Beaglebone black not recognized when plugged in (new just out of the box beaglebone black)

[Anirudh Jonnadula]

Hello,

I just bought a new Beaglebone Black, unboxed it, and plugged it into my Laptop. It is not recognized at all. I guess the device is booting up properly because the LED's are blinking correctly as described in the getting started page. Please help me.

There is no SD Card. I'm trying to boot the device from the eMMC Flash Memory.

Please help me. It is not recognized by the laptop at all. I have tried it in two Laptops but the result is the same.

Regards
Anirudh

[meino....@gmx.de]

Anirudh Jonnadula <aniru...@gmail.com> [14-12-16 04:24]:

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Hi Anirudh,

...what OS is running on your laptop...

Best
Meino

[Anirudh Jonnadula]

Hi Meino,

Thanks for the reply. I have tested it on both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 14.04.

Regards
Anirudh

[meino....@gmx.de]

ZZAnirudh Jonnadula <aniru...@gmail.com> [14-12-16 14:32]:

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Hi Anirudh,

ok...seems to be something with the Beaglebone...

I am more familiar with UNIX and Linux, so if it is
ok for you, I would like to suggest to use your
Ubuntu system for checking whats going on...

If not available please install

usbutils

(which homepage is here http://linux-usb.sourceforge.net/)

Unplug the beaglebone, if not already done, then do
a

lsusb > /tmp/withoutbbb.txt

then plug it in, wait a couple of seconds (only to get sure)
and do a

lsusb > /tmp/withbbb.txt; diff /tmp/withoutbbb.txt /tmp/withbbb.txt


. If there is a difference, then you Beablebone black has been
recognized on a low level basis.
I recently had a Wifi USB dongle which was listed via lsusb and
as soon as I tried to use the wlan0 interface, a message pops
up saying, that there was no such device....hrmmmpffff...the firmware
was missing...the usb enumeration has worked and the device was still
sleeping.

May be there is only some software missing (kernel modules) or not
loaded.

Please mail me, what the test results in :)

Best regards,
Meino

[Anirudh Jonnadula]

Hi Meino,

Thanks for the suggestion.
I have tried this, but there is no difference in the output of lsusb.

Regards
Anirudh

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[meino....@gmx.de]

Hi Anirudh,

thanks for checking that! 8)

This may have been caused by either: A hardware defect, which
has affected the USB interface, so the "outside world"
(we are all somehow "inside beaglebone" aren't we??? :) has
no chance to recognize, that there is a beaglebone plugged
to the USB port.
Or: Something is wrong with the software or the devicetree blob,
which configures the hardware, so the hardware is not acting like
something, which the "outside world" would recognize as USB...

The first problem can be the result of a production failure
or a discharge of static alectricity while packaging or unboxing.
The second problem can be the result of...I dont know, since
you haven't changed anything.

Before asking for a RMA and sending it back for change, you can try
the following:
Download the debian image and the boot stuff and prepare a SD-card
with it (be sure that the rootfs and /boot are populated).

If done correctly, your beaglebone will recognize the presence of
the sdcard and boot from it instead of the emmc (internal flash).
Advantage here is: You have access to the sdcard even if you have no
access to the beaglebone. After booting, waiting and somehow shutting
down the beaglebone (dont know whether this is supported by the
bottons on the beaglebone) you may have access to some logfiles under
/var/log, which may give you some more informations.

If the emmc was damaged either hardware related or logically (image
wasn't written correctly), you may be able to boot from sdcard and
get access to you beaglebone. If so, you can fsck the emmc and if
ok reflash it (if you want). On the other hand: Flash memory has a
limited amount of write cycles. While exclusively using a sdcard, you
can swap it easily if worn...(I never touched the emmc for that
reason).

If the USB hardware or something related to it is damaged, you also
won't be able to access the beaglebone after booting the sdcard.

If USB wont run: Try to get access to the board via LAN / ethernet.

Last way out: Buy a serial to USB adaptor which is recommended for
being used with the beaglebone and attach this to the debug header.
May be you will be able to gain access to your board.

Good Luck! :))
Best
Meino


Anirudh Jonnadula <aniru...@gmail.com> [14-12-16 18:28]:

[Anirudh Jonnadula]

Hi Meino,
Thank you very much for taking your time and writing the answer.

I have tried to access the board via LAN, but could not figure out how
to do it. Could you please guide me?
Meanwhile, I will download and boot the board with the SD Card as you
have suggested.

Regards
Anirudh

[meino....@gmx.de]

Hi Anirudh,

:)

Since the Beaglebone black was switched from Angstrom to Debian I dont
know, whether Debian now runs with a fixed IP-adress or uses dhcp...

That is: You need to figure that out.

ok...lets hack your beaglebone.

You need: Duck Tape, a Swiss Army knife, some chewing gum...
...wrong movie......I am joking, sorry... 8)

You need: Ethernet cables (CAT5), a Linux PC which can talk
to the internet, your beaglebone and a
switch/hub.

Connect your PC to the switch/hub. Connect your beaglebone to
the switch, connect the LAN cable, which ends in your DSL modem
with the hub/switch. Power the hub/switch. Power the PC. Wait
until ypu can login (and do that ;) then power your beaglebone
and wait until it seems to be up.

Install nmap on your linux box.

Call

ifconfig

. You will see something like this:


eth0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
inet 192.168.XXX.XXX netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.XXX.XXX
ether XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets nnnnnn bytes nnnnnnnnnn (nnn nnn)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets nnnnnn bytes nnnnnnnn (nnnn nnn)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
device interrupt 36

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 65536
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0
loop txqueuelen 0 (Local Loopback)
RX packets 1144 bytes 1941206 (1.8 MiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 1144 bytes 1941206 (1.8 MiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

(the counts of package will surely differ...)

"lo" is your loopback device, which is not needed here.

eth0 (or eth1) is your ethernet interface.

The "X"s after the word "inet" is the IP-adress of your Linux box.

inet XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX

often they start with 192.168..., which indicates a private network.
There are certain IP-address ranges which are for private use only,
which means: There will be no server outside in the wild, wild
internet, which have an IP-address of these ranges.

OK...now you have to scan you network. Be sure, nothing else is
connected to your Linux box (LAN-wise), since accidentally
scanning networks in the wild wild internet may...hrrrrmmm...
irritate some people... ;)

Assuming the IP-address of your Linux box is

192.168.100.200

you need to call

nmap -v -sn 169.168.100.1-255

. For this you need to be root...

Nmap will then scan for hosts in the range of

169.168.100.1.........169.168.100.255

and report any host it will find.

It will report your Linux box...and with some luck the IP-address
of your beaglebone.

If a host is found it looks like:

Nmap scan report for ariettaa (192.168.10.10)
Host is up (0.00067s latency).

This is for my Arietta G25 (also a small emebedded linux
system 5.5cmx2.5cm...;)

The given IP-adress is the one you are looking for. Please
dont confuse this with the IP-adress reported for your Linux PC...

This means:
You Beaglebone is up and running and (somehow) ready to accept a
connection.

If not already done:
Install openssh and follow the configuration instructions. Create
a private and public key.

Start sshd then.

Now connect to you beaglebone this way:

ssh root@<IP-adsress of your beaglebone>

If asked for a passwort, enter nothing (the default
password is blank according to this:
http://beagleboard.org/getting-started
means: hit <return>

Thats it...you have logged into your beaglebone.

BUT:

If NO other running host is reported by nmap things are becoming
a little more complicated.

Two possibilities:
Your beaglebone is dead, bricked or what else. You need a RMA
and send it back for repair.

OR:

It uses a fixed IP-address which does not fit into the address
range of your PC.

You need either a second ethernet card or a Linux PC...ha! Wait...
you _*HAVE*_ a Linux PC...

According to this:
http://beagleboard.org/getting-started

the IP-address of your Beaglebone board is 192.168.7.2 (but I dont
know, whether this information is dated before or after the switch
from Angstrom to Debian...)

First you need a second ethernet interface ... and since this is
Linux, you dont need a second ethernet card for this to work.

Assuming, your first ethernet interface (as reported previously by
ifconfig) is eth0 , then as root enter

ifconfig eth0:2 192.168.7.10

which gives your PC another IP address...but one of the range of your
beaglebone.

Then try to ping your beaglebone with

ping 192.168.7.2

. If it answers, try to login via ssh as described above, but use
192.168.7.2 instead.

And if this doesn't help, try to scan the address range with
nmap and the address range of 192.168.7.1-255. Again, your
Linux PC will also be reported.

If this will also fail...my storage of ideas is emptied...
You need a sdcard to boot from then...

HTH!

Good luck! 8)
Best
Meino

Anirudh Jonnadula <aniru...@gmail.com> [14-12-16 19:08]:

[Anirudh Jonnadula]

Hi Meino,

:)

I'll try whatever you have suggested first thing in the morning.
I kind of already tried connecting with a wired LAN cable. Then I
logged into my router using 192.168.1.1 and found that there is no
attached device under the wired category.
This is making me feel that the board has some fault.
Anyway, I'll try the above suggested method using nmap....and if it
does not work, I'll try to boot it with a SD card and will let you
know the results.

Regards,
Anirudh

[William Hermans]

Anirudh,

I did not read all the discussion you two have had, but if you have another mini to standard USB cable I'd give that a shot first. Early on after release, there were a few boards shipped with bad cables according to a few users. You could take that with a grain of salt ( I would ), but if you have  spare one to try, it would a quick test.

On the Windows 7 side, I use Windows 7 x64 enterprise, and s I recall the mass storage "drive" always came up immediately( this is why i recommend checking the cable ), but the other drivers will require you to install the beaglebone driver listed on the getting started page. Then possibly you'll have to run Windows updates.

Also the usb networking gadget should be set to static IP of 192.168.7.2 - At least I am pretty sure this is how it came on the latest element14 board we have here. I run both Windows, and Linux machines as host to several beglebones, and I would test, but I am "on the road" right now so can not check.

Anyway, if you have some very specific Windows questions pertaining to the beaglebone, ask and I'll do my best to answer. Just be aware however, there a lot of information on internet about all this now days.

[Anirudh Jonnadula]

Hi William,

I have tried with a working new mini USB cable but it didn't work. Maybe the board has some defects.

Anirudh

[Anirudh Jonnadula]

Hi Meino,

I have tried what you have suggested but nothing came up. So, I guess the board is faulty.

Regards

Anirudh

[meino....@gmx.de]

Hi Anirudh,

thank you for checking all this ! 8)

I quite agree!

There is something wrong with your board -- hopefully you get
a new one as soon as possible and as easy as possible!

Fingers crossed! Good luck!

Best regards,
Meino




Anirudh Jonnadula <aniru...@gmail.com> [14-12-18 18:28]:

[Anirudh Jonnadula]

Hi Meino,

Good news, I got replacement for my defected board. The new one is working fine.

Regards
Anirudh