trouble booting Bela Starter Kit

ctrl

Hi, I'm trying to use Bela Starter Kit but failed to boot it several times. I used both of MacOS10.14.6 and Windows 10 for booting. But it appears to be no BelaBoot or BeagleBoard in the explorer at all, and I cannot access any of 'https://bela.local', '192.168.7.2' or '192.168.6.2'. I have flashed a Bela software on a SD card and tried to boot the Bela board with the SD card by pressing the USR button and connecting to the Windows 10 computer. When doing this, Bela board is recognized as a USB device with sound but still doesn't appear in the explorer. I also tried to flash the eMMC inside of the Bela board using flashed SD card and tried methods in (https://learn.bela.io/using-bela/bela-techniques/managing-your-sd-card/#flashing-the-emmc). And when I tried option2 in #booting-bela-from-the-sd-card, I cannot access any of 'ssh debian@beaglebone.local' or 'ssh root@192.168.7.2'. When I tried option3 in #booting-bela-from-the-sd-card by pressing the USR button but not removing the Bela cape, I get trouble on the CommonSteps which requires to go to 'https://bela.local/'.

I also tried running the upgrade_board script using BBB_HOST both of "192.168.7.2" and "192.168.6.2", but both failed with a timeout error.

When I plug the board to the computer, the power light will be on but no user light flashing or starting.

Please give me any advice on booting the Bela Board. Thank you so much.

giuliomoro

ctrl When I plug the board to the computer, the power light will be on but no user light flashing or starting.

Right, if that happens you cannot expect anything good to follow: the board is just not booting. With a properly flashed SD card, using option 1 or option 3 should guarantee to boot from the SD card.

ctrl I also tried to flash the eMMC inside of the Bela board using flashed SD card and tried methods in

this will fail if the board doesn't boot (doesn't display blinking lights).

ctrl When doing this, Bela board is recognized as a USB device with sound but still doesn't appear in the explorer.

When you hear that, is the board flashing?

If on Mac, and with the board booted with SD card with option1 or option3, and repeatedly flashing, could you run

system_profiler SPUSBDataType

ctrl

alt text
this is what shows when running system_profiler SPUSBDataType.

giuliomoro When you hear that, is the board flashing?

The board was not flashing.

Some new progress. After I reboot the Windows10 computer and plug in the sd card, I could see the BelaBoot with drivers in it. The Mac driver was installed successfully but the windows driver failed with error.

And both Mac and Windows identified the Bela Board plugged with sd card as USB device. In Mac I set the IP to 192.168.7.2 but still could not open bela.local/

ctrl

ctrl Now I get a
$ ssh root@192.168.7.2
ssh: connect to host 192.168.7.2 port 22: Connection refused

on Mac

giuliomoro

ctrl The Mac driver was installed successfully but the windows driver failed with error.

tThere is no need to install drivers with modern version of the host operating systems for the most recent version of the image. I guess it's worth asking if you know what image version you have on the SD card?

ctrl In Mac I set the IP to 192.168.7.2

You need to set your own IP to 192.168.7.1 and then reach the board at 192.168.7.2, but that depends on what version of the image you have, as for some combinations of OS and image it could be 192.168.6.1 and 192.168.6.2.

The best option is normally to just avoid setting any IP at all and let it set the IP addresses via DHCP and access it at bela.local .

What you see when running the command suggests that it is still booting from the built-in memory (or perhaps possibly from a very very old Bela image SD card (before 2017).

giuliomoro

ctrl $ ssh root@192.168.7.2
ssh: connect to host 192.168.7.2 port 22: Connection refused

this is because you assigned that address to yourself and you are trying to log onto your own computer as the root user, which is normally forbidden.

ctrl

giuliomoro I guess it's worth asking if you know what image version you have on the SD card?

The image version on the sd card is v0.3.8f.

giuliomoro You need to set your own IP to 192.168.7.1 and then reach the board at 192.168.7.2, but that depends on what version of the image you have, as for some combinations of OS and image it could be 192.168.6.1 and 192.168.6.2.

I tried this and I could not access the internet by setting the wifi ip to 192.168.7.1

giuliomoro The best option is normally to just avoid setting any IP at all and let it set the IP addresses via DHCP and access it at bela.local .

I also tried this and an ip address was assigned. But the network setting shows a warning that this AM335x USB cannot access the internet. I tried to access it at bela.local and got a DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN.

giuliomoro

ctrl et by setting the wifi ip to 192.168.7.1

Just to be clear: you shouldn't set the "wifi" IP to that, but the IP of your host on the network with the board.

ctrl hat this AM335x USB

Of it shows up with that name and not as "Bela" then I guess it is booting from the internal memory (eMMC) and not from the SD card. To verify that, with the board connected and showing up as a network interface, run ifconfig and show its output here please.

ctrl an ip address was assigned.

what IP address was assigned?

Btw, could you let me know your order number?

ctrl

giuliomoro what IP address was assigned?

The IP address assigned was 169.254.86.70

I borrowed the board from the University of Edinburgh and didn't have an order number, unfortunately.

And the output of ifconfig shows as

(base) lancelotdeMacBook-Pro:~ xinyili$ ifconfig lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384 options=1203<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,TXSTATUS,SW_TIMESTAMP> inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000 inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1 nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280 stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280 XHC0: flags=0<> mtu 0 XHC20: flags=0<> mtu 0 en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 ether dc:a9:04:91:20:21 inet6 fe80::1cde:6890:fe6:b31a%en0 prefixlen 64 secured scopeid 0x6 inet 192.168.0.101 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255 nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> media: autoselect status: active bridge0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 options=63<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,TSO4,TSO6> ether 7e:00:a1:20:a2:00 Configuration: id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 hellotime 0 fwddelay 0 maxage 0 holdcnt 0 proto stp maxaddr 100 timeout 1200 root id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 ifcost 0 port 0 ipfilter disabled flags 0x2 member: en1 flags=3<LEARNING,DISCOVER> ifmaxaddr 0 port 11 priority 0 path cost 0 member: en2 flags=3<LEARNING,DISCOVER> ifmaxaddr 0 port 10 priority 0 path cost 0 nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> media: <unknown type> status: inactive p2p0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2304 ether 0e:a9:04:91:20:21 media: autoselect status: inactive awdl0: flags=8943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1484 ether 7e:d7:d6:60:a8:72 inet6 fe80::7cd7:d6ff:fe60:a872%awdl0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x9 nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> media: autoselect status: active en2: flags=8963<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 options=60<TSO4,TSO6> ether 7e:00:a1:20:a2:01 media: autoselect <full-duplex> status: inactive en1: flags=8963<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 options=60<TSO4,TSO6> ether 7e:00:a1:20:a2:00 media: autoselect <full-duplex> status: inactive utun0: flags=8051<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 2000 inet6 fe80::185e:ba2b:b31e:7616%utun0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xc nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> en11: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 ether 9a:1f:85:1c:3d:0e inet6 fe80::8c0:6f6:ef44:2bf6%en11 prefixlen 64 secured scopeid 0xd inet 169.254.86.70 netmask 0xffff0000 broadcast 169.254.255.255 nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> media: autoselect status: active

giuliomoro

that is definitely not a v0.3.8f image that you are booting from. I am heavily suspecting this is still booting from the eMMC. Could you try reflashing the SD card?

ctrl

giuliomoro I tried reflashing the sd card both using balenaEtcher and imgFlasher, both succeeded but the computer suggested to format the sd card after i plug it into the computer again. Would this be a problem?

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giuliomoro

ctrl computer suggested to format the sd card after i plug it into the computer again.

I don't think that should be a problem ... I guess it overreacted to the fact that it didn't recognise the ext4 partition...

giuliomoro

I mean, you should ignore the warning: do not format the SD card.

ctrl

giuliomoro yes i didn't format it. But when i plug the sd card to the board, press the usr/boot button on BBB and plug the board to the computer, i still cannot access the website bela.local.

giuliomoro

when booting with:

no cape connected,
SD card inserted
S2 button pressed

what is the behaviour of the blinking LEDs on the BBB?

Have you got a way of reading data from a UART interface (e.g.: a USB-UART adapter?)?

ctrl

giuliomoro what is the behaviour of the blinking LEDs on the BBB?

I removed the cape and the blinking LEDs was all dark. Only the PWR blue light was on.

I'm sorry i don't have a way of reading data from a UART interface. Should I buy one?

giuliomoro

so it could be that the SD card reader on the BBB is not working properly. Could you check the bottom of the SD card slot and see that there are no bent pins?

ctrl

giuliomoro
There's nothing wrong with the pins. But when connected to the board and the computer, the LED on my USB adapter is dark, which should be lighted when connected successfully. So I guess there's something wrong with the sd card slot. How can I fix this?

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giuliomoro

Hmm none of those pictures is actually about the microSD card slot , so I am not sure what I am supposed to look at?

ctrl

giuliomoro I'm using a flashed SD card not a microSD card. Do I have to flash the image onto a microSD card?

But the microSD card slot is actually equipped with bent pins.

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giuliomoro

ctrl 'm using a flashed SD card not a microSD card. Do I have to flash the image onto a microSD card?

Are you actually using a USB drive? Or an SD card via a USB drive? You should be using a microSD card inside the micro SD card slot. Those pins are probably good enough as they are, but let's see if they become a problem after you flash a micro SD card with the image and try booting from it.