Introduction

This page aims to provide a quick “Cook Book”-like Set of instructions to set up BeagleLogic on a BeagleBone Black.

When I recently did this, I found much of the information available online quite dated, which often meant that it did not apply to or work with the most recent Distribution.

Pre-requisites
Basic Setup
1. Optional: Set up SSH
2. Optional: sudo without Password
3. Optional: Grow File System
Check PRU Configuration

Pre-requisites

For completeness, here’s the list of things you’ll need as well as a few links to instructions on how to get your Board running with the plain distribution.

Things needed:

Micro SD Card w/ at least 8 GBytes Capacity.
BeagleBone Black Rev. C Board.

The rest of this page assumes that your Board is powered by USB. Also, it should be connected by cable to your local Ethernet network. Your network should have a workin DHCP and mDNS configuration. I guess mDNS is optional, but it will let you access your board via the default beaglebone host name instead of using its IP address.

Download and Flash Image

Start by downloading the most recent Debian Image for the BeagleBone Black.

At the time of writing, this is the AM3358 Debian 10.3 2020-04-06 4GB SD IoT linked from the official BeagleBoard Site.

Generally, you can follow the official Getting Started instructions.

Basic Setup

Set up SSH

This step is optional and can be skipped. I just don’t like re-typing passwords over and over again while I’m working on projects like this one.

First Log-in

SSH into your board with the default User debian. The initial Password is temppwd.

$ ssh debian@beaglebone
(...)
Debian GNU/Linux 10

BeagleBoard.org Debian Buster IoT Image 2020-04-06

Support: http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian

default username:password is [debian:temppwd]


The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
(...)
debian@beaglebone:~$

Generate SSH Keys

On the BeagleBone, run:

debian@beaglebone:~$ ssh-keygen -t rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/debian/.ssh/id_rsa): 
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): 
Enter same passphrase again: 
Your identification has been saved in /home/debian/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/debian/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
(...)

Copy authorized SSH Keys

From your Desktop machine, copy its SSH Public Key to the BeagleBoard:

$ ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa debian@beaglebone
(...)

sudo without Password

Open the /etc/sudoers.d/admin file and add the NOPASSWD keyword:

debian@beaglebone:~$ sudo vim /etc/sudoers.d/admin
(...)

Change the file to read this:

Defaults	env_keep += "NODE_PATH"
%admin ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Grow File System

After installation, grow the file system to use all of your SD Card’s Capacity:

sudo /opt/scripts/tools/grow_partition.sh

Build BeagleLogic

Clone the git Repository

Clone the BeagleLogic git repository:

debian@beaglebone:~$ git clone https://github.com/PhischDotOrg/BeagleLogic.git
Cloning into 'BeagleLogic'...
(...)

Install the Kernel Headers

debian@beaglebone:~$ sudo apt-get update
(...)                                                                                             
Reading package lists... Done
debian@beaglebone:~$ sudo apt-get update
debian@beaglebone:~$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  linux-headers-4.19.94-ti-r42
(...)

Build the Kernel Module

debian@beaglebone:~$ cd BeagleLogic/kernel
debian@beaglelogic:~/BeagleLogic/kernel$ make
debian@beaglelogic:~/BeagleLogic/kernel$ sudo make install

Build PRU Firmware

debian@beaglebone:~$ cd BeagleLogic/firmware
debian@beaglelogic:~/BeagleLogic/firmware$ export PRU_CGT=/usr/share/ti/cgt-pru
debian@beaglelogic:~/BeagleLogic/firmware$ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/ /usr/share/ti/cgt-pru/bin
debian@beaglelogic:~/BeagleLogic/firmware$ make
debian@beaglelogic:~/BeagleLogic/firmware$ sudo -E make install

Post-Build Set-up

Set-up uEnv.txt

Disable HDMI

BeagleLogic needs to use the same pin as HDMI normally would. Disable the HDMI ports by making sure the following line is uncommented in /boot/uEnv.txt:

disable_uboot_overlay_video=1

Add BeagleLogic Flattened Device Tree (FTD) Overlay

Add the custom BeagleLogic Flattened Device Tree (FTD) Overlay in /boot/uEnv.txt:

dtb_overlay=/lib/firmware/beaglelogic-00A0.dtbo

Without this, the beaglelogic Kernel driver will not probe/attach successfully.

Add Group for BeagleLogic user(s)

debian@beaglelogic:~$ sudo usermod -a -G beaglelogic `whoami`
debian@beaglelogic:~$ sudo groupadd beaglelogic

Add `udev` Rules

debian@beaglelogic:~$ cd BeagleLogic
debian@beaglelogic:~/BeagleLogic$ sudo cp scripts/90-beaglelogic.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/90-beaglelogic.rules

Debugging Hints

Check PRU Configuration

I found the below options / settings were already enabled by default when I initially flashed the image. However, the information may come in handy when trying to figure out why certain things don’t work.

Check the u-Boot Flattened Device Tree (FTD) Overlays

Open /boot/uEnv.txt and make sure the following lines are active, i.e. not commented out:

uboot_overlay_pru=/lib/firmware/AM335X-PRU-RPROC-4-19-TI-00A0.dtbo

To check whether the overlay was in fact loaded, do this:

debian@beaglebone:~$ sudo /opt/scripts/tools/version.sh | grep UBOOT
UBOOT: Booted Device-Tree:[am335x-boneblack-uboot-univ.dts]
UBOOT: Loaded Overlay:[AM335X-PRU-RPROC-4-19-TI-00A0]
UBOOT: Loaded Overlay:[BB-ADC-00A0]
UBOOT: Loaded Overlay:[BB-BONE-eMMC1-01-00A0]

Check the PRU remoteproc drivers

Check whether the PRU remoteproc driver attached properly:

debian@beaglebone:~$ rc_test_drivers | grep rproc
PASSED: pru-rproc

Assorted Notes

Misc.

sudo /opt/scripts/tools/update_kernel.sh
sudo apt-get install seeed-modules ???
sudo modprobe pruss ???