Re: Angstrom on Beaglebone Black (Switched to Ubuntu)

[Christopher Berg]

Did you try this tutorial?  http://learn.adafruit.com/beaglebone/wifi

I was able to use that to get my wifi working pretty quickly - and I know absolutely nothing about Linux.  I made sure to get an adapter that worked with the Beagle - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003MTTJOY/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

Can't say much about your other issues though - but Wifi wasn't a problem for me.

On Friday, June 7, 2013 12:38:29 AM UTC-4, Bruce D Lightner wrote:

I loved the specs on the Beaglebone Black TI ARM processor and hardware...but Angstrom on BBB sucks---and is not worth the effort!

I've given up on Angstrom. Overall it is not stable. WiFi does not work. The new-and-improved Linux configuration utility "systemctl" does not work properly---for networking and/or for Wifi. Hours and hours of wasted time. What bozo thought that Linux needed yet-another-way to configure!!!!! Truly STUPID!

And, the very latest (two-day old) BBB image from BeagleBoard.Org did not help. Amazingly bad experience. Who at BeagleBoard.Org thought that Angstrom was a good idea? They need to be shown out the door!

I was about to trash both of my Beaglebone Black PCBs and switch back to Rasberry Pi when I discovered the Ubuntu port for BBB. Highly recommended. USB Wifi worked out-of-the box as expected. Stable as a rock.

   http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#eMMC:_BeagleBone_Black

I even was able to login to the Ubuntu via a simple Web page!  Screw the stupid USB "networking connection" from a Windows PC.  I was never ever able to make that work to get a shell login from my Windows 7 PC!  And, SSH via a "real" Ethernet connection did not work on my first BBB because some SSH "key file" was zero-length.  (That cost me ~4 hours!)

It's time for BeagleBoard.Org to admit they screwed up and to dump the "default" Angstrom Linux distribution.  A total waste of time!!!

Great hardware...lousy software choices.  (Someone has been smoking way too much Python! :-)

[Gerald Coley]

I appreciate you helpfulness in these issue. You constructive criticism, is appreciated. But, I must point out, that you do not have to use Angstrom and no one is forcing you to, You do have a choice. You should at least give us some credit for giving you that choice. A lot of the boards out here do not provide that choice. I guess one benefit of being stupid as we are, is that we do give you freedom to choose and freedom to help everyone's experience get better and that is your only goal in what you are saying.

Thank you!

Gerald

On Thu, Jun 6, 2013 at 11:38 PM, Bruce D Lightner <bdlig...@gmail.com> wrote:

I loved the specs on the Beaglebone Black TI ARM processor and hardware...but Angstrom on BBB sucks---and is not worth the effort!

I've given up on Angstrom. Overall it is not stable. WiFi does not work. The new-and-improved Linux configuration utility "systemctl" does not work properly---for networking and/or for Wifi. Hours and hours of wasted time. What bozo thought that Linux needed yet-another-way to configure!!!!! Truly STUPID!

And, the very latest (two-day old) BBB image from BeagleBoard.Org did not help. Amazingly bad experience. Who at BeagleBoard.Org thought that Angstrom was a good idea? They need to be shown out the door!

I was about to trash both of my Beaglebone Black PCBs and switch back to Rasberry Pi when I discovered the Ubuntu port for BBB. Highly recommended. USB Wifi worked out-of-the box as expected. Stable as a rock.

   http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#eMMC:_BeagleBone_Black

I even was able to login to the Ubuntu via a simple Web page!  Screw the stupid USB "networking connection" from a Windows PC.  I was never ever able to make that work to get a shell login from my Windows 7 PC!  And, SSH via a "real" Ethernet connection did not work on my first BBB because some SSH "key file" was zero-length.  (That cost me ~4 hours!)

It's time for BeagleBoard.Org to admit they screwed up and to dump the "default" Angstrom Linux distribution.  A total waste of time!!!

Great hardware...lousy software choices.  (Someone has been smoking way too much Python! :-)

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[Carl Johnson]

Your opinion of Angstrom is familiar to me - I was exactly where you are a couple of months ago.  I have since come around though and prefer the Angstrom distribution.  Yes, the learning curve is steep (bitbake and device trees are really confusing at first, and I also pulled my hair out over wifi issues), but now I'm loving how light weight Angstrom is and how quickly it boots compared with Ubuntu.  I've also been really impressed with the responsiveness of the TI engineers working tirelessly to improve the distribution.  I think they've made the correct call long term, but you've got a point that it's painful now.

[Koen Kooi]

Op 7 jun. 2013, om 14:56 heeft Carl Johnson <bony...@gmail.com> het volgende geschreven:

> Your opinion of Angstrom is familiar to me - I was exactly where you are a couple of months ago. I have since come around though and prefer the Angstrom distribution. Yes, the learning curve is steep (bitbake and device trees are really confusing at first, and I also pulled my hair out over wifi issues), but now I'm loving how light weight Angstrom is and how quickly it boots compared with Ubuntu. I've also been really impressed with the responsiveness of the TI engineers working tirelessly to improve the distribution.

There are no TI engineers working on Angstrom. TI has a few people working on the kernel, but none on angstrom.

[Gerald Coley]

Koen is correct. Nor are they working on Ubuntu, Arch Linux, etc. either. TI has NO kernel support for the 3.8 kernel at all as a matter of fact, not until 4Q as has already been mentioned in the forum before.

Gerald

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[Carl Johnson]

Fair enough.  From my perspective though Pantelis responded to a problem that I was having with my distribution, and whether the fix occurred upstream and wasn't really associated with Angstrom was immaterial to me.  I just appreciated the help, and the end result was a better distribution.

[Gerald Coley]

These guys are working very hard to get all this stuff working correctly!

Gerald

On Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 10:22 AM, Carl Johnson <bony...@gmail.com> wrote:

Fair enough.  From my perspective though Pantelis responded to a problem that I was having with my distribution, and whether the fix occurred upstream and wasn't really associated with Angstrom was immaterial to me.  I just appreciated the help, and the end result was a better distribution.

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[Weboide]

Why the rant!? The BBB is for developers and hobbyists who know that they're not going to get a gadget that's working 100% out of the box. Nowhere I've seen that they claim it works 100% out of the box.

That's the whole point of the BBB is researching, investigating, developing, sharing your findings with the community.

Get a plug computer or something, not a dev board.

[Bruce D Lightner]

Gerald,

I've been involved in embedded Linux, both as an occupation and as a hobbyist, for well over a decade, so I bought the two Beaglebone Black (BBB) PCBs that I have with my eyes wide open.   The BBB hardware design look very good to me.  I like the TI ARM processor a lot.  My only complaint might be the single USB master port.

I get it that THEY are working VERY HARD...but it is clear to me now, after several days fighting with Angstrom on BBB, that what is shipped with the BBB and/or available from BeagleBoard.Org is a work in progress. Reminds me of the chaos with the firmware and device support on Gumstix years ago.

Anyway, I've found the BBB solid as a rock when running Ubuntu.  That's what I'm recommending to my friends and colleagues.

Maybe I'll be surprised.  You can depend upon me to report back if that is the case. :-)

Best regards,

Bruce
ligh...@lightner.net
www.lightner.net/bruce/

[Mark Lazarewicz]

Bruce D Lightner The Ubuntu elinux link-> did you build your images or use the provided  prebuilt? I also found a very nice easy new way for the Bone/EVM after some bad experiences  it's the TI Sitara Linux SDK very  I was very hesitant to use OE but I discovered the TI SDK is based on Arago which uses OE. i CUT THIS BLURB from their site http://arago-project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Many users will want to use the official SDK products from the TI software download page. Others will want the cutting edge of using upstream OpenEmbedded or Angstrom distributions. Arago serves the middle ground where an advanced user wishes to get a peek into an upcoming release or to peek under the hood of an existing release --- On Fri, 6/7/13, Christopher Berg <cube...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Gerald Coley]

I appreciate all feedback.  We have always relied on help from TI with Kernel support. In this instance, that support has been moves out to 4Q of this year, we hope. We are working to fill those gaps as quickly as possible. The people that are working on this are also working on cape support, something that was broken on the 3.8 kernel. That is taking up their time as well. 

Gerald

[Bruce D Lightner]

I used the pre-built BBB Ubuntu image discussed here...

  http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#eMMC:_BeagleBone_Black

In particular, I put the following image on a 4GB SDCard and installed it over the "stock" Angstrom release...

  http://rcn-ee.net/deb/flasher/raring/BBB-eMMC-flasher-ubuntu-13.04-2013-05-29.img.xz

Worked like a charm.

Note that I'm strictly a "command line" Linux user.  Setting up WiFi with WPA2 that way takes a bit of work, but that's fine with this particular application.

Best regards,

Bruce

[Maxim Podbereznyy]

no one mentioned buildroot :)

I use Ubuntu or TI SDK/Matrix as a demo for my customers. Ubuntu is to show how well desktop experience with a PC can be the same at an embedded paltform. TI SDK/Matrix is to show that all hardware is functional - 3D for example.

2013/6/7 Bruce D Lightner <bdlig...@gmail.com>

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[Mark Lazarewicz]

Hi Maxim How many real world application need this PC experience? Are they buying after demo? just curious

[Mark Lazarewicz]

Hi Richard  I am newb to Linux building and I am interested in comparing quality of instructions and support as any cutomer might evaluate who to choose. in this case best way to build/change kernel and it works for next customer This was really easy and painless http://www.ti.com/tool/linuxezsdk-sitara more HW is exposed via capes(daughter cards) I like the Starterware for bare bones as it shows what you need to do from reset to get the Cortex A8 . U-boot shows same its just easier to see that to get to main you need maybe a dozen source files all obvious in a GUI and then build from bottom up Really interesting to here how people compare building linux in these different ways and what kind of success they had on changing the kernel and getting it to work  Please share --- On Fri, 6/7/13, rh <richard...@lavabit.com> wrote:

From: rh <richard...@lavabit.com> Subject: [beagleboard] Re: Angstrom on Beaglebone Black (Switched to Ubuntu) To: beagl...@googlegroups.com

Date: Friday, June 7, 2013, 4:01 PM On Fri, 7 Jun 2013 21:30:51 +0400 Maxim Podbereznyy <lisa...@gmail.com>

wrote: > no one mentioned buildroot :)

I don't know buildroot. Is it good? > > I use Ubuntu or TI SDK/Matrix as a demo for my customers. Ubuntu is

> to show how well desktop experience with a PC can be the same at an

> embedded paltform. TI SDK/Matrix is to show that all hardware is > functional - 3D for example.

I was wondering about how much of the technology of the am3359 was exposed by the bbb. Are you saying that all of it is availabe? The manual is over 4000 pages for this chip. I will have to try out the TI/SDK.

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[Bruce D Lightner]

rh,

On Friday, June 7, 2013 1:53:18 PM UTC-7, rh wrote:

On Thu, 6 Jun 2013 21:38:29 -0700 (PDT)

Bruce D Lightner <bdlig...@gmail.com>
wrote:

What wifi didn't work? What commands?

The list is long and I'm not going to go through it here.  For example, problems with the Realtek kernel modules not being "in sync" with the kernel.  The "cook book" BBB WiFi example at Adafruit (I have one of their tiny USB Wifi modules) did not work at all---multiple tries over many days with two different BBB PCBs and multiple Angstrom releases.  Trying to make Wifi work tended to "hose" my Ethernet connection.  Also kernel panics. Lots and lots of "trash talk" in the system logs---the HDMI interface needs a "chill pill". :-)

Clearly Anstrom on BBB looks like "a work in progress" to me.  Out-of-the-box it did not do what was claimed---even after "opkg upgrade" (a bad mistake) and after installation of the very latest BBB Angstrom image---which clearly changed multiple times during my experiences.

> work. The new-and-improved Linux configuration utility "systemctl"

Ubuntu uses systemctl.

You are correct.  Ubuntu now uses "systemd" for lots of stuff---but not "networking".  (Maybe I should add "yet" to the end of that statement? :-)

> does not work properly---for networking and/or for Wifi. Hours and
> hours of wasted time. What bozo thought that Linux needed
> yet-another-way to configure!!!!! Truly STUPID!

Not limited to angstrom, ubuntu uses systemd.

Again, my BBB Ubuntu system still honors "/etc/network/interfaces".  BTW: In the middle of all this that particular file seems to have completely disappeared from the BBB Angstrom image at BeagleBone.Org. That was the last straw for me!

>
> And, the very latest (two-day old) BBB image from BeagleBoard.Org did
> not help. Amazingly bad experience. Who at BeagleBoard.Org thought
> that Angstrom was a good idea? They need to be shown out the door!
>
> I was about to trash both of my Beaglebone Black PCBs and switch back
> to Rasberry Pi when I discovered the Ubuntu port for BBB. Highly

Odd thing to say since you obviously chose bbb for the hardware.

I don't understand your point.  I have two Raspberry Pi PCBs.  They worked out-of-the box perfectly!!!  I've always had a love/hate relationship with my operating systems.  For Unix/Linux I've spent lots and lots of time complaining about: Bell Labs Unix, System V, SunOS, Berkley Unix, Solaris, HP-UX, Sequent (SysV/Berkley), "Linux", Redhat, Centos, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, Angstrom, Debian, ucLinux...and the list goes on! :-)  BTW: I''ve done kernel programming (e.g., drivers and kernel modules) of almost every one of those in the list.
 

> recommended. USB Wifi worked out-of-the box as expected. Stable as a
> rock.

What didn't work under angstrom?

Very little for what I was trying to do... See above...
 

> Great hardware...lousy software choices.  (Someone has been smoking
> way too much Python! :-)

I'm no big fan of angstrom....

From angstrom to ubuntu and everything's solved?  From the frying pan
into the fire. Your rant fails.  You're an ubunutu cheerleader and not
a good one.

I'm no Ubuntu cheerleader.  I just expect something to work out-of-the-box.  The BBB did not!!

Don't get me started on MS Windows! :-)

Best regards,

Bruce

[Frank Hunleth]

On Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 5:01 PM, rh <richard...@lavabit.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 7 Jun 2013 21:30:51 +0400
> Maxim Podbereznyy <lisa...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>

>> no one mentioned buildroot :)
>

> I don't know buildroot. Is it good?
>

I'll add my 2 cents on this one. Buildroot is outstanding, but it
solves a different problem than Ubuntu and Angstrom. The basic idea
with Buildroot is that you pick what you want (i.e. U-boot, Linux
kernel, busybox, libraries, your app, etc.), and then it does
everything needed to create the image files for your system. It
doesn't do any package management, and the configuration feels more
"locked in" than other distros. Development is all done off device and
cross-compiled. I like this a lot, but my projects are mostly the kind
where you make a firmware image that gets burned onto a bunch of
devices and then is never modified unless there's a software update.

I've had the feeling that Buildroot is a great match for a lot of the
projects that people are doing here, but it lags behind Ubuntu and
Angstrom in terms of Beaglebone support. For example, I can't speak to
BBB support in Buildroot, since I don't have one, but it looked like
the 3.8 kernel updates were only committed recently. I'm sure that it
will get there, though.

Frank

>>
>> I use Ubuntu or TI SDK/Matrix as a demo for my customers. Ubuntu is
>> to show how well desktop experience with a PC can be the same at an
>> embedded paltform. TI SDK/Matrix is to show that all hardware is
>> functional - 3D for example.
>

> I was wondering about how much of the technology of the am3359 was
> exposed by the bbb. Are you saying that all of it is availabe?
> The manual is over 4000 pages for this chip. I will have to try
> out the TI/SDK.
>

[William Park]

On Friday, 7 June 2013 19:00:36 UTC-4, Bruce D Lightner wrote:

I'm no Ubuntu cheerleader.  I just expect something to work out-of-the-box.  The BBB did not!!
Don't get me started on MS Windows! :-)

Hi Bruce,

My opinion after 2 days of trying Angstrom, Debian, and Ubuntu, is that Angstrom
comes configured for normal ssh login.  Whereas in Debian/Ubuntu, I had to use
"shellinabox" at https:4200 which didn't work properly (eg. minus key did not work
in Firefox-20 and CentOS-6.4).  After I log in, I found that ssh is not set up at all,
so I had to generate host keys manually, and run "ssh" daemon manually.  Try that
without minus (-) key!

At this point, all 3 OSs are minimum install and don't have the packages that I'm
used to or expect to find.
--
William

[Robert Nelson]

On Jun 7, 2013 11:08 PM, "William Park" <whp....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Friday, 7 June 2013 19:00:36 UTC-4, Bruce D Lightner wrote:
>>
>> I'm no Ubuntu cheerleader.  I just expect something to work out-of-the-box.  The BBB did not!!
>> Don't get me started on MS Windows! :-)
>
>
> Hi Bruce,
>
> My opinion after 2 days of trying Angstrom, Debian, and Ubuntu, is that Angstrom
> comes configured for normal ssh login.  Whereas in Debian/Ubuntu, I had to use
> "shellinabox" at https:4200 which didn't work properly (eg. minus key did not work
> in Firefox-20 and CentOS-6.4).  After I log in, I found that ssh is not set up at all,
> so I had to generate host keys manually, and run "ssh" daemon manually.  Try that
> without minus (-) key!

Actually I'm dropping shellinabox and going to use gate one too with the debian Ubuntu images.. As it has caused issues with the default openssh server running on port 22.

>
> At this point, all 3 OSs are minimum install and don't have the packages that I'm
> used to or expect to find.

Yet i see no list of packages you expect to find... So I'll just answer.. Does the network at least work such that you can install package x? As that is my only goal....

> --
> William

[William Hermans]

wtf is shell in a box. Been using Debian now for 2 + weeks and never seen it. Using openssh-server . . .

[Robert Nelson]

On Sat, Jun 8, 2013 at 1:28 PM, William Hermans <yyr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> wtf is shell in a box. Been using Debian now for 2 + weeks and never seen
> it. Using openssh-server . . .

https://code.google.com/p/shellinabox/

It's: "Shell In A Box implements a web server that can export
arbitrary command line tools to a web based terminal emulator."...

Think of the newbie windows users, who do not have putty setup.. Now
they can click on a web page, login and then have terminal access...

and of course, a week after i enabled it, it turns out it's riddled with bugs...

Regards,

--
Robert Nelson
http://www.rcn-ee.com/

[William Hermans]

Robert, ah cool I did not eve notice it, lol. I just assumed that since the Debian install being so small in comparison to the desktop installs, well that something like this did not exist. I still have lots of exploring left to do it seems.

I am very impressed with Debian so far ( kind of always have been for years now ). Keep up the good work, thank you very much for the time you've invested in documenting, and setting everything up !

[Robert Nelson]

On Sun, Jun 9, 2013 at 1:54 PM, rh <richard...@lavabit.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 8 Jun 2013 13:34:27 -0500
> Robert Nelson <robert...@gmail.com>

> wrote:
>
>> Think of the newbie windows users, who do not have putty setup.. Now
>> they can click on a web page, login and then have terminal access...
>

> Not to pick on you but this just sounded funny. I was thinking
> what's a newbie windows user going to do with linux terminal
> access once they have it?

Well, first they will follow some random 'wiki' site and then when it
doesn't work, they will ask a question on this list...

> Does windows still not have a native ssh terminal app in the year
> Twenty-thirteen. Maybe they like to leave that secure feature to
> putty. As-in not their fault when people find out putty has "issues".

i believe it still has the classic win 95 telnet application..

[Frank Hunleth]

On Sun, Jun 9, 2013 at 2:42 PM, rh <richard...@lavabit.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 7 Jun 2013 21:02:11 -0400
> Frank Hunleth

> <fhun...@troodon-software.com> wrote:
>
>> I'll add my 2 cents on this one. Buildroot is outstanding, but it
>> solves a different problem than Ubuntu and Angstrom. The basic idea
>> with Buildroot is that you pick what you want (i.e. U-boot, Linux
>> kernel, busybox, libraries, your app, etc.), and then it does
>> everything needed to create the image files for your system. It
>> doesn't do any package management, and the configuration feels more
>> "locked in" than other distros. Development is all done off device and
>> cross-compiled. I like this a lot, but my projects are mostly the kind
>> where you make a firmware image that gets burned onto a bunch of
>> devices and then is never modified unless there's a software update.
>

> Yes I like this about buildroot.

>
>>
>> I've had the feeling that Buildroot is a great match for a lot of the
>> projects that people are doing here, but it lags behind Ubuntu and
>> Angstrom in terms of Beaglebone support. For example, I can't speak to
>> BBB support in Buildroot, since I don't have one, but it looked like
>

> Hmm you say buildroot lags behind then you say you don't know
> about BBB support in buildroot. What the...?

The original white Beaglebone is the one that I've used.

>
>> the 3.8 kernel updates were only committed recently. I'm sure that it
>> will get there, though.
>

> This is an aspect of the BBB I don't understand. And maybe it is an aspect
> of the upstream that I don't understand. Is it the arm cortex-a8 support
> in the linux kernel that's lagging? Or is the BBB somehow so unique it
> requires special drivers to function?

The lag that I was referring to was getting BBB support into
Buildroot. It's a community-driven effort (like much of the other
software development here), so it happens when someone makes it
happen.

Also, regarding ARM Cortex-A8 support, that's not the issue. That's
been there forever. The problem is that between the release of the
original Beaglebone and the BBB, the Linux kernel had a major change
in how ARM devices are supported. Rather than stagnate on the old
kernel version, the Beagleboard people chose to stay current. Check
out the list archives about the Linux 3.8 upgrade. There have been
lots of posts about this and a lot of effort is going in to fixing
issues.

Frank

[William Hermans]

Windows has had a cmd( CLI ) ssh "client" since the XP days. It is not something I would like to use all the time, but I have used it. puTTY of course puts it to shame. However, and this could be what I was originally thinking of. the ( New ?) RUN SSH command  is based on puTTY ... but it seems rather limited.

[Bruce D Lightner]

Gerald,

I've got to take what I said back.  Ubuntu is better than Angstrom, but not stable at all with USB WiFi---under any kind of networking load, despite what Adafruit and others might put on their Websites.  (You can't put stuff on the Internet that's not true, can you!? :-)

As promised, here's my "report back".  My two BeagleBone Black PCBs are going on the shelf.

Thank you for taking the time to talk with me on the telephone.  I do hope that you can get all the "cats herded" and somehow do what you did for the original BeagleBoard hardware---with or without the support of Texas Instruments---and despite Linus Torvalds' constant, seemingly fundamental, changes to the kernel (e.g., device trees)

Best regards,

Bruce D. Lightner

[gerrie...@gmail.com]

Robert,

Is there a debian distro that is similar in scope to the BBB Angstrom distro?   The version that you apparently put together does not have X11 or a window manager?

I am really struggling to get some simple packages onto the BBB (like msmstp or postfix) and it does not look like Angstrom supports them.

Thanks 

Gerrie

[Robert Nelson]

On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 1:32 PM, <gerrie...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Robert,
>
> Is there a debian distro that is similar in scope to the BBB Angstrom
> distro? The version that you apparently put together does not have X11 or
> a window manager?

Take my wheezy image and:

"sudo apt-get install task-lxde-desktop"

done... ;)

> I am really struggling to get some simple packages onto the BBB (like msmstp
> or postfix) and it does not look like Angstrom supports them.

[financ...@gmail.com]

fwiw I felt the same frustrations and expectations that Bruce has. Also had a lot of the same networking issues he has mentioned. I do think the BeagleBoard team is doing an excellent job! I don't find Angstrom to be particularly pleasing or palatable distro in the past and that continues on for today. I've found the Cloud9/BoneScript integration to be such an amazing step to lower the barrier of entry into embedded software development. It was really nice to see this software melded together. Hopefully this response helps with feedback collection. 

[financ...@gmail.com]

Bruce what was your final outcome with Ubuntu vs Angstrom on BBB in regards to Wifi? I have a similar setup going evaluating both Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone, I found that Respberry Pi was much better setup for Wifi situation. Even After disabling all the wifi stuff in Angstrom I'm still not having stable connection with custom wpa_supplicant and udhcpc scripts. Everything just times out or takes a really long time to get properly connected/associated. I think the BBB is slicker hardware then Raspberry Pi. In general I'd like to see support for onboard wifi modules and drop the ethernet port altogether, a world without wires is just a personal dream.  

[financ...@gmail.com]

way too much python smoking has been going on with the linux distros, maybe some individuals will start smoking some golang for system side configuration/monitoring systems. 

[evilwulfie]

use debian nuff said

On 7/14/2013 4:49 PM, financ...@gmail.com wrote:
> way too much python smoking has been going on with the linux distros,
> maybe some individuals will start smoking some golang for system side

> configuration/monitoring systems. --

[binarywolf...@gmail.com]

I can't find those issues someone writes about with wifi over usb on BBB. Make sure you use atleast 2A 5V power supply when you connect usb devices to make sure you have power enough on high peeks. Ubuntu and Debian works just as good, only Angstrom seam really unstable, but I guess an Angstrom distro could be build stable too via ther online builder, but I didnt try yet. Anyway you can iperf to max out the wifi for testing.

/Frank

[PatricK Coutu]

Wasted 4 hours to troubleshoot simple things. I am 100% with you and I think Angstrong is the WORST Linux distro for embedded devices.

Le vendredi 7 juin 2013 00:38:29 UTC-4, Bruce D Lightner a écrit :

I loved the specs on the Beaglebone Black TI ARM processor and hardware...but Angstrom on BBB sucks---and is not worth the effort!

I've given up on Angstrom. Overall it is not stable. WiFi does not work. The new-and-improved Linux configuration utility "systemctl" does not work properly---for networking and/or for Wifi. Hours and hours of wasted time. What bozo thought that Linux needed yet-another-way to configure!!!!! Truly STUPID!

And, the very latest (two-day old) BBB image from BeagleBoard.Org did not help. Amazingly bad experience. Who at BeagleBoard.Org thought that Angstrom was a good idea? They need to be shown out the door!

I was about to trash both of my Beaglebone Black PCBs and switch back to Rasberry Pi when I discovered the Ubuntu port for BBB. Highly recommended. USB Wifi worked out-of-the box as expected. Stable as a rock.

   http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#eMMC:_BeagleBone_Black

I even was able to login to the Ubuntu via a simple Web page!  Screw the stupid USB "networking connection" from a Windows PC.  I was never ever able to make that work to get a shell login from my Windows 7 PC!  And, SSH via a "real" Ethernet connection did not work on my first BBB because some SSH "key file" was zero-length.  (That cost me ~4 hours!)

It's time for BeagleBoard.Org to admit they screwed up and to dump the "default" Angstrom Linux distribution.  A total waste of time!!!

[jnorma...@gmail.com]

I don't know about Angstom sucking.  I  use angstrom and I got wifi working... I got a usb adapter with antennea.  It's still a realtek device but it's working fine.
I got master_i2 installed and now have the i2c funtionality I need.

systemctl is the new Unix standard.  Linux adopted it.  

What's great about angstom is you can get the install image to be very lean.  

I don't know about your ssh issues.    I'm connected via a Mac Pro that runs macos 10.7 and OpenSuse Linux 12.2  no problem it work right away.

I'm building a robot with the controller so I disabled the HDMI port to get 20 gpio lines  back.

I've been a Linux user/contributor since 1992.  My first distro was Yggdrasil.  I believe that was the first release on cdrom.   even before slackware.


I think the controller at the $49.00 price point is incredible.  My qwerk controller which is cirrus / spartan 3e based cost me $329.00
the beaglebone..  even  after you add the sensors and hbridge drivers will be less than half the price.

I think  they did a great job.  

[jnorma...@gmail.com]

Gerald...The board is great.. and Angstrom really isn't an issue.  After I learned my way around the distro it was a piece of cake.  I installed npm and was able to add i2c_master funtionality with no problem.  wifi with a cheap stubby realtek adapter does not work well with wpa2 but that adapter does not work well period.   I used it for a adhoc link between my
macpro and a brookstone  ac13 rover.  I though maybe the poor range was due to the rover so I did a test to an AP.     I could only get  70ft range with the stubby wifi adapter.

I got a wifi adapter with a rubber ducky antenna.   So far it's fine.  


I think angstrom was a greeat choice for an embedded platform.    It's leaner.  Keep up the great work!

On Friday, June 7, 2013 8:52:17 AM UTC-4, Gerald wrote:

I appreciate you helpfulness in these issue. You constructive criticism, is appreciated. But, I must point out, that you do not have to use Angstrom and no one is forcing you to, You do have a choice. You should at least give us some credit for giving you that choice. A lot of the boards out here do not provide that choice. I guess one benefit of being stupid as we are, is that we do give you freedom to choose and freedom to help everyone's experience get better and that is your only goal in what you are saying.

Thank you!

Gerald

On Thu, Jun 6, 2013 at 11:38 PM, Bruce D Lightner <bdlig...@gmail.com> wrote:

I loved the specs on the Beaglebone Black TI ARM processor and hardware...but Angstrom on BBB sucks---and is not worth the effort!

I've given up on Angstrom. Overall it is not stable. WiFi does not work. The new-and-improved Linux configuration utility "systemctl" does not work properly---for networking and/or for Wifi. Hours and hours of wasted time. What bozo thought that Linux needed yet-another-way to configure!!!!! Truly STUPID!

And, the very latest (two-day old) BBB image from BeagleBoard.Org did not help. Amazingly bad experience. Who at BeagleBoard.Org thought that Angstrom was a good idea? They need to be shown out the door!

I was about to trash both of my Beaglebone Black PCBs and switch back to Rasberry Pi when I discovered the Ubuntu port for BBB. Highly recommended. USB Wifi worked out-of-the box as expected. Stable as a rock.

   http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#eMMC:_BeagleBone_Black

I even was able to login to the Ubuntu via a simple Web page!  Screw the stupid USB "networking connection" from a Windows PC.  I was never ever able to make that work to get a shell login from my Windows 7 PC!  And, SSH via a "real" Ethernet connection did not work on my first BBB because some SSH "key file" was zero-length.  (That cost me ~4 hours!)

It's time for BeagleBoard.Org to admit they screwed up and to dump the "default" Angstrom Linux distribution.  A total waste of time!!!

Great hardware...lousy software choices.  (Someone has been smoking way too much Python! :-)

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[k.s.ea...@gmail.com]

Well... I have been using linux since the first 'linux fest' in Durham in 1996-ish. I was able to install linux back then and get it working with network and GDI and this and that in short order. 

My experience with the RaspPi was similar.. I could/can get things working by jumping through a hoop or two... I have alwasy been able to find an answer to my issues with RaspPi in a timely way.

My experience with the BBB is atypical of my other experiences with Linux. For one... a simple update.. opkg -t /home/root/tmp upgrade.. killed it. Really?!?!? Wifi is a hastle in an OFTB experiance, and the date time setting simply crashed that feature and while I can run NTLM manually etc... there is not clear and easy to find documentation on these issues or and such with Angstrom. 

It appears that using Angstrom/BBB is a task for someone who wants to figure out how to make the hammer be a hammer instead of using the hammer to hit nails.  

I was/am drawn to the BBB for its hardware features that the RaspPI is short on... but in the end the RaspPI wins in a real world sense as it is a more friendly and mature system.

Avoid the BBB if you are actually wanting the board to do a specific task, like control a servo, provide sound, update without dying, have an convenient and clear method to recover the system with a new image, or even get the thing to display on most common monitors/displays.

The BBB while promising, has missed the mark of usability... and thus is not ready for anyone but those willing to help the system reach maturity for it's purpose.. and that is to be a functioning SBC (single board computer). 

[richa...@gmail.com]

I have killed a dozen sd cards running RaspPi.
Frustrating thing is that it happens after a few days.
Sold off about a doz RasbPi and vowed never to touch it again.

Have run the same software on BBB in outdoors condition of a week.
Works good. So far BBB with angstrom works good.
Excepting for the 4th BBB card, could not dd from sd card to emmc.
Worked fine for the first 3 cards.
Having to upgrade OS from sd card is not a good idea as I had to re-install packages and apps.

[Jay Nugent]

Greetings,

On Sat, 9 Nov 2013, richa...@gmail.com wrote:

> I have killed a dozen sd cards running RaspPi.
> Frustrating thing is that it happens after a few days.
> Sold off about a doz RasbPi and vowed never to touch it again.
>
> Have run the same software on BBB in outdoors condition of a week.
> Works good. So far BBB with angstrom works good.
> Excepting for the 4th BBB card, could not dd from sd card to emmc.
> Worked fine for the first 3 cards.
> Having to upgrade OS from sd card is not a good idea as I had to re-install
> packages and apps.

Too bad that Punky hasn't ported "Voyage Linux" to the ARM processor.
Voyage is small (runs in 128 - 256 megs), designed to run embedded,
doesn't use 'systemd' but instead uses SysV/init startup so it is REALLY
easy to manage services, supports IPv6 and does NOT use that horrid little
'connman' package, has a MUCH larger repository of software packages
available (compared to Angstrom), and runs in READ-ONLY mode so as NOT to
wear out the memory. You can run 'remountrw' and 'remountro' when you
need to make changes to the configs.

Been running Voyage for YEARS and haven't worn out a memory card, yet!

If Voyage were ported to the ARM and included the Device Tree Overlays,
I'd jump ship in a heartbeat :)

--- Jay Nugent WB8TKL
UNIX/Linux SysAdmin instructor
Washtenaw Community College

[gmo...@gmail.com]

Looks like Beaglebone has custom Debian images as of March 5th: http://beagleboard.org/latest-images/

And here, it says they have plans for future BBB's to come preloaded with Debian on the eMMC: 

http://beagleboard.org/project/debian

I did the the eMMC Flasher version of Debian and it was so easy! 

This was a good tutorial: (it says for Angstrom, but I followed the exact same instructions for Debian)
https://learn.adafruit.com/beaglebone-black-installing-operating-systems/mac-os-x

Works great, and now I have Debian on my BBB, the distro I've grown to love :)