BBB how to manage the limited eMMC flash size of 4GB

[henning....@gmail.com]

I installed new software items (LXDE) on BBB. After some minutes the eMMC flash was filled and the disk converted to Read Only. System blocked. I can restore the eMMC but this does not solve the fundamental problem:

What is "the best"/good practice to make BBB use the external and large enough SD flash in a way so the eMMC is not limiting the storage for programs?

I imagine there must be some setup to do in order to tell installers where to put the files, because eMMC as default fills up very quickly. General data storage is another thing.

[Dennis Lee Bieber]

On Wed, 5 Jul 2017 07:05:12 -0700 (PDT),
henning....@gmail.com declaimed the
following:

>I installed new software items (LXDE) on BBB. After some minutes the eMMC
>flash was filled and the disk converted to Read Only. System blocked. I can

>restore the eMMC but this does not *solve the fundamental problem*:
>
>*What is "the best"/good practice to make BBB use the external and large

>enough SD flash in a way so the eMMC is not limiting the storage for

>programs?*
>

Well.. If you set the SD card as the boot media, it won't touch the
eMMC at all
--
Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber AF6VN
wlf...@ix.netcom.com HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/

[Graham]

Run everything from the plug-in uSD card.

I can't perceive a speed difference between eMMC and the uSD card, but I am sure there is some slight difference.

I have a GIT server that has been running fine for about a year on a 128 GB card in a BBB.

--- Graham

==

[henning....@gmail.com]

Thanks for the hint. 

> "set the SD card as boot media": 

I did not have to do anything apart from flashing the SD with the relevant image, insert in the slot and power on. Then it automatically boots on the flash. Right? or at least that's what i saw.

For supplement information: The SD card will be mounted as /dev/mmcblk0p1  and if you boot from eMMC (or mount it) the eMMC will be mounted as /dev/mmcblk1p1.

The command df will show which of those is mounted. This may come handy if experimenting with different boot sources.

[Graham Haddock]

If you start with a "microSD/standalone" image, then you are ready to boot and run from the card.

If you start with a "flasher" image, then you will need to edit the /boot/uEnv.txt file to keep it from flashing your eMMC.

The other thing to know is that you may need to expand the partitions on the card, so as to be able to access the entire memory space of the card.

If you run   df -h   and can only see about 4 GB of memory space, follow the instructions at

http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian#Expanding_File_System_Partition_On_A_microSD

On the next reboot, you should see the entire card as available memory.

--- Graham

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