Need Help to Bridge Internet from Chromebook to Beagle Bone Black Rev. C board?

[Faddah Steve Yuetsu Wolf]

hello,

i am a new owner of a Beagle Bone Black, Rev. C., and am just getting started with it.

my main problem in the getting started process is an internet connection to update various software on the Beagle Bone Black (from here on in, the BBB for short); as in, it has no internet connection.

i am connecting the BBB to my Chromebook, and Acer C720P (http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/NX.MKEAA.001). pleae keep in mind, under the hood, a ChromeOS Chromebook is just linux, as in this kind of linux — 

Linux localhost 3.8.11 #1 SMP Sat Mar 7 07:02:28 PST 2015 x86_64 Intel(R) Celeron(R) 2955U @ 1.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
Version 41.0.2272.89 (64-bit) [version of Chrome]
Platform 6680.64.0 (Official Build) stable-channel peppy_freon
Firmware Google_Peppy.4389.89.0

i just want to bridge the wifi connection on my Acer C720P Chromebook laptop over to my BBB so i can update things, like updating node 0.10.25 to 0.10.36, etc., but that can't happen without an internet connection. and before anyone suggests it, yes, i know the BBB has an ethernet port and i could connect it direct into the ethernet somehwere, but availability of free, open, working ethernet ports for me is limited, wifi bridged over my Chromebook laptop is far more ubiquitious.

i am able to ssh into my BBB using —

$ ssh 192.168.7.2 -l root

but that's about it. i cannot get the BBB to see any other outside internet and update accordingly.

any help in making this happen, bridging the internet from my Chromebook Acer C720P to my new BBB, would be most appreciated.

thank you in advance.

best,

—  faddah

     portland, oregon, u.s.a.

Linux localhost 3.8.11 #1 SMP Sat Mar 7 07:02:28 PST 2015 x86_64 Intel(R) Celeron(R) 2955U @ 1.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Linux localhost 3.8.11 #1 SMP Sat Mar 7 07:02:28 PST 2015 x86_64 Intel(R) Celeron(R) 2955U @ 1.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

[William Hermans]

Something like . . .

# iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface wlan0 -j MASQUERADE
# iptables --append FORWARD --in-interface usb0 -j ACCEPT
# echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

Which was copy pasted directly off this group from a post that was made not more than a week or so ago . . . Moral of the story, search the group before asking. Or even search the internet, as I know there are many articles on this as well.

Now if /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward does not exist on google chromium. You'll have to figure out which file is the equivalent.

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[Faddah Steve Yuetsu Wolf]

hello @William Hermans,

thank you for responding to me with this answer.

just so you know, i did attempt to search for my issue before posting here, searching under "internet forwarding linux beaglebone black" — all that got me were some older entries, most of whom were on the MS-Windows OS, and not really applicable to my current situation. perhaps if you would please be so kind as to include the link to that earlier post from last week so i could reveiw it in full?

in any case, i did try the steps above. when i try to do —

$ iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface wlan0 -j MASQUERADE

it comes back saying —

iptables v1.4.16.3: can't initialize iptables table `nat': Permission denied (you must be root)
Perhaps iptables or your kernel needs to be upgraded.

so i have to either put "sudo" in front of the commands or log-in as the super user, "su." that seems to go through the commands o.k.

however, now i am onto an entirely different problem — i am suddenly, as of yesterday when i plugged it in, not able to ssh into my BBB or see the web page it is supposed to send if you go to http://192.168.7.2/ when it is attached. i am in the midst of trouble-shooting that. once that is fixed and all communications are good again, then i will try your command statements again above and see if that bridges the internet from the chromebook to the BBB and let you know if it works. thank you again for trying to help.

best,

—  faddah

     portland, oregon, u.s.a.

[William Hermans]

If you look at the commands I gave above they are denoted with a '#' prior to the command. This indicates that root is required for these commands to operate properly.

$ indicates regular / unprivileged user.

# indicates substitute / privileged user.

You can also use sudo most of the time for various commands, and you can even add the user to the sudoers file, so that they can execute the / a command without having to enter a passwd . . . ever.

[Faddah Steve Yuetsu Wolf]

hi william,

thank you for writing back again.

yes, i all ready got the '#' was for a sudo or root user. i did run that on my Acer C720P Chromebook, all three commands, as root. they seemed to run o.k.  and yes, i know about the regular use of sudo when permissions are denied or adding user accounts to the sudoers file.

however, after running them, and having the beaglebone black rev. c connected only via USB, it still does not bridge internet over from my Chromebook via USB to the beaglebone black rev. c. 

i can connect a very loooooooooooooong ethernet cord to my one last port on our house router, and yes, get an internet connection to the beaglebone black rev. c; but, of course, i would prefer to have it bridged from my Chromebook so i don't get complaints from my roommates about tripping over the cord while i am working with the beaglebone black rev. c.

any further suggestions on diagnosing this and getting it to work, if you have any, please? i do appreciate all help you have kindly offered thus far, thank you.

best,

—  faddah

     portland, oregon, u.s.a.

[William Hermans]

1) get a blank sdcard.

2) write a bootable 'stock' command line only image to it.

3) edit the sdcard images files to either . . .

   a) load g_serial

   b) load g_ether and edit /etc/network/interfaces to reflect that both the BBB and the host PC are on the same network. Be aware of the piece of work, know as "connman"

   c) Just get an ethernet patch cable, and connect directly to the BBB from the host PC. Again, edit /etc/network/interfaces to give *both* a static IP and make sure both are on the same network.

   d) buy a serial debug cable, and connect via your favorite serial communications app. No idea what is available on Chromium.miniconn probably . . .

Anyhow, once you're in, it should not be too much of a problem to identify the eMMC, and troubleshoot whats going on. Ideally, a serial debug cable would be best, as you get to see whats happening at boot time. However, a decent one can cost around $20, and if you poke around and find one on ebay for ~$2, you're likely going to be waiting for that slow boat to arrive from China . . .

[Faddah Steve Yuetsu Wolf]

hello again, william,

and thank you again for answering me back so promptly.

i all ready do have a serial debug cable, it came as part of a "kit" for the beaglebone black rev. c from element14/eleduino (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P48PQTS/). it is the kind that is like the adafruit serial debug cable (http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBone_Black_Serial#Adafruit_4_Pin_Cable_.28PL2303.29), the black wire going to the debug J1 jumper, the green going to pin 4 for recieve and the white going to pin 5 for transmit.

i have all ready used it today to re-set the ssh server on the beaglebone and reboot it for changes to take effect using this app for Chromebooks, Beagle Term (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/beagle-term/gkdofhllgfohlddimiiildbgoggdpoea) —  and it worked great (unless i did something like have it print screen of loooooong error logs, then it crashed my entire Chromebook waiting on it to get log messages all the way back from when the beaglebone black board and kernel were created/initialized).

i got most of this info from the kind people in live chat/irc freenode #beagle channel.

so, given i have the serial debug cable, any way you could please step me through what to do here? or do i still need to go out and get a microSD card to do the flash, etc.?

please let me know. and i do appreciate all the help.

best,

—  faddah

     portland, oregon, u.s.a.

[William Hermans]

I have no idea what you've done, and why your board isn't working as shipped. *You* need to do some troubleshooting, figure out what the problem is. Then fix it. Think of this as a good learning experience.

If the board is booting, and you have a serial debug cable already, then you do not exactly *need* a sdcard. However, like the serial debug cable. Having an sdcard around, can be very handy. How would you propose to fix the eMMC file system if you ever put it in a non bootable state ?

Anyway, I would probably start with ifconfig on both sides of the connection. To see why a connection is not happening. Passed that, route -n, and lsmod may come in handy too.

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[Faddah Steve Yuetsu Wolf]

hello william,

thank you again for responding.

i apologize if i was not very clear in my last message. my beaglebone black rev. c is working, just fine, now. it was not working earlier in the day, because, for some unknown reason, i was not able to ssh into it via the USB cable, as i was able to so easily two days ago. after much back and forth this afternoon on the Freenode IRC #beagle channel (same as the live chat on this web site), i was able to get it working again by using the Adafruit (or similar) serial debug cable with the Beagle Term app for Chromebook i mentioned (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/beagle-term/gkdofhllgfohlddimiiildbgoggdpoea). that's how i knew i had the serial debug cable and a decent app on the Chromebook by which to see the beaglebone black rev. c board via that serial debug cable. 

so to re-cap:  the board is working just fine now, i just still can't bridge internet from my Acer C720P Chromebook USB port over to the beaglebone black rev. c. i can use the long ethernet cable to my router, but, as i said, that will create a problem eventually for my roommates.

i do intend to get a micro sd card in the next couple of days, for backing up a flash of the eMMC, as you say, in case of catastrophic failure while creating something or other.

so given all that, is there a way to help me, please, bridge the internet connection from my Chromebook via USB over to the beaglebone black rev. c? i apologize for my rank nØØb questions, but i'm more of a web development coding in html5 & javascript guy, not so much a linux IT guy, so i don't know ifconfig, route -n or lsmod very well. i also think this is not a matter of beaglebone black no working straight out of the box; i believe, it is a matter that ChromeOS linux is not the standard linux beaglebone black is expecting to bridge internet from and there is probably some set-up involved that i am missing. 

is there an on-line instruction guide for beaglebone, a how-to or simple step-by-step primer, for understanding how to bridge internet connection from a linux laptop to beaglebone black rev. c that you or anyone else here on the forums could please point me to?

i would greatly appreciate it.

thank you for your help thus far and in advance for your help with my further query above.

best,

—  faddah

     portland, oregon, u.s.a. 

[William Hermans]

is there an on-line instruction guide for beaglebone, a how-to or simple step-by-step primer, for understanding how to bridge internet connection from a linux laptop to beaglebone black rev. c that you or anyone else here on the forums could please point me to?

No. There is not such animal. Why you ask ? Because this has nothing to do with a Chrome-Book, and a single board computer. It has everything to do with Linux. More specifically; Chromes ability to do Internet Connection Sharing.

So, while on the topic of Chrome. I have no hands on experience with Chrome. None, nadda, zip !  So, my suggestion to you, would be go to a Chrome forum, google group, or IRC chat channel, and pose your question there. Just leave out the part where you're using a beaglebone, and just tell them "a Debian system". Since, again, the hardware has nothing to do with it.

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