Load uBoot

Here is a u-boot which works for Ubuntu and Ångstrøm: u-boot-f.bin (176.52 kb) find more info at http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu

1. mmcinit (or "mmc init")fatload mmc 0 0×80200000 u-boot-f.bin
2. nand unlock
3. nandecc sw (or nand ecc sw)
4. nand erase 80000 160000nand write.i 0×80200000 80000 160000
5. reset

Set boot cmd and args

1. setenv bootcmd ‘mmc init; fatload mmc 0:1 0×80300000 uImage; bootm 0×80300000′
2. setenv bootargs ‘console=ttyS2,115200n8 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rw rootdelay=2′
3. saveenv
4. boot

Backup / restore SD cards on Linux (Ubuntu)

More info about dd

Backup

1. sudo dd if=/dev/hdx | gzip > /path/to/image.gz

Restore

1. gzip -dc /path/to/image.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/hdx

I recently bought a new toy. A Beagleboard from http://beagleboard.org/

It’s a small board with a OMAP3530 processor, OpenGL ES 2.0 capable 2D/3D graphics accelerator, HD video capable TMS320C64+ DSP etc.

Different projects exist to e.g. port debian and ubuntu to this small device.

• Ununtu: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardDebian
• Debian: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardHandheldsMojo

Relevant links:

• General walk through: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard
• How to unbrik a broken beagleboard if the NAND gets faulty after the load of a new bootloader: http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardRecovery
• Guide to flash NAND: http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/wiki/BeagleNANDFlashing
• Some commands to test screen output and list USB devices: http://code.google.com/p/beagleboard/wiki/LinuxHints

Two Danish engineers disassembling Pleo: Link

I bought a Ethernet interface and a micro controller form http://www.futurlec.com/ for a cheap price. (With a very slow delivery).

• Ethernet interface: ET-MINI ENC28j60 – www.etteam.com
• Micro controller: ET-Base AVR (r2) Atmega128 – www.etteam.com

The base code used to create this web server are provided by tuxgraphics.org:

HTTP/TCP with an atmega88 microcontroller (AVR web server)

The code has been changed to support atmage16 and atmega128 by extracting the SPI initialization and the hard coded pin numbers from the source. This is needed because the registers and pins are different from the atmega88 family.

Here is the source code with support for atmega16 and 128.

eth_rem_dev_tcp-2.11_atmega16_final28092008.rar (179.07 kb)

User’s manual ET-MINI ENC28J60.pdf (299.37 kb)