BeagleBoard

Install to a SD card

Replace sdX in the following instructions with the device name for the SD card as it appears on your computer.

1. Zero the beginning of the SD card:

   dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8

2. Start fdisk to partition the SD card:

   fdisk /dev/sdX

3. At the fdisk prompt, delete old partitions and create a new one:
   1. Type o. This will clear out any partitions on the drive.
   2. Type p to list partitions. There should be no partitions left.
   3. Type c to set the DOS Compatibility flag.
   4. Now type n, then p for primary, 1 for the first partition on the drive, 63 for the first sector, and then +100M for the default last sector.
   5. Type t, then c to set the first partition to type W95 FAT32 (LBA).
   6. Type a to set the bootable flag on the first partition.
   7. Type n, then p for primary, 2 for the second partition on the drive, then press ENTER twice to accept the default first and last sector.
   8. Write the partition table and exit by typing w.
4. Create and mount the FAT filesystem:

   mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/sdX1
   mkdir boot
   mount /dev/sdX1 boot

5. Create and mount the ext4 filesystem:

   mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX2
   mkdir root
   mount /dev/sdX2 root

6. Download and extract the root filesystem (as root, not via sudo):

   wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz
   bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz -C root
   sync

7. Move boot files to the first partition:

   mv root/boot/* boot

8. Install the U-Boot bootloader:

   wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/omap/boot/beagleboard/MLO
   wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/omap/boot/beagleboard/u-boot.img
   mv MLO u-boot.img boot

9. Add the boot partition to fstab:

   echo "/dev/mmcblk0p1  /boot   vfat    defaults        0       0" >> root/etc/fstab

10. Unmount the two partitions:

    umount boot root

11. Insert the SD card into the BeagleBoard, connect ethernet, and apply 5V power.
12. Use the serial console (with a null-modem adapter if needed) or SSH to the IP address given to the board by your router.
    • Login as the default user alarm with the password alarm.
    • The default root password is root.
13. Initialize the pacman keyring and populate the Arch Linux ARM package signing keys:

    pacman-key --init
    pacman-key --populate archlinuxarm

Install the U-Boot package

1. In order to receive updates to the U-Boot bootloader, after logging into the system type:

   rm /boot/{MLO,u-boot.img}
   pacman -Sy uboot-beagleboard

Permanent MAC address

1. Edit /boot/uEnv.txt
2. Set smsc95xx.macaddr in the optargs variable, for example:

   optargs=smsc95xx.macaddr=ce:1a:7d:93:2f:f9

3. Reboot.