new image doesn't work when copied to eMMC

dealerpriest

I decided to upgrade to a newer version of the Bela image in order to easily set device tree overlays using uEnv.txt
I think my previous image version was v0.3.1 although I'm not certain. I had earlier copied this bela image to the eMMc and was running it without problems from there.
I downloaded and flashed the new image (v0.3.5a), extracted using 7zip, flashed to a 8GB SD card using win32DiskImager.exe, and inserted into the BBB. As many other people here have experienced I could not boot from the SD directly. I used the trick of connecting pin 1 to pin 43 (p8 side) and managed to boot from the SD. I ssh:d into the bela and run the systemctl start bela_flash_emmc command. When the LEDs went from steady lighting to flashing, I disconnected the BBB, ejected the SD card and connected the BBB again. The Bela seems to boot from looking at the LEDs (although I can't know for sure what's actually going on in there), but never shows up as BELABOOT. If i again insert the SD card and restar the BBB, I will find the BELABOOT.

I have now tried to copy the image to the eMMC several times, using small variations from the instructions spread across the forums and wiki. No success so far.
I have a farfetched guess it could be related to my since earlier installed bone64 drivers "hijacking" the BBB on the wrong ip (192.168.7.2)?

I'm on windows 10.
Any advice would be much appreciated. I can as of now run the latest image from SD, but would really prefer to have it run on the eMMC.

EDIT:
I have now more closely studied the LED behaviour comparing booting from the SD and booting from the eMMC. I have a feeling the eMMC fails to boot. It shows the rightmost (d2 or 0 ?) led blinking double blinks approximately every second. So i guess it somehows fails in the boot process.

giuliomoro

dealerpriest When the LEDs went from steady lighting to flashing, I disconnected the BBB, ejected the SD card and connected the BBB again. The Bela seems to boot from looking at the LEDs (although I can't know for sure what's actually going on in there), but never shows up as BELABOOT. If i again insert the SD card and restar the BBB, I will find the BELABOOT.

If you have three LEDs flashing intermittently, on for 0.5s and off for 0.5s , then this means that flashing has failed.
Can you try to flash again (systemctl start bela_flash_emmc) and then check the log with journalctl -fu bela_flash_emmc.

The new image should work without any drivers on Windows, but the board will come up at 192.168.6.2. If you do have drivers installed, then it will also come up at 192.168.7.2. However, given that the image from the SD works for you, then it's most likely not a problem on your host or the drivers.

dealerpriest

Alright! Thx for the feedback. It seems you are correct in that the flashing failed. I'm attaching a screenshot of the log. It mentions that there is "No space left on the device". But I used the win32DiskImager to flash the image, which to my understanding will ensure that the source partition will fit into the 4GB of the eMMC, no?
Or could it be related to having no write permission on the eMMC?
alt text

giuliomoro

ok. So:
- boot from SD card
- try the following, and send back the generated output:

df -h /

mkdir -p /mnt/tmpmnt1
umount -f /dev/mmcblk1p1
mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/tmpmnt1
df -h /mnt/tmpmnt1

mkdir -p /mnt/tmpmnt2
umount -f /dev/mmcblk1p2
mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 /mnt/tmpmnt2
df -h /mnt/tmpmnt2

dealerpriest

Oh. I now saw your response a little bit too late. I'm currently underway using "official" linux distro to flash the eMMC. So far I've downloaded stretch distro from https://beagleboard.org/latest-images. Flashed that onto the uSD and booted it. SSH:d into it and enable eMMC flash on boot:

##enable BBB: eMMC Flasher:
cmdline=init=/opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh

I've now successfully flashed that distro onto the eMMC. Right now flashing the bela image to the uSD. Then I'll again try to use the systemctl start bela_flash_emmc. I'll report back how it goes.
I'm certain there is a quicker way to fix it (if it works at all)... But this is what I came up with now :-P

dealerpriest

Hmmm. No luck 😢
Now got the same output as previously saying "No space left on device"

Trying the commands you provided:

root@bela:~# df -h /
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root       3.4G  1.7G  1.6G  53% /
root@bela:~# mkdir -p /mnt/tmpmnt1
root@bela:~# umount -f /dev/mmcblk1p1
umount: /dev/mmcblk1p1: not mounted
root@bela:~# mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/tmpmnt1
root@bela:~# df -h /mnt/tmpmnt1/
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mmcblk1p1   68M  4.1M   64M   7% /mnt/tmpmnt1
root@bela:~#
root@bela:~# mkdir -p /mnt/tmpmnt2
root@bela:~# umount -f /dev/mmcblk1p2
umount: /dev/mmcblk1p2: not mounted
root@bela:~# mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 /mnt/tmpmnt2
root@bela:~# df -h /mnt/tmpmnt2
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mmcblk1p2  1.7G  1.7G     0 100% /mnt/tmpmnt2
root@bela:~#

giuliomoro

ok the problem is that the eMMC of your BeagleBone is fairly small (1.7GB), which is just below the amount of space needed by Bela. I guess the Bela image could be made slightly smaller by removing some optional components, but you would still be left with not so much space on the file system. The bb.org image is small enough to fit even on the older eMMC like yours, but ours - apparently - is not.

Let me know if you really want to try to remove optional components and I can guide you through that, but - again - be aware that you are not going to have much space left anyhowl.

dealerpriest

Hmm? I thought this was a BBB and that all of them have 4GB eMMC. Apparantly not 😖
No need to guide me through stripping the image. I'll go with the uSD for now until I get hold of a proper Beaglebone 👍

Is it perhaps different sizes on different revisions? And that I perhaps have a really early one?

Anyways. Thanks for all the help! Always impressed how quick you guys from Bela are to help people out here in the forum!

giuliomoro

I think the very early ones had 2GB eMMC. Not sure when they switched to 4GB, maybe somewhere in 2014?

dealerpriest

Now read up a bit on the beaglebone boards. Apparently they increased the eMMC size from 2GB to 4GB with revision C. I found a sticker on the board and to my understanding my board is revision A5C.
Found the list of revisions here:
https://beagleboard.org/black

giuliomoro

on the up-side, you should now be able to boot from the SD card without need to hold down any button or jumper pins.