beaglebone_setup - nortd/lasersaur GitHub Wiki

BeagleBone Setup

DEPRECATED

Note: There are two different kinds of BeagleBones on the market now: Please see BeagleBone Black setup for the latest board.

While the BeagleBone comes with Angstrom Linux pre-installed we use Ubuntu for the Lasersaur. It plays better with usb peripherals like wifi dongles. The following shows how to get the fully pre-configured lasersaur-beaglebone-image onto the BeagleBone.

Alternatively you can configure a stock Ubuntu/Debian image from scratch. Or use the pre-installed Angstrom Linux (see old setup instruction).

Before you start be informed that some command line skills are helpful. If you need to brush up, here is a great command line tutorial, well worth the time.

Setup Steps

  1. Download lasersaur-beaglebone-image-v13.06.img.gz
  • md5sum: 0f17bedc61421bb3fbd98f7d6583c6ad
  1. Clone image to BeagleBone SD-card
  2. Configure Wifi (optionally)
  3. Set new root password
  4. Update LasaurApp

On Linux

  1. Download lasersaur-beaglebone-image
  2. Clone image to BeagleBone SD-card
  • Insert card in computer's sd-card reader.
  • Figure out sd-card device name by running df -l and substitute for /dev/sdx in the following.
  • gzip -dc lasersaur-beaglebone-image.gz | pv -s 4G -peta | sudo dd of=/dev/sdx bs=1M
    • if you don't have pv, the following works too but you won't get a progress bar
    • gzip -dc lasersaur-beaglebone-image.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdx bs=1M
  1. Configure Wifi (optionally)
  • edit /etc/network/interfaces on the sd-card
    • replace "your access point name" and "your passphrase" with your wireless credentials (this assumes wpa or wpa2 encryption)
  • Add a usb wifi dongle to BeagleBone. Make sure it uses the rtl8192cu chipset like the Edimax EW-7811Un or the OurLink
  • Boot BeagleBone with newly created sd-card
  • If the wifi is spotty use a short usb extension cable. More info here.
  1. Set new root password
  • Make sure you are on the same network/router as the BeagleBone and give it about two minutes to boot up.
  • connect to the BeagleBone with ssh [email protected]
  • default password is: bone
  • run passwd
  1. Update LasaurApp
  • Connect to the BeagleBone with ssh [email protected]
  • cd LasaurApp; git pull
  • Alternatively you can also manually copy the latest sources to ~/LasaurApp
  • reboot
  • Open lasersaur.local in a web browser.
  • In web interface flash firmware via Admin/Flash Firmware (latest)

On OSX

  1. Download lasersaur-beaglebone-image
  2. Clone image to BeagleBone SD-card
  • Insert card in computer's sd-card reader.
  • Unmount partitions on sd-card
    • Use diskutil list to figure out exact names and substitute in the following two steps.
    • diskutil umountDisk /dev/diskX
  • Copy image data. This may take more than 10 minutes.
    • gzip -dc lasersaur-beaglebone-image.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/diskX
  1. Configure Wifi (optionally)
  • edit /etc/network/interfaces on the sd-card
    • replace "your access point name" and "your passphrase" with your wireless credentials (this assumes wpa or wpa2 encryption)
  • Add a usb wifi dongle to BeagleBone. Make sure it uses the rtl8192cu chipset like the Edimax EW-7811Un or the OurLink
  • Boot BeagleBone with newly created sd-card
  • If the wifi is spotty use a short usb extension cable. More info here.
  1. Set new root password
  • Make sure you are on the same network/router as the BeagleBone and give it about two minutes to boot up.
  • connect to the BeagleBone with ssh [email protected]
  • default password is: bone
  • run passwd
  1. Update LasaurApp
  • Connect to the BeagleBone with ssh [email protected]
  • cd LasaurApp; git pull
  • Alternatively you can also manually copy the latest sources to ~/LasaurApp
  • reboot
  • Open lasersaur.local in a web browser.
  • In web interface flash firmware via Admin/Flash Firmware (latest)

On Windows

  1. Download lasersaur-beaglebone-image
  2. Clone image to BeagleBone SD-card
  1. Configure Wifi (optionally)
  • edit /etc/network/interfaces on the sd-card
    • replace "your access point name" and "your passphrase" with your wireless credentials (this assumes wpa or wpa2 encryption)
  • Add a usb wifi dongle to BeagleBone. Make sure it uses the rtl8192cu chipset like the Edimax EW-7811Un or the OurLink
  • Boot BeagleBone with newly created sd-card
  • If the wifi is spotty use a short usb extension cable. More info here.
  1. Set new root password
  • Make sure you are on the same network/router as the BeagleBone and give it about two minutes to boot up.
  • connect to the BeagleBone at lasersaur.local with Putty
  • user: root
  • default password is: bone
  • run passwd
  1. Update LasaurApp
  • Connect to the BeagleBone again.
  • cd LasaurApp; git pull
  • Alternatively you can also manually copy the latest sources to ~/LasaurApp
  • reboot
  • Open lasersaur.local in a web browser.
  • In web interface flash firmware via Admin/Flash Firmware (latest)