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This is a page about TI's Cortex-A8 based; BeagleBoard.

Availability

Boards:
BeagleBoard xM at Digi-Key

Basic Requirements

ARM Cross Compiler: GCC

This is a pre-built (64bit) version of Linaro GCC that runs on generic linux, sorry (32bit) x86 users, it's time to upgrade...
Download/Extract:

~/
wget -c https://releases.linaro.org/components/toolchain/binaries/6.4-2018.05/arm-linux-gnueabihf/gcc-linaro-6.4.1-2018.05-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
tar xf gcc-linaro-6.4.1-2018.05-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
export CC=`pwd`/gcc-linaro-6.4.1-2018.05-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf/bin/arm-linux-gnueabihf-

Test Cross Compiler:

~/
${CC}gcc --version
arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc (Linaro GCC 6.4-2018.05) 6.4.1 20180425 [linaro-6.4-2018.05 revision 7b15d0869c096fe39603ad63dc19ab7cf035eb70]
Copyright (C) 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Bootloader: U-Boot

Das U-Boot – the Universal Boot Loader: http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot
eewiki.net patch archive: https://github.com/eewiki/u-boot-patches
Download:

~/
git clone https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot
cd u-boot/
git checkout v2018.09-rc2 -b tmp

Patches:

~/u-boot
wget -c https://rcn-ee.com/repos/git/u-boot-patches/v2018.09-rc2/0001-omap3_beagle-uEnv.txt-bootz-n-fixes.patch
 
patch -p1 < 0001-omap3_beagle-uEnv.txt-bootz-n-fixes.patch

Configure and Build:

~/u-boot
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CC} distclean
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CC} omap3_beagle_defconfig
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=${CC}

Linux Kernel

Spectre: https://meltdownattack.com and https://developer.arm.com/support/arm-security-updates/speculative-processor-vulnerability
Spectre v2 Migation requires minimal: U-Boot: v2018.07 and Kernel: v4.18.x

[    0.047363] CPU0: Spectre v2: using BPIALL workaround

This script will build the kernel, modules, device tree binaries and copy them to the deploy directory.
Download:

~/
git clone https://github.com/RobertCNelson/armv7-multiplatform
cd armv7-multiplatform/

For v4.9.x (Longterm 4.9.x):

~/armv7-multiplatform/
git checkout origin/v4.9.x -b tmp

For v4.9.x-rt (Longterm 4.9.x + Real-Time Linux):

~/armv7-multiplatform/
git checkout origin/v4.9.x-rt -b tmp

For v4.14.x (Longterm 4.14.x):

~/armv7-multiplatform/
git checkout origin/v4.14.x -b tmp

For v4.14.x-rt (Longterm 4.14.x + Real-Time Linux):

~/armv7-multiplatform/
git checkout origin/v4.14.x-rt -b tmp

For v4.18.x (Stable):

~/armv7-multiplatform/
git checkout origin/v4.18.x -b tmp

Build:

~/armv7-multiplatform/
./build_kernel.sh

Root File System

Debian 9

User

Password

debian

temppwd

root

root

Download:

~/
wget -c https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/eewiki/minfs/debian-9.5-minimal-armhf-2018-07-30.tar.xz

Verify:

~/
sha256sum debian-9.5-minimal-armhf-2018-07-30.tar.xz
9399d649d1ce9910bbfc745f59dc57ee0e1134f57e8cae01c8cd75a8bd9d1e1e  debian-9.5-minimal-armhf-2018-07-30.tar.xz

Extract:

~/
tar xf debian-9.5-minimal-armhf-2018-07-30.tar.xz

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

User

Password

ubuntu

temppwd

Download:

~/
wget -c https://rcn-ee.com/rootfs/eewiki/minfs/ubuntu-18.04.1-minimal-armhf-2018-07-30.tar.xz

Verify:

~/
sha256sum ubuntu-18.04.1-minimal-armhf-2018-07-30.tar.xz
6b212ee7dd0d5c9c0af49c22cf78b63e6ad20cec641c303232fca9f21a18804c  ubuntu-18.04.1-minimal-armhf-2018-07-30.tar.xz

Extract:

~/
tar xf ubuntu-18.04.1-minimal-armhf-2018-07-30.tar.xz

Setup microSD card

For these instruction we are assuming, DISK=/dev/mmcblk0, lsblk is very useful for determining the device id.

export DISK=/dev/mmcblk0

Erase partition table/labels on microSD card:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=${DISK} bs=1M count=20

Create Partition Layout:
With util-linux v2.26, sfdisk was rewritten and is now based on libfdisk.

sudo sfdisk --version
sfdisk from util-linux 2.27.1
sfdisk >= 2.26.x
sudo sfdisk ${DISK} <<-__EOF__
1M,12M,0xE,*
13M,,,-
__EOF__
sfdisk <= 2.25.x
sudo sfdisk --unit M ${DISK} <<-__EOF__
1,12,0xE,*
13,,,-
__EOF__

Format Partition:

for: DISK=/dev/mmcblk0
sudo mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n BOOT ${DISK}p1
sudo mkfs.ext4 -L rootfs ${DISK}p2
 
for: DISK=/dev/sdX
sudo mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n BOOT ${DISK}1
sudo mkfs.ext4 -L rootfs ${DISK}2

Mount Partition:
On most systems these partitions may will be auto-mounted...

sudo mkdir -p /media/boot/
sudo mkdir -p /media/rootfs/
 
for: DISK=/dev/mmcblk0
sudo mount ${DISK}p1 /media/boot/
sudo mount ${DISK}p2 /media/rootfs/
 
for: DISK=/dev/sdX
sudo mount ${DISK}1 /media/boot/
sudo mount ${DISK}2 /media/rootfs/

Install Bootloader

Copy MLO/u-boot.img to the boot partition

~/
sudo cp -v ./u-boot/MLO /media/boot/
sudo cp -v ./u-boot/u-boot.img /media/boot/

Install Kernel and Root File System

To help new users, since the kernel version can change on a daily basis. The kernel building scripts listed on this page will now give you a hint of what kernel version was built.

-----------------------------
Script Complete
eewiki.net: [user@localhost:~$ export kernel_version=4.X.Y-Z]
-----------------------------

Copy and paste that "export kernel_version=4.X.Y-Z" exactly as shown in your own build/desktop environment and hit enter to create an environment variable to be used later.

export kernel_version=4.X.Y-Z

Copy Root File System

~/
sudo tar xfvp ./*-*-*-armhf-*/armhf-rootfs-*.tar -C /media/rootfs/
sync
sudo chown root:root /media/rootfs/
sudo chmod 755 /media/rootfs/

Set uname_r in /boot/uEnv.txt

~/
sudo sh -c "echo 'uname_r=${kernel_version}' >> /media/rootfs/boot/uEnv.txt"

Copy Kernel Image

Kernel Image:

~/
sudo cp -v ./armv7-multiplatform/deploy/${kernel_version}.zImage /media/rootfs/boot/vmlinuz-${kernel_version}

Copy Kernel Device Tree Binaries

~/
sudo mkdir -p /media/rootfs/boot/dtbs/${kernel_version}/
sudo tar xfv ./armv7-multiplatform/deploy/${kernel_version}-dtbs.tar.gz -C /media/rootfs/boot/dtbs/${kernel_version}/

Copy Kernel Modules

~/
sudo tar xfv ./armv7-multiplatform/deploy/${kernel_version}-modules.tar.gz -C /media/rootfs/

File Systems Table (/etc/fstab)

sudo sh -c "echo '/dev/mmcblk0p2  /  auto  errors=remount-ro  0  1' >> /media/rootfs/etc/fstab"
sudo sh -c "echo '/dev/mmcblk0p1  /boot/uboot  auto  defaults  0  2' >> /media/rootfs/etc/fstab"

Remove microSD/SD card

sync
sudo umount /media/boot
sudo umount /media/rootfs

Comments

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