@0x88000000"
lcd1=i2c mw 40 00 00; i2c mw 40 04 80; i2c mw 40 0d 05; i2c mw 40 0d
15
lcd2=i2c mw 40 0c 25; mw 49056090 10000000
lcd3=i2c mw 40 04 30; i2c mw 40 0c 21; i2c mw 40 04 80; i2c mw 40 04
70; i2c mw 40 04 60
lcd4=i2c mw 40 04 50; i2c mw 40 04 40; i2c mw 40 04 30; i2c mw 40 04
20
dvimode="800x480MR-24@60 omapfb.vram=0:8M,1:4M,2:4M omapfb.debug=y
omapfb.test=y omapdss.debug=y consoleblank=0
omap_vout.vid1_static_vrfb_alloc=y"
vram=16M
uenvcmd=i2c dev 1; run lcd1; i2c dev 0

I did not edit the file under Windows, but I still double checked it
and there are no extra carriage returns in the file.

I tried replacing my uEnv.txt with the sample you provided, and got
the same result. Any other suggestions appreciated.

In the mean time, I'm going to start over under the assumption I
screwed something up and see how it goes.

Regards,

Dave

[David Ragle]

> by strictly following the instructions athttp://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/

> Dave- Hide quoted text -

>
> - Show quoted text -

Started from scratch with a bare SD card and re-made the partition
structure and file system, copied MLO and u-boot.bin from
http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/ to the boot
partition, unpacked the root file system tarball from the same URL to
the root partition, booted and no change. Did all work under Ubuntu
in a root shell. Still makes it to "Uncompressing Linux... ...done,
booting the kernel." and then nothing. Added the uEnv.txt from my
working SD card to the boot partition and tried again. No change.

Should it really be this difficult to get a prebuilt image working?
What am I doing wrong?

Regards,

Dave

[David Ragle]

> structure and file system, copied MLO and u-boot.bin fromhttp://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/to the boot

> partition, unpacked the root file system tarball from the same URL to
> the root partition, booted and no change.  Did all work under Ubuntu
> in a root shell. Still makes it to "Uncompressing Linux... ...done,
> booting the kernel." and then nothing.  Added the uEnv.txt from my
> working SD card to the boot partition and tried again.  No change.
>
> Should it really be this difficult to get a prebuilt image working?
> What am I doing wrong?
>
> Regards,
>

> Dave- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Finally figured out what I needed to do. The instructions at
http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/ seem to be
flawed. Instead of copying the MLO and u-boot.bin from that location,
I needed to copy them from the /boot directory in the root file system
I downloaded. The steps at http://treyweaver.blogspot.com/2010/10/installing-angstrom-on-beagleboard-xm.html
worked for me.

Regards,

Dave

[David Ragle]

> > structure and file system, copied MLO and u-boot.bin fromhttp://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/tothe boot

> > partition, unpacked the root file system tarball from the same URL to
> > the root partition, booted and no change.  Did all work under Ubuntu
> > in a root shell. Still makes it to "Uncompressing Linux... ...done,
> > booting the kernel." and then nothing.  Added the uEnv.txt from my
> > working SD card to the boot partition and tried again.  No change.
>
> > Should it really be this difficult to get a prebuilt image working?
> > What am I doing wrong?
>
> > Regards,
>
> > Dave- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>

> Finally figured out what I needed to do.  The instructions athttp://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/seem to be

> flawed.  Instead of copying the MLO and u-boot.bin from that location,
> I needed to copy them from the /boot directory in the root file system

> I downloaded.  The steps athttp://treyweaver.blogspot.com/2010/10/installing-angstrom-on-beagleb...
> worked for me.

>
> Regards,
>
> Dave- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

To be clear, that worked for a Narcissus build, not for the demo build
at http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/ since that
build does not have MLO or u-boot.bin in the /boot directory of the
root file system. I still have not managed to get the demo build to
boot, but at this point I suppose that is academic.

Regards,

Dave

[David Ragle]

> > Finally figured out what I needed to do.  The instructions athttp://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/seemto be

> > flawed.  Instead of copying the MLO and u-boot.bin from that location,
> > I needed to copy them from the /boot directory in the root file system
> > I downloaded.  The steps athttp://treyweaver.blogspot.com/2010/10/installing-angstrom-on-beagleb...
> > worked for me.
>
> > Regards,
>
> > Dave- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> To be clear, that worked for a Narcissus build, not for the demo build

> athttp://www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard/since that

> build does not have MLO or u-boot.bin in the /boot directory of the
> root file system.  I still have not managed to get the demo build to
> boot, but at this point I suppose that is academic.
>
> Regards,
>

> Dave- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

And finally, just because I can't leave things alone, I was able to
get the demo image to boot by replacing MLO and u-boot.bin from the
www.angstrom-distribution.org/demo/beagleboard URL with versions from
a working Narcissus build. (Note I did not attempt to determine which
of the two files is the problem, or if it is in fact a problem with
both.)

The non-working MLO is dated 21 July 2011, and the non-working u-
boot.bin is dated 23 October 2011. The version of MLO from the
Narcissus build that worked is dated 14 June 2011, and the version of
u-boot.bin from the Narcissus build that worked is dated 1 April
2011.

So, it appears that the problem isn't so much with the instructions as
it is with the versions of MLO and u-boot.bin provided at the URL.
I've sent an email to angstrom-d...@linuxtogo.org to let the
developers know of the problem.

Hopefully someone will find this information useful.

Regards,

DAve

[LeyroyJenkins]

Dave,

Thanks tons.  Currently trudging down the same trail! "Should it really be this hard...".

Downloaded a Narcisus build last night and will take a look at MLO, uBoot, et al.

Thanks for the clues!

LJ