sd card image file on dropbox.com [current version: Debian 8.5, Kiwi v1.390]

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Problems after upgrade from 1.383 to 1.384 [fixed by restarting network equipment].

rz3dvp

@jks Hello John, I downloaded 1.383 image file from Dropbox, wrote to microSD card, but BBB don't start flasher, with 1.46 all works fine.

jks

Yes, it looks like the /boot/uEnv.txt file on that image is full of zeros?!?
Not sure how that happened. Let me fix (will take some time).

jks

Well, I'm giving up and going back to making v1.46 (Debian 8.5) the default download .img.xz file for creating Kiwi flasher sd cards.

There is something wrong when using Debian 8.11 to create cards with a more recent release (e.g. v1.386). You don't get image files that work. The expected SHAs are also wrong. I spent days trying to figure out why. Something has probably changed where you can't copy raw sd card device files anymore and get the full filesystem information.

I did figure out why the /boot/uEnv.txt file was getting zeroed. But that was my only success.

To summarize:

If you have a Beagle running with a filesystem state you're happy with you can create an sd card that will re-flash that filesystem image by running the Beagle_SDR_GPS/tools/kiwiSDR-make-microSD-flasher-from-eMMC.sh script. This is essentially what the admin page backup tab does.

The problem is now trying to read the flasher sd card to create a .img.xz image file. The image file that gets uploaded to dropbox and that people can use to recreate an sd flasher card when they've misplaced the one that came with their Kiwi. This image file creation process is done via the "create_img_from_sd" target in the Beagle_SDR_GPS/Makefile. And, from a Beagle, people can subsequently use the script Beagle_SDR_GPS/tools/kiwiSDR-download-KiwiSDR-create-micro-SD-flasher.sh (which is stored on dropbox and kiwisdr.com) to download this image file and copy it to an sd card (from Windows or OS X or non-Beagle Linux a manual procedure must be used to achieve the same result).

The problem I encountered is that when using Debian 8.11 to do all this the new flasher card doesn't flash the Beagle (it is ignored when inserted and the Beagle re-powered). If you reread the card using the "create_img_from_sd" process you get an image file with a different SHA from the .img.xz used to write it. This doesn't happen when using Debian 8.5

WA2ZKD

I have had good luck doing BB images with this tool-> https://www.balena.io/etcher/

jks

I had a request from someone in China who wanted an image file with a more recent release because the update mechanism doesn't work for them (I don't know why, Great Firewall problems probably).

So the default image in the documentation now points to an image file on Dropbox containing Debian 8.5 and the Kiwi v1.390 release. This image, when copied to an sd card, seems to flash the Beagle correctly unlike images containing Debian 8.11.

See: http://kiwisdr.com/quickstart/index.html#id-dload

Powernumpty

Bit of a zombie thread but this came to mind while poking around today.

https://elinux.org/BeagleBone_Black_Extracting_eMMC_contents
Not least -
"IMPORTANT: On Rev C BeagleBone Greens from Seed Studio, you need to create a folder titled "dtbs" and copy am335x-boneblack.dtb to dtbs/am335x-bonegreen.dtb (note the name change) in order for the SD card to be booted. "

jks

Please do not follow those instructions. I will not support anyone who does. The Kiwi implements what is mentioned in the last paragraph. That page has not been updated since 2016.