BeagleBoard doesn't boot from SD card (only power LED, no other LEDs)

[Jan Jaap]

Hi!

I am a new user and I wanted to install Debian on a BeagleBoard, however, the BeagleBoard doesn't boot.

The BeagleBoard doesn't boot into X when turned on. A usable mouse cursor becomes visible, but it remains so for at least 10 minutes (didn't wait longer).

When using CTRL - Alt - F5 etc. a shell login prompt becomes visible, and it is possible to login. 

I purchased a ADATA 16GB class 10 SD card. I've tried with a partition of 4GB to 16GB and default images from https://beagleboard.org/latest-images and from Robert C Nelson. I've tried regular USB images and USB flash images. I've tried with DD (linux) and unetbootin (image writer) and I tried a flash script writer command to create a SD disk.

When pressing S2 and powering the BeagleBoard using USB -> 1 ampere power adapter (without anything else connected), just the power LED is on, the other LEDs remain off. I've tried pressing the S2 button for a minute, and just a few seconds. No change.

I then purchased a 5V -> USB cable. I've read that the USB power connector is hardware restricted to 0.5 ampere. I did not have a 2 ampere power adapter, but I later read that the USB power of 0.5 ampere should be sufficient.

I've tried to boot the SD with both the 5V power cable (1 ampere) and mini USB power (0.5 amp) by pressing the power button for 10 seconds, which will turn the device off, and then powering it on again while pressing the S2 button. Just the power LED lids up, no other LEDs.

What could be the cause that the BeagleBoard isn't booting? Is the regular boot (factory default) to a cursor an indication that the board may be broken?

Best Regards,

Jan Jaap

[Robert Nelson]

On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 2:53 PM, Jan Jaap <in...@optimalisatie.nl> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I am a new user and I wanted to install Debian on a BeagleBoard, however,
> the BeagleBoard doesn't boot.
>
> The BeagleBoard doesn't boot into X when turned on. A usable mouse cursor
> becomes visible, but it remains so for at least 10 minutes (didn't wait
> longer).
>
> When using CTRL - Alt - F5 etc. a shell login prompt becomes visible, and it
> is possible to login.

Confused, based on your 3rd paragraph, it "booted" but your first
paragraph says it "doesn't boot"..

So let's start from the begining..

What Board/model/revision do you have?
What file/rootfs/name did your write the microSD card?

Regards,

--
Robert Nelson
https://rcn-ee.com/

[Jan Jaap]

Hi Robert,

It is a honor to receive a personal reply so fast!

The mentioned boot to a cursor is the factory default boot without an SD card (without the S2 button pressed). I've tried with a simple low power mouse + HDMI and without a mouse + HDMI. When I insert the HDMI after booting, the display is scrambled but the mouse does respond (it results into flickering pixels).

When pressing the S2 button with the SD card inserted, the board does not boot.

Regarding the model:

BeagleBoard Black Rev C from Element14. 

BB-BBLK-000 Rev C

Regarding file/rootfs/name, those parameters were not addressed. I simply followed online documentation such as on http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardDebian#Debian_.28jessie.29

Do you have an idea what the problem could be?

Best Regards,

Jan Jaap

[Robert Nelson]

On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 3:10 PM, Jan Jaap <in...@optimalisatie.nl> wrote:
> Hi Robert,
>
> It is a honor to receive a personal reply so fast!
>
> The mentioned boot to a cursor is the factory default boot without an SD
> card (without the S2 button pressed). I've tried with a simple low power
> mouse + HDMI and without a mouse + HDMI. When I insert the HDMI after
> booting, the display is scrambled but the mouse does respond (it results
> into flickering pixels).

What kinda of HDMI display is that?

>
> When pressing the S2 button with the SD card inserted, the board does not
> boot.
>
> Regarding the model:
>
> BeagleBoard Black Rev C from Element14.
> BB-BBLK-000 Rev C
>
>
> Regarding file/rootfs/name, those parameters were not addressed. I simply
> followed online documentation such as on
> http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardDebian#Debian_.28jessie.29

So that image doesn't include a desktop, you should at-least see the
login prompt in the upper left.

Give etcher.io a try for writing the image to the microSD: (you don't
have to uncompress the *.img.xz)

https://etcher.io/

[Jan Jaap]

What kinda of HDMI display is that? 

It's a regular Iiyama 24" display. May that be the reason that X doesn't show a login prompt after showing a cursor?

So that image doesn't include a desktop, you should at-least see the
login prompt in the upper left.

Give etcher.io a try for writing the image to the microSD: (you don't
have to uncompress the *.img.xz)

https://etcher.io/

Thanks for the advise, I have tried Etcher however my laptop is very restricted (grsec etc) and it doesn't work.

I've read that using linux DD is actually advised over other solutions. And I am suspecting that unetbootin should also automatically create the correct configuration.

I believe that I may have made a mistake, I just found https://github.com/linneman/planck/wiki/How-to-create-a-Boot-SD-Card-for-the-BeagleBone-black#Preconditions and I am now following this documentation.

I will report if it proves to be a solution!

Thanks again for the fast support!

[Robert Nelson]

On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 4:12 PM, Jan Jaap <in...@optimalisatie.nl> wrote:
>> What kinda of HDMI display is that?
>
>
> It's a regular Iiyama 24" display. May that be the reason that X doesn't
> show a login prompt after showing a cursor?
>
>
>> So that image doesn't include a desktop, you should at-least see the
>> login prompt in the upper left.
>>
>> Give etcher.io a try for writing the image to the microSD: (you don't
>> have to uncompress the *.img.xz)
>>
>> https://etcher.io/
>
>
> Thanks for the advise, I have tried Etcher however my laptop is very
> restricted (grsec etc) and it doesn't work.
>
> I've read that using linux DD is actually advised over other solutions. And
> I am suspecting that unetbootin should also automatically create the correct
> configuration.

Use dd or bmap-tools (*.bmap files are on the web server)..

> I believe that I may have made a mistake, I just found
> https://github.com/linneman/planck/wiki/How-to-create-a-Boot-SD-Card-for-the-BeagleBone-black#Preconditions
> and I am now following this documentation.

all ^ that would be wipped out by dd/bmap-tools..

[Jan Jaap]

Using the bmap-tools solution worked! Booting using the S2 button pressed worked and a desktop became visible!

I first downloaded the bmap file for the BeagleBone Debian 8.7 image:

https://debian.beagleboard.org/images/bone-debian-8.7-lxqt-4gb-armhf-2017-03-19-4gb.bmap (linked from https://beagleboard.org/latest-images)

I then followed the bmap-tools installation instructions on the following URL:

https://github.com/MarkAYoder/BeagleBoard-exercises/blob/master/setup/bmap.sh

To flash the eMMC you need to change a file in the boot partition. 

To turn these images into eMMC flasher images, edit the /boot/uEnv.txt file on the Linux partition on the microSD card and remove the '#' on the line with 'cmdline=init=/opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh'. Enabling this will cause booting the microSD card to flash the eMMC. Images are no longer provided here for this to avoid people accidentally overwriting their eMMC flash.

It shows a knight rider animation on the LEDs, indicating that the image is written to the eMMC memory.

Thanks a lot for the support!

[William Hermans]

I use dd regularly so get images onto sdcards, and have had zero issues. bmap-tools is supposed to be much faster. but I was unable to get bmap-tools working on my Debian workstation. Which runs wheezy, and is probably the problem.

william@eee-pc:~$ uname -a
Linux eee-pc 3.2.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.2.68-1+deb7u2 i686 GNU/Linux
william@eee-pc:~$ apt-cache search bmap-tools

<crickets>

But on a beaglebone Jessie image . . .

root@beaglebone:~# uname -a
Linux beaglebone 4.4.38-bone-rt-r14 #1 PREEMPT RT Mon Dec 12 10:10:25 UTC 2016 armv7l GNU/Linux
root@beaglebone:~# apt-cache search bmap-tools
bmap-tools - tool to flash image files to block devices using the block map

Eventually I plan on moving my dev system to an ODRIOD XU4, but until I do so, I'll be stuck with Wheezy.

--
For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to beagleboard+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beagleboard/53a69b4c-589b-4bc2-ac7b-1b51c5ddec68%40googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Robert Nelson]

On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 10:19 PM, William Hermans <yyr...@gmail.com> wrote:

I use dd regularly so get images onto sdcards, and have had zero issues. bmap-tools is supposed to be much faster. but I was unable to get bmap-tools working on my Debian workstation. Which runs wheezy, and is probably the problem.

william@eee-pc:~$ uname -a
Linux eee-pc 3.2.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.2.68-1+deb7u2 i686 GNU/Linux
william@eee-pc:~$ apt-cache search bmap-tools

<crickets>

bmap-tools was added during the jessie cycle, it's just a python application

Regards,