Software hints for BeagleBoard

This section collects hints, tips & tricks for various software components running on beagle.

• RPM_jffs2_issue

QEMU

QEMU supports OMAP3 being able to boot a BeagleBoard Linux kernel.

Linux hints

See BeagleBoard Google wiki Linux hints page (for Linux WTBU (Wireless TI Business Unit) kernel 2.6.22). Currently featuring:

• Switching video output between DVI-D and S-Video
• Disabling framebuffer blanking
• Listing USB devices

lmbench

Avik posted a detailed step-by-step procedure to run lmbench on Beagle.

Mediaplayer (FFmpeg)

There is a thread how to get a mediaplayer with NEON optimization (FFmpeg) to run on Beagle. Includes compiler hints and patches.

Java

When using the OpenEmbedded-based Angstrom image you have the following options of Java support:

• JamVM + GNU Classpath (small vm, fast interpreter, J2SE-like)
• Cacao + GNU Classpath (JIT compiler, J2SE-like)
• PhoneME Advanced Foundation (JIT compiler, CDC)

Java support in OpenEmbedded/Angstrom (details) is provided voluntarily through Jalimo.
See a post at mailing list, too.
OpenEmbedded users can add the Jalimo Subversion repository as an overlay (instructions are in the repository). This will allow them to build OpenJDK packages. Inclusion of these recipes in mainline OpenEmbedded is planned but still ongoing.
The recipes offer the following functionality:

• OpenJDK + Hotspot (Zero port) (all J2SE functionality, including JVMTI, interpreted only)
• OpenJDK + Cacaco (all J2SE library features, missing JVMTI, decent JIT compiler)
• OpenJDK + Hotspot (Shark port) (not working yet)

Edward Nevill from ARM Ltd. is working on interpreter optimization in Zero for ARM.
People interested in getting this stuff working better should contact people on:

• Jalimo Mailinglist
• Icedtea Mailinglist

You should also check out IcedTea's FAQ.

Booting Android (TI_Android_DevKit) from USB stick

Please note

• This procedure was tested on beagleboard-xm revision B(A3)
• sdcard will be still needed to load kernel.
• sdcard will contain boot parameters for kernel to use usb stick as root filesystem

Procedure

1. Download Android Froyo for beagleboard-xm from TI
2. Follow the installation procedure for sdcard card.
3. Test if froyo is working with your beagleboard-xm with sdcard.
4. You will notice that android has slow performance. That is why we will install root filesystem on usb stick.
5. Format your usb stick and create one ext3 partition.
6. Mount newly created ext3 partition and extract TI's root filesystem to it: sudo tar jxvf rootfs_am37x.tar.bz2 -C /media/ROOT
7. Unmount flashdisk and insert it into beagleboard.
8. Mount your sdcard to your computer.
9. Now we need to tell beagleboard to use root filesystem from /dev/sda1 partition instead of sdcard partition that is done by overwriting boot.scr on sdcard with this one
10. Unmount sdcard insert it into beagleboard and test.