all eewiki.net comments posted here
Thank you for this guide with helpful instructions but am left with some questions and a kernel boot issue. I dusted off a couple of old Beagleboard Rev C4 boards with a specific project in mind. The boards boot and run the old Angstrom code fine but wanted to try and get a more up-to-date linux installed if possible because the package/app I want to run (MPD) requires it. I have tried the ArchLinuxARM with no luck (wouldn’t load the MLO, or u-boot they provided) and then came across Robert Nelson’s page.
Using the guide, I was able to get an up-to-date MLO and u-boot built, installed and booting from mmc.
I was able to build the kernel without issues but it fails to start. It gets through the kernel image load then says “Starting kernel …” and just hangs, LEDs are on solid and HDMI out is orange etc. The rootfs I tried was the debian 9 listed on the guide page. I will include the boot output I captured using the serial monitor but here are the questions:
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Which kernel is the proper choice? The guide lists several and I don’t know what criteria to use to determine what is appropriate.
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During the kernel build, the configuration editor came up and I wasn’t sure what if any additions/changes were needed so went with what was configured by default. Can you offer any guidance on that?
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Is it realistic to expect to get the old C4 board updated? I have scoured the web for a couple days trying to find info for the BB C4 but appears everything has moved to beaglebone and RPi (and others) lately.
Below is the boot output (note: the uboot environment was left at the default and the user button was pressed to get it to load from mmc)
…
U-Boot SPL 2018.01-rc1-dirty (Dec 28 2017 - 10:29:22)
Trying to boot from MMC1
SPL: Please implement spl_start_uboot() for your board
SPL: Direct Linux boot not active!
reading u-boot.img
reading u-boot.img
U-Boot 2018.01-rc1-dirty (Dec 28 2017 - 10:29:22 -0600)
OMAP3530-GP ES3.1, CPU-OPP2, L3-165MHz, Max CPU Clock 720 MHz
OMAP3 Beagle board + LPDDR/NAND
I2C: ready
DRAM: 256 MiB
NAND: 256 MiB
MMC: OMAP SD/MMC: 0
Beagle Rev C4
Timed out in wait_for_event: status=0000
Check if pads/pull-ups of bus are properly configured
No EEPROM on expansion board
Timed out in wait_for_event: status=0000
Check if pads/pull-ups of bus are properly configured
No EEPROM on expansion board
OMAP die ID: 46e2000400000000040373050f01b015
Net: usb_ether
Error: usb_ether address not set.
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 2 1 0
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
Scanning mmc 0:1…
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
SD/MMC found on device 0
Checking for: /uEnv.txt …
Checking for: /boot/uEnv.txt …
24 bytes read in 9 ms (2 KiB/s)
Loaded environment from /boot/uEnv.txt
Checking if uname_r is set in /boot/uEnv.txt…
Running uname_boot …
loading /boot/vmlinuz-4.14.9-armv7-x4 …
6795776 bytes read in 615 ms (10.5 MiB/s)
loading /boot/dtbs/4.14.9-armv7-x4/omap3-beagle.dtb …
99220 bytes read in 322 ms (300.8 KiB/s)
debug: [console=ttyO2,115200n8 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 ro rootfstype=ext4 rootwait] …
debug: [bootz 0x82000000 - 0x88000000] …
Flattened Device Tree blob at 88000000
Booting using the fdt blob at 0x88000000
Loading Device Tree to 8ffe4000, end 8ffff393 … OK
Starting kernel …
Hi Varied Enthusiast,
There was actually a discussion on u-boot about this issue, and i just confirmed it works for us too:
https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/patch/853362/
U-Boot SPL 2018.01-rc2-dirty (Dec 29 2017 - 09:37:17)
Trying to boot from MMC1
SPL: Please implement spl_start_uboot() for your board
SPL: Direct Linux boot not active!
reading u-boot.img
reading u-boot.img
U-Boot 2018.01-rc2-dirty (Dec 29 2017 - 09:37:17 -0600)
OMAP3530-GP ES3.1, CPU-OPP2, L3-165MHz, Max CPU Clock 720 MHz
OMAP3 Beagle board + LPDDR/NAND
I2C: ready
DRAM: 256 MiB
NAND: 256 MiB
MMC: OMAP SD/MMC: 0
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment
Beagle Rev C4
Timed out in wait_for_event: status=0000
Check if pads/pull-ups of bus are properly configured
No EEPROM on expansion board
Timed out in wait_for_event: status=0000
Check if pads/pull-ups of bus are properly configured
No EEPROM on expansion board
OMAP die ID: 68b0000400000000040365fa1701901b
Net: usb_ether
Error: usb_ether address not set.
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
Scanning mmc 0:1...
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
SD/MMC found on device 0
Checking for: /uEnv.txt ...
Checking for: /boot/uEnv.txt ...
289 bytes read in 40 ms (6.8 KiB/s)
Loaded environment from /boot/uEnv.txt
Checking if uname_r is set in /boot/uEnv.txt...
Running uname_boot ...
loading /boot/vmlinuz-4.14.8-armv7-x3 ...
6738432 bytes read in 640 ms (10 MiB/s)
loading /boot/dtbs/4.14.8-armv7-x3/omap3-beagle.dtb ...
99220 bytes read in 500 ms (193.4 KiB/s)
loading /boot/initrd.img-4.14.8-armv7-x3 ...
4229963 bytes read in 412 ms (9.8 MiB/s)
debug: [console=ttyO2,115200n8 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 ro rootfstype=ext4 rootwait coherent_pool=1M net.ifnames=0 quiet] ...
debug: [bootz 0x82000000 0x88080000:408b4b 0x88000000] ...
## Flattened Device Tree blob at 88000000
Booting using the fdt blob at 0x88000000
Loading Ramdisk to 89bf7000, end 89fffb4b ... OK
Loading Device Tree to 89bdb000, end 89bf6393 ... OK
Starting kernel ...
[ 1.592224] dmi: Firmware registration failed.
[ 2.413055] Error: Driver 'tfp410' is already registered, aborting...
[ 2.574493] ehci-omap 48064800.ehci: Can't get PHY device for port 1: -517
[ 2.674468] dmi-sysfs: dmi entry is absent.
[ 2.703765] omap2_set_init_voltage: unable to find boot up OPP for vdd_core
[ 2.710968] omap2_set_init_voltage: unable to set vdd_core
<skip>
BeagleBoard.org Debian Image 2017-12-24
Support/FAQ: http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian
default username:password is [debian:temppwd]
beaglebone login:
The change is this:
--- a/include/configs/ti_armv7_common.h
+++ b/include/configs/ti_armv7_common.h
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@
"ramdisk_addr_r=0x88080000\0" \
"scriptaddr=0x80000000\0" \
"pxefile_addr_r=0x80100000\0" \
- "bootm_size=0x10000000\0" \
+ "bootm_size=0x0a000000\0" \
"boot_fdt=try\0"
I’m updating the patch right now. 
edit: and now pushed to both eewiki/git:
Regards,
Mr. Nelson,
That did it! I patched the header and rebuilt u-boot. I had started down a few other paths with investigating kernel config options for LL debugging and MMC support etc. but will leave the kernel config for another time.
Now on to finding the root password for debian 9 and see if I can get the mpd package i want.
Thank you for your expertise, and for the prompt reply.
BTW I came across your ubuntu info (see link below) and it also failed to boot the BB C4 but at the “Loading Ramdisk to 8fc34000 end 8ffffaea …” which I assume is the same memory span issue you found and fixed. If so here is a friendly reminder to give attention to fixing the pre-built image(s) (unless that is automatic in your build system etc. when the patch is pushed).
https://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#Method_1:_Download_a_Complete_Pre-Configured_Image
So the root password should be ‘root’… However it is disabled over ssh.
That elinux image will get updated later next week. (once a month)…
Regards,