generating a boot image from source

[R Jones]

Ok, this started out as a question but now sharing the issue and simple answer for anyone else interested.

--

I followed Robert's excellent documentation here:

https://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/PocketBeagle

(this is one of the few times that I've compiled u-boot & linux and applied patches where I didnt need to go on a hunt to fix errors). I used Robert's latest (10/10) debian root fs image which I was hoping matched the official release at

https://beagleboard.org/latest-images

However, while the net result "appears" to boot (from the LED's blink pattern), there is no response on the USB OTG, except periodic errors that the interface is disconnected.

Here is what the host sees (no ip address)

enx60640542f439 Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 60:64:05:42:f4:39   
         UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
         RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
         TX packets:1 errors:348 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
         collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000  
         RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:134 (134.0 B)

enx60640542f43c Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 60:64:05:42:f4:3c   
         UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
         RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
         TX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
         collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000  
         RX bytes:179 (179.0 B)  TX bytes:518 (518.0 B)

I then hooked up Uart0 (p1 pins 30-tx & 32-rx, together with 16-gnd) using a sparkfun ftdi 3.3v 'basic' and can see the boot process, including uboot. Nice! I use Linux 'screen' with 115200 bps.

But at the end of the process, nothing is setting up the OTG network.

I  notice the /etc/network/interfaces file in the root file system source is sparse. In fact, it appears quite different from the 'working' boot image:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# Ethernet/RNDIS gadget (g_ether)
# Used by: /opt/scripts/boot/autoconfigure_usb0.sh
iface usb0 inet static
   address 192.168.7.2
   netmask 255.255.255.252
   network 192.168.7.0
   gateway 192.168.7.1

When I copied the contents of the interfaces file into the self generated image and rebooted,  the ethernet IP's appear on the host!

enx60640542f439 Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 60:64:05:42:f4:39   
         inet addr:192.168.7.1  Bcast:192.168.7.3  Mask:255.255.255.252
         inet6 addr: fe80::ae35:8a91:8c75:c451/64 Scope:Link
         UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
         RX packets:143 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
         TX packets:188 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
         collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000  
         RX bytes:50261 (50.2 KB)  TX bytes:32565 (32.5 KB)

enx60640542f43c Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 60:64:05:42:f4:3c   
         inet addr:192.168.6.1  Bcast:192.168.6.3  Mask:255.255.255.252
         inet6 addr: fe80::8e85:6769:4b8f:f12/64 Scope:Link
         UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
         RX packets:46 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
         TX packets:73 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
         collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000  
         RX bytes:5923 (5.9 KB)  TX bytes:10648 (10.6 KB)

There are a number of other differences in the beaglebone.org latest image as compared to the one in Robert's  github.

If possible, it would be great to describe how to apply the differences (for newcomers like me). For one thing, the official image has node, cloud9, bonescript, shares a virtual drive and lots of other cool tricks.

[R Jones]

BTW, the ubuntu filesystem from this step:

wget -c https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/eewiki/minfs/ubuntu-16.04.3-minimal-armhf-2017-10-10.tar.xz

appears to need 'auto usb0' as shown in this section:

...

auto usb0

iface usb0 inet static 
   address 192.168.7.2 
   netmask 255.255.255.252 
   network 192.168.7.0 
   gateway 192.168.7.1

otherwise it didn't work (for me).