WL1835 Cape + BeagleBone Black cannot boot anything

Hi,

The prebuilt images from http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php?title=WL18xx_AMxxx_platform_integration_guide should work fine without any issues. It works fine on my setup. BeagleBone Black + TI WL8 Cape.

I just copied the images to my sdcard, held down the "S2" on the baseboard when applying power, and it works fine for me... 

For the serial port, I had to use a level shifter... 

I suggest that you post this query on the BeagleBone forum.

Regards,
Gigi Joseph.

Ok thanks. We suspected the batch of WL1835 we got were faulty in the first place.

Can you just clarify a few things for me.

1. With the pre-built image, does the HDMI output and USB still work, or do you have to use an FTDI cable to talk to the BBB?

2. Once you make the SD card and boot up the BBB using the S2 button, there are no extra steps needed and the wlan0 should appear in the ifconfig -a?

3. When building from this link http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Using_the_WL18xx_Cape_with_BeagleBone_Black it mentions the setup-env variable MACHINE_TYPE

# MACHINE_TYPE - The target machine type. Can have one of the following values: "am1808" ,"omap3evm" , "am335x",beaglebone black

Now the end part ,beaglebone black isn't in quotes, so I was not sure if it was meaning the "am335x" was also for BBB, or not. So which of these 2 is correct when building for BBB (I tried both anyway and neither worked on my setup):

export MACHINE_TYPE="beaglebone black"

or 

export MACHINE_TYPE="am335x"

Thanks.

Hi,

Can you confirm if you are using the TI Capes?
Regarding the clarifications, please see below:

(1) I haven't tried the HDMI - Like I said before, I used a LS. Please see the image below.

(2) Yes

(3)  Please refer to: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/WL18xx_System_Build_Scripts for building the latest WLAN drivers.

Regards,
Gigi Joseph.

We are using BeagleBone Black, and this cape http://boardzoo.com/index.php/beaglebone/beaglebone-wl1835mod-w-chip-antenna.html#.VBhtKufD7Kk

I just used the same pre-built image on the A355X EVM kit I got this morning and the WL1835MOD COM board, and it works straight away. So this same image states in the pre-build section its compatible with the BBB + WL1835 Cape, meaning its highly likely the WL1835 boards I have are faulty would you say?

1. Ok, it would be great if you could test HDMI as some documentation on TI.com states HDMI won't work once you add drivers to WL1835, which sucks if its true.

2. Ok thanks

3. Ok

Hi Luke,

I did not fully understand.
Does the pre built image work with BBB + WL18xx cape?

Regarding (1), please check in the Beagle Bone forum.

Regards,
Gigi Joseph.

No, the pre-build image that should run on the BBB actually runs on the AM335X EVM board but the WL1835 board still doesnt work on either.

Using every build instruction, pre-build image and guide out there, for both the AM335X EVM and BBB I have never once got the BBB to work with the WL1835, and on the AM335X EVM I have only ever got the Matrix v2 app to work with the WL1835, never got the Linux or Android builds working.

Hello,

Can you share the terminal log of booting the pre-built image from

http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php?title=WL18xx_AMxxx_platform_integration_guide

with the BBB+WL8 cape?

Can you also attach a picture of your setup?

Best Regards,

Eyal

Hi Gigi,

Thanks for the quick response! Yes I am pressing down the S2 button, however, non of my USR lights turn on and there is no flashing to let me know that the device has booted from the SD card. I believe that my problems are stemming from the way in which I program the data onto the SD card itself. I've tried various methods with no success: Such as the SD forrmatting script found on  http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/WL18xx_First_Time_Getting_Started_Guide_%28Beaglebone%29 but the script was written with the original beaglebone in mind and contains a section for 'uImages' which is not part of the prebuilt images found on http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/WL18xx_AMxxx_platform_integration_guide which I have been using as my main resource in connecting my WL1835 to the BBB. 

I guess my main problem lies in not knowing exactly how to load the data so that the BBB can be booted from the SD card. Such as does the SDcard need to be formatted to FAT32 or EXT3. And do I simply load the data in one partition, or does the boot.img and the rootfs need to be in different partitions. As of right now I am simply unpacking the tar.gz files into the reformatted sd card and attempting to boot.

Any help in this portion of the integration would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again!

Regards,

Erik Z.

Hi Gigi,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! Yes I am pressing and holding the S2 button before appyling power.  I do not get any USR lights turning on nor flashing to show that the BBB has booted from the SD card. However, I believe that my problem actually lies mostly with how I am loading the prebuilt images from http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/WL18xx_AMxxx_platform_integration_guide into the sd card. I have tried a number of methods such as simply formatting the drive to various formats such as FAT32 and EXT3 and extracting the tar files into the SD card. I have also tried using the script from http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/WL18xx_First_Time_Getting_Started_Guide_%28Beaglebone%29 however, this script was created for use with the original Beaglebone and contains a section to load 'uImages' which is not a part of the instructions or provided for the WL18xx platform integration guide.

I suppose the help I need is mostly surrounding exactly in which manner to load these images to my SDcard so that the BBB will be able to boot from it. Such as which file formats, do I need to have the rootfs folder and the boot.img, MLO files in a different partition? Which format type should I be using? and things of this nature. Any help in this area of my integration would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Regards,

Erik

Hi Gigi,

thanks for the directions to the create-sdcard script, that made it putting the data onto the SD much easier. However, I am still faced with the same problem. When I insert the SD card, hold S2 down and apply power, the light for the board powering turns on but none of the USR leds turn on and no flashing to let me know the device is booting. I will lay out my steps here and hopefully it can help with finding the issue I am experiencing.

1. Download .tar.gz prebuilt images from the integration guide

2. Use create-sdcard.sh script and load rootfs.tar.gz and boot.tar.gz onto the sd card to create bootable SDcard

3. Attach WL1835 cap to the BeagleBone Black

4. Insert SD card into powered down BBB

5. While holding down S2 switch, apply power to BBB.

Aftter this point I am simply waiting to see the USR lights turn on but they never do.

Here is a photo of the completion of the SDcard formatting, I am given a few warnings but I don't believe they should have affected the actual data. I'm adding it in for thoroughness. Your continued help is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Erik Z

quick edit: I am using a 16gb SDhc, I'm assuming that shouldn't be a problem. But the only class 6 SD I have is 2gb which supposedly is not large enough.

I finally got an SD card to boot! Both LEDs on teh WL18135 also turned on, and flash. Then LED2 turns off and LED1 stays on as long as power is supplied. 

However, now I can no longer SSH or use VNC to access my beaglebone as I usually do, so I am not sure whether everything is actually working or not. Could the kernel be affecting how my BBB is accessed?

Eric,

The kernel won't affect how you access it, the contents of the file system will.

If you booted with the images from processors.wiki.ti.com/.../WL1835_Cape_on_BeagleBone_with_Debian then you need to wait about 2 minutes for SSH to come up and VNC may not be installed as it is a minimal filesystem.

Iain

No matter how long I wait, the drive never mounts to my computer. I am finally getting the USR Lights to turn on as well as LED 1&2 to flash a few times on the WL1835 cape, but that's about it. I only need to hold down the S2 switch until the USR leds turn on, correct?

I'm assuming you are using my rootfs here. LED1 and 2 on cape should both turn on just after reset as they are driven by device tree.

S2 must be held down when 5V power is inserted. It can be released after that. Subsequent reboots via the reset button do not need S2 pressed. The boot from SD card state is maintained after power up.

Iain

That is correct. In both the method using your rootfs and boot.img as well as the pre-built images from the integration guide lead me to the same result. The beaglebone will power on, the USR lights will blink, the LEDs on the Cape will also light up and blink a few times over the course of around 30 seconds. But after that, the beaglebone will never mount through the USB cable and I can never access it through SSH. I have tried essentially every possible method I could find online and am starting to wonder if perhaps there could be something wrong with the cape.

Lain,

I've removed the cape and tested the boot with the same result. So it appears that I am missing something when it comes to either correct loading of the image, or the booting of it.

I am using a 4gb SDhc card and I'm using the create-sdcard.sh script provided in the SDK. Using both the images provided from the platform integration guide, and from the sensor network I still have the same result where the BBB will not fully boot from the SD card. Without the SD card, the BBB seems to function perfectly normal. I am incredibly lost at this point, as I have tried every possible method and numerous different sources that I can find on the internet. If anyone can jump in to help me pinpoint where my process has led me astray I would greatly appreciate it.

Hi Erik,

The only suggestion I have now is that you get a 3.3V TTL UART to USB cable such as the FTDI Chip one at http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/Cables/USBTTLSerial.htm .

Connect to J1 on BeagleBone Black so you can get a terminal log from boot to understand exactly what is happening.

So far only failure mode I can imagine is that you pressed S2 after power on and so failed to latch SYSBOOT2 and at the same time have a corrupted eMMC and so it failed to boot to the default kernel.

Iain

Lain,

That was a fantastic suggestion. So it will actually boot, as I can connect using the FTDI cable, I connect as root@am335x-evm. However ifconfig does not show that there is a WLAN device connected. Nor can I access the internet using an ethernet cable.