I *still* can't get Debian 9 onto my BBB

[Chris Green]

Well I'm back at home off my boat now and I didn't manage to get
Debian 9 onto my BBB there, it's still running Debian 7.

I still have remote access to the BBB from here at home so, if anyone
wants to help and needs answers to questions I can go and take a look.

The Debian 9 image I was trying was this one (expanded of course) :-

bone-debian-9.3-iot-armhf-2018-01-28-4gb.img.xz


As noted in my previous postings here this image successfully
self-installed automatically on another (I thought older) Debian 7 BBB
that I had.

When inserted in the BBB I want to update it did nothing on rebooting.
I also tried powering up with the 'boot' button held down but that did
no good either, it simply did nothing.

I tried running the script:-

/opt/scripts/tools/beaglebone-black-eMMC-flasher.sh

and that didn't work either (as reported above in an earlier posting),
it seems to have done something to the microSD which had Debian 9 on
it too.


So, how on earth am I going to get Debian 9 onto my BBB? Surely there
must be a reliable way to do this, especially as I have a running
Debian system on it. Is there a script I can get which can install an
OS from an image on a microSD? I'd really be happiest with a
script/program I can load and run on my existing system rather than
some sort of automatic load which requires a combination of buttons
pressed and power-up sequences.

What I need (help/information) is:-

What Debian 9 image to use (minimal non-GUI system)

How to write it to the microSD card (on a Linux system)

A script to run that will install it on the eMMC.

--
Chris Green
·

[Robert Nelson]

With: bone-debian-9.3-iot-armhf-2018-01-28-4gb.img.xz booted on the microSD

Run:

sudo /opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh

It should "work", but there is a good reason we moved to flashing the
eMMC in single user mode...

So IF it fails, follow the standard eMMC flashing directions here:

https://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian#Flashing_eMMC

Regards,

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

[Dennis Lee Bieber]

On Wed, 4 Apr 2018 20:52:50 +0100, Chris Green
<c...@isbd.net> declaimed the following:

>
>When inserted in the BBB I want to update it did nothing on rebooting.
>I also tried powering up with the 'boot' button held down but that did
>no good either, it simply did nothing.
>

"nothing"? Did it even boot?

>I tried running the script:-
>
> /opt/scripts/tools/beaglebone-black-eMMC-flasher.sh
>
>and that didn't work either (as reported above in an earlier posting),
>it seems to have done something to the microSD which had Debian 9 on
>it too.
>

Given what I could understand of the script (I'm no where near a BASH
script expert -- my heaviest "shell script" experience is VAX/VMS DCL,
AREXX [Amiga REXX]... I don't consider Python a "scripting language" (AREXX
could be used to control any application that opened an AREXX message port,
and any statement in a script that did not parse as native AREXX would be
sent to the current "command host" -- ie; the shell by default or an
application if one did "address application-name" first -- and the easiest
way to make a statement "not native" was to quote the first word) -- pardon
the harangue -- I understand the script to copy files from the /booted/
system media to the other media. If it booted from the eMMC, running the
script will copy the eMMC to the SD card.

I could be all wet with that hypothesis <G>

>
>So, how on earth am I going to get Debian 9 onto my BBB? Surely there
>must be a reliable way to do this, especially as I have a running
>Debian system on it. Is there a script I can get which can install an
>OS from an image on a microSD? I'd really be happiest with a
>script/program I can load and run on my existing system rather than
>some sort of automatic load which requires a combination of buttons
>pressed and power-up sequences.
>

Boot with your existing system. Insert the SD card. MOUNT the SD card
if it isn't automatically mounted (there was a period of time where the
Wheezy images would auto-mount SD cards).

Edit the <SDCARDMOUNT>/boot/uEnv.txt file (NOT a file on the eMMC) as
described http://beagleboard.org/latest-images

Reboot. If the reboot doesn't read the SD card a start flashing, reboot
with the boot button held down! Due to the changes in device tree handling
since Wheezy, a Wheezy era eMMC uBoot may not be compatible (hypothesis --
I don't think I've used the boot button since Wheezy) and my understanding
is that the boot button totally bypasses the eMMC uBoot for the one on the
SD card (newer versions, I believe, use the eMMC uBoot which transfers to
the SD card if installed to complete the boot).
.


--
Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber AF6VN
wlf...@ix.netcom.com HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/

[Chris Green]

Robert Nelson <robert...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for continuing to help Robert. :-)

> > What I need (help/information) is:-
> >
> > What Debian 9 image to use (minimal non-GUI system)
> >
> > How to write it to the microSD card (on a Linux system)
> >
> > A script to run that will install it on the eMMC.
>
> With: bone-debian-9.3-iot-armhf-2018-01-28-4gb.img.xz booted on the microSD
>
> Run:
>
> sudo /opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh
>

I don't have that script in the existing Debian 7 installation:-

chris@odin:~$ ls /opt/scripts/tools/eMMC
beaglebone-black-make-microSD-flasher-from-eMMC.sh
chris@odin:~$

Should I run it from the mounted Debian 9 image?

> It should "work", but there is a good reason we moved to flashing the
> eMMC in single user mode...
>
> So IF it fails, follow the standard eMMC flashing directions here:
>
> https://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian#Flashing_eMMC
>

OK, thank you.

As I said above I'm away from the boat for a while now, I should be
able to retry in a week or two.

--
Chris Green
·

[Chris Green]

Dennis Lee Bieber <wlf...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 4 Apr 2018 20:52:50 +0100, Chris Green
> <c...@isbd.net> declaimed the following:
>
> >
> >When inserted in the BBB I want to update it did nothing on rebooting.
> >I also tried powering up with the 'boot' button held down but that did
> >no good either, it simply did nothing.
> >
> "nothing"? Did it even boot?
>

No, it didn't even boot, the single (power?) LED came on but that was
all. Had me worried for a minute but without the boot button down it
acted quite normally still and booted Debian 7,

> >I tried running the script:-
> >
> > /opt/scripts/tools/beaglebone-black-eMMC-flasher.sh
> >
> >and that didn't work either (as reported above in an earlier posting),
> >it seems to have done something to the microSD which had Debian 9 on
> >it too.
> >
>
> Given what I could understand of the script (I'm no where near a BASH
> script expert -- my heaviest "shell script" experience is VAX/VMS DCL,
> AREXX [Amiga REXX]... I don't consider Python a "scripting language" (AREXX
> could be used to control any application that opened an AREXX message port,
> and any statement in a script that did not parse as native AREXX would be
> sent to the current "command host" -- ie; the shell by default or an
> application if one did "address application-name" first -- and the easiest
> way to make a statement "not native" was to quote the first word) -- pardon
> the harangue -- I understand the script to copy files from the /booted/
> system media to the other media. If it booted from the eMMC, running the
> script will copy the eMMC to the SD card.
>
> I could be all wet with that hypothesis <G>
>

I think you're spot on actually! :-) I didn't stare all that hard
at the code but it certainly did seem to copy from the eMMC to the
microSD card.

> >
> >So, how on earth am I going to get Debian 9 onto my BBB? Surely there
> >must be a reliable way to do this, especially as I have a running
> >Debian system on it. Is there a script I can get which can install an
> >OS from an image on a microSD? I'd really be happiest with a
> >script/program I can load and run on my existing system rather than
> >some sort of automatic load which requires a combination of buttons
> >pressed and power-up sequences.
> >
>
> Boot with your existing system. Insert the SD card. MOUNT the SD card
> if it isn't automatically mounted (there was a period of time where the
> Wheezy images would auto-mount SD cards).
>

Yes, my Debian 7 does automount SD cards.

> Edit the <SDCARDMOUNT>/boot/uEnv.txt file (NOT a file on the eMMC) as
> described http://beagleboard.org/latest-images
>
> Reboot. If the reboot doesn't read the SD card a start flashing, reboot
> with the boot button held down! Due to the changes in device tree handling
> since Wheezy, a Wheezy era eMMC uBoot may not be compatible (hypothesis --
> I don't think I've used the boot button since Wheezy) and my understanding
> is that the boot button totally bypasses the eMMC uBoot for the one on the
> SD card (newer versions, I believe, use the eMMC uBoot which transfers to
> the SD card if installed to complete the boot).
> .

OK, thanks, that does seem to make sense to me. I'll need to wait
until I'm next back on the boat which will be a week or so now. The
boat is in France and I'm in England, it's not just down the road! :-)

--
Chris Green
·

[Robert Nelson]

On Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 3:44 AM, Chris Green <c...@isbd.net> wrote:
> Robert Nelson <robert...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks for continuing to help Robert. :-)
>
>
>> > What I need (help/information) is:-
>> >
>> > What Debian 9 image to use (minimal non-GUI system)
>> >
>> > How to write it to the microSD card (on a Linux system)
>> >
>> > A script to run that will install it on the eMMC.
>>
>> With: bone-debian-9.3-iot-armhf-2018-01-28-4gb.img.xz booted on the microSD
>>
>> Run:
>>
>> sudo /opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh
>>
> I don't have that script in the existing Debian 7 installation:-
>
> chris@odin:~$ ls /opt/scripts/tools/eMMC
> beaglebone-black-make-microSD-flasher-from-eMMC.sh
> chris@odin:~$
>
> Should I run it from the mounted Debian 9 image?

ALL the scripts assume you are directly "running" the image from a
fresh bootup, that you would like to "copy" to the secondary storage.
Don't do anything fancy beyond that.

[Chris Green]

OK, thanks, that's all I needed to know (I hope).

--
Chris Green
·