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  • Accessing the IDE: all reccomended steps not working

Hi all,

I'm not able to connect to the IDE, after trying just about every troubleshooting step possible. Can you help?

Putting all of the relevant data in bullet points below.

  • Hardware: BBB and Bela cape bought as 'Bela Starter Kit' July 2017, Macbook Pro running OS 10.15.3 (Catalina)

  • After a long period not using the Bela, I hooked it up via USB. The disk image didn't appear as it usually had done.

  • I ran through all of the steps in the GitHub > Updating Bela > Updating with the update_board script . However, the script would not run sucessfully.

  • I moved on to the 'Manage your SD card' page. Eventually I did flash the disk successfully, and it comes up as 'BELABOOT' when inserted into the Mac.

  • However, inserting the SD card into the BBB/Bela and booting up, the disk image did not appear. I moved on to 'Booting Problems' on the same page.

  • I ran through Option 1 (using the jumper cables). The disk image appeared successfully, but I could not connect to the IDE (trying 192.168.7.2 in two different browsers).

  • Option 2 was conditional on having "ssh access to the image on the eMMC". A forum search led me to the page Getting Started w Bela > Test the SSH connection.

  • Following the instructions on the page in the point above, I configured the 'BeagleBone Black' in System Preferences > Network (setting the "Configure IP v4" field to "Using DHCP with manual address" and setting the IP address to 192.168.7.1).

  • I also installed the HoRNDIS drivers, and these appeared to install successfully. I restarted the mac a couple of times in the process, and ran the commands:

sudo kextunload /Library/Extensions/HoRNDIS.kext
sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/HoRNDIS.kext

both ran successfully. However, in System Preferences > Network, the BeagleBone Black continues to come up as 'not connected'.

  • In between and after all of these steps, I connected the Bela using the steps reccomended in Manage your SD card > Booting problems > Option 3. The result continues to be the same: The disk image comes up (when i power up holding the BBB 'user boot' button), but I can't connect to the IDE.

  • I've also tried establishing an SSH connection to the BBB via the terminal, using the command:

$ ssh root@192.168.7.2

but it always comes back as:

ssh: connect to host 192.168.7.2 port 22: Operation timed out

  • Finally, as advised, I ran 'ifconfig' in the terminal. I have no idea how to read the data that's come back (i'm not used to terminal), but there is no reference to either the address 192.168.7.1 or 192.168.7.2.

  • I believe I've hit a wall, as in Manage your SD card > Booting problems > Common Steps, it only gives the option 'check that you can load the Bela IDE'. However, I'm not able to, nor able I able to SSH into the board.

Can you help? Thank you!

    papa_sangre After a long period not using the Bela

    Welcome back!

    papa_sangre I'm not able to connect to the IDE, after trying just about every troubleshooting step possible.

    🙁

    papa_sangre (Catalina)

    this is the likely source of issues (surprise!). Did you install the new version of HORNDiS provided here?

    papa_sangre However, inserting the SD card into the BBB/Bela and booting up, the disk image did not appear

    Do the LEDs blink and indicate activity? That page and the "Options" below are only if the board itself doesn't boot (no LED activity or only brief LED activity before freezing).

    papa_sangre (trying 192.168.7.2 in two different browsers

    try 192.168.6.2 or http://bela.local/ on Catalina with the newest version of HORNDiS installed, explained here.

    papa_sangre Finally, as advised, I ran 'ifconfig' in the terminal. I have no idea how to read the data that's come back (i'm not used to terminal), but there is no reference to either the address 192.168.7.1 or 192.168.7.2.

    You should look for 192.168.6.1, and then try to connect to 192.168.6.2 or http://bela.local . If you paste here the text that is returned, I can help you with that. Ultimately this is just another way of displaying the same information that you would see in the Network window.

                7 days later

                Hi Giulio,

                Thank you so much for your swift response!

                Responding to each point:

                • Yes, I had definitely installed the newest version of HORNDiS (9.2).

                • Yes, the 4 blue LEDs all blink while booting. After booting, this is usually reduced to just the two LEDs closest to the edge of the board.

                • I've tried both 192.168.6.2 and http://bela.local/ , in multiple browsers, but no luck.

                • I'm not certain if it's safe to share my ifconfig results, so I'm sending them privately to info@bela.io . Let me know if you're able to see this?

                Thanks so much for your help!

                this one is relevant:

                en7: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
	options=400<CHANNEL_IO>
	ether be:1a:05:ee:e2:8b 
	inet6 fe80::1401:5d39:ec2b:2cb7%en7 prefixlen 64 secured scopeid 0xd 
	inet 192.168.6.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.6.255
	nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD>
	media: autoselect
	status: active

                It indicates that the board is alive and recognized by your host. You should be able to access the board at 192.168.6.2 . If you have any VPN enabled, make sure you disable it, or unselect any option that would try to route all IP traffic through the VPN.

                If the IDE does not respond, can you open up a terminal and try:

                ping 192.168.6.2

                That should give you some response. Then try:

                ssh root@192.168.6.2

                that should log you in onto the board.

                14 days later

                Hi Giulio, apologies for delayed response, been a strange time as you know. Thanks so much for your help on this issue.

                Yes! Finally, that worked - It appears that the Mac didn't trust the host 192.168.6.2 .

                When I ran the ssh root@192.168.6.2 command, here is what came back:

                The authenticity of host '192.168.6.2 (192.168.6.2)' can't be established.
                ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:jTso6q10VYd5/7ZUBCUyEtq7sZg1RA9Jjv86pSMw+BA.
                Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?

                I responded 'yes', and, problem solved! The IDE is now running successfully in the browser.

                As I've been relying on the jumper-cable solution [https://github.com/BelaPlatform/Bela/wiki/Manage-your-SD-card#Booting-problems] until now, I've run the /opt/Bela/bela_flash_emmc.sh code in the IDE, to update the Bela image on the eMMC.

                And finally, the disk image has come up successfully, without the jumper cables, and the IDE is connected 🙂

                  great!

                  papa_sangre When I ran the ssh root@192.168.6.2 command, here is what came back:

                  The authenticity of host '192.168.6.2 (192.168.6.2)' can't be established.
                  ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:jTso6q10VYd5/7ZUBCUyEtq7sZg1RA9Jjv86pSMw+BA.
                  Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?

                  I responded 'yes', and, problem solved! The IDE is now running successfully in the browser.

                  That is expected the first time you connect over ssh to a "new" host, but it should not affect the working of the IDE in the browser. Did you find that the IDE only started working after this? That would be very surprising!

                    2 years later

                    TL;DR Turn off your VPN
                    I was just about to make a post on how Bela Mini is not accessible on 192.168.6.2 or bela.local and I've updated to latest v0.3.8c and still no luck. I can use putty to connect using the USB Serial Device (COM) and login as root, but not debian:temppwd mentioned elsewhere on the forum. Just when I was going to throw in the towel I disabled my work VPN - and now all is good!

                      piotrkundu Just when I was going to throw in the towel I disabled my work VPN - and now all is good!

                      oh yes! we saw that happen once during a workshop at the BBC: nothing was working, we started panicking, disabled VPN, relieved.

                      piotrkundu debian:temppwd

                      not sure where you found that: it only works for BeagleBoard-provided images, not for our images.