Can you flash eMMC on BBB from something other than the SD card slot? (USB port?)

[Harry]

Hello all,

I am wondering if there is a method to flash the eMMC on the BBB by using serial commands or the USB port? I am trying to automate the flashing step and do not want to use an SD card, as this is a manual process.

Thanks for your help!

[bi...@pocketnc.com]

I would love to do this as well. the BBB appears to be able to boot from serial and network. I have not found anything yet.

[bi...@pocketnc.com]

here are some pages i found that might be helpful.

once booted an image can be written to the eMMC. I have not tried this yet.

some help on serial booting.

https://e2e.ti.com/support/arm/sitara_arm/f/791/t/169883?AM335x-Beaglebone-boot-over-UART

Ethernet boot

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Ubuntu_12.04_Set_Up_to_Network_Boot_an_AM335x_Based_Platform

On Wednesday, May 23, 2018 at 6:32:07 PM UTC-6, Harry wrote:

[Stuart Longland]

On 25/05/18 02:00, bi...@pocketnc.com wrote:
> I would love to do this as well. the BBB appears to be able to boot from
> serial and network. I have not found anything yet.

Probably not via USB, because that requires the OS on eMMC to be up and
running to create the USB serial gadget, and overwriting a running OS is
asking for it… big time!

Years ago we had a similar problem with some Ka-Ro TX-27 modules and I
believe the solution was to hook to the console UART and use an
`expect`¹ script to tell the boot-loader (RedBoot in this case) to load
an image from a TFTP server over the network and flash it that way.
--
Stuart Longland (aka Redhatter, VK4MSL)

I haven't lost my mind...
...it's backed up on a tape somewhere.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expect