[FAQ] How do I boot AM335x and run my RTOS application from a Micro SD card?

Please always refer to the Processor SDK RTOS documentation on SD card boot for more detailed and complete information.

Here we give an example to boot a BeagleBone Black and run a simple RTOS application from a Micro SD card.

1. Flash the SD card with the Processor SDK prebuilt image:

• Locate the SD card image: D:\ti\processor_sdk_rtos_am335x_6_03_00_106\prebuilt-sdcards\evmAM335x\sd_card_img\sd_card.img.gz.
• Unzip this image.
• Use BalenaEtcher to flash the unzipped sd_card.img to the SD card.
• After flashing, the SD card should have two files: MLO and app.

2. Build an RTOS application. For this example, we chose the PDK example project: GPIO_LedBlink_bbbAM335x_armTestProject.

• Follow instructions in this FAQ to create PDK example projects. The command to create just this single project for BeagleBone Black is:

pdkProjectCreate.bat AM335x bbbAM335x little gpio test arm

• Build this project and locate file “app” in the debug folder: pdk_am335x_1_0_17\packages\MyExampleProjects\GPIO_LedBlink_bbbAM335x_armTestProject\Debug.
• This “app” file is the application image generated during the project build. Please refer to the Post-build steps in the CCS project settings:

3. Copy the “app” file generated during project build to the SD card and overwrite the existing “app” file.

4. Insert the SD card into the BeagleBone Black.

5. Press and hold button S2 while powering on the board. The board should boot and LED D42 should blink.