CuBox-M Quick Start Guide

Revision and Notes

Date	Owner	Revision	Notes

Date	Owner	Revision	Notes
Oct 21, 2021		1.0	Initial release
Table of Contents	1 Revision and Notes 2 Introduction 3 Hardware Setup 3.1 Product Specifications 3.2 Block Diagram 3.3 Visual Features Overview 4 Software Setup 4.1 Cable setup and prerequisites 5 Booting form an SD card 6 More Features 6.1 Internet 6.1.1 WiFi 6.2 Bluetooth 7 TLV EEPROM Support 8 List Of Supported OS 9 Build from source 10 Documentation 11 Related Articles

Introduction

The following quick start guide provides background information about the CuBox-M.

The guide will give a technical overview about the product and by the end of it you should be able to boot an operating system and begin testing your application.

Hardware Setup

Product Specifications

Model	CuBox-M

Model	CuBox-M
I/Os	2 x USB 3.0
Networking	1 x Ethernet RJ45 10/100/1000 1 x 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac WiFi and Bluetooth (Optional)
Processor	NXP i.MX8M Plus Quad core Arm Cortex A53 up to 1.8GHz (with Arm M7 GPP)
Memory & Storage	Up to 3GB LPDDR4 8GB eMMC MicroSD
Display	HDMI
Misc.	GPIO button Indication LEDs RTC IR receiver
Development and Debug interfaces	Micro USB
Power	12V Optional PoE
Expansion card I/Os	None
Temperature	Commercial: 0°C to 40°C
Dimensions	50 x 50 x 50mm
Enclosure	ABS Plastic

Supported with i.MX8M-PLUS SOM. For more detailed information about our SOM-i.MX8M series please visit this user manual : i.MX8M Plus SOM Hardware User Manual .

Block Diagram

The following figure describes the i.MX8M-PLUS Block Diagram.

Visual Features Overview

Back HW interfaces

Software Setup

Cable setup and prerequisites

Micro USB cable
Power supplier : regulated 12V supply with 1.5A source capacity, alternatively you can use a PoE injector to power on the device.
Micro SD card
Linux or Windows PC
Router or switch with Ethernet cable

Note that using an adaptor with an output voltage which is higher than 12V will damage your device and possibly other connected USB devices.

Booting form an SD card

1. Downloading the Debian image

Download the Debian image by running the following command on your Linux/Windows PC:

wget https://solid-run-images.sos-de-fra-1.exo.io/IMX8/imx8mp_build/build_date_20240617-rev_87b97f9/imx8mp-sdhc-debian-87b97f9.img.xz

For more Debian releases, please visit Debian Release for i.MX8.

2. Writing the image to the SD card

Use the following commands for writing the image to an SD card:

xz -dc imx8mp-sdhc-debian-87b97f9.img.xz | dd of=/dev/sdX bs=4k conv=fdatasync

For more information, please visit Flashing an SD Card .

Note: Plug a micro SD into your Linux PC, the following assumes that the micro SD is added as /dev/sdX and all it’s partitions are unmounted.

3. SD card insertion

Please Insert the SD card into your device.

4. Power connection

Connect your power adaptor to the DC jack, and then connect the adaptor to mains supply.

5. Serial Connection

Please insert the micro USB into your device, then you can refer to Serial Connection for installing necessary serial connection software in Linux/Windows.

Once you installed the necessary serial connection software, you should be able to see the following:

In order to be able to log in , please insert “debian” as a username and password as follows:

More Features

Internet

Connect an Ethernet cable to your CuBox-M (for internet access during boot-up).
Models CuBox-M with WiFi, can be connected via WiFi or wired Ethernet.

Please check you Ethernet connection.
Use the following commands in order to keep your system up-to-date:

apt-get update 
apt-get upgrade 
reboot

For more detailed information, please refer to i.MX8M Debian .

WiFi

You can connect to WiFi using any application, such as : connmanctl or wpa_spplicant.

An example for connecting to WiFi using wpa_supplicant:

To bring a WiFi interface up, run the following :

ifconfig wlan0 up

To discover your wireless network interface name, see Network Interfaces.

2. Install the wpa_supplicant package:

apt-get install wpasupplicant

3. Edit network interfaces file :

At the bottom of the file, add the following lines to allow wlan as a network connection:

cat <<EOF > /etc/network/interfaces.d/wlan0
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp

EOF

4. Create a configuration file with the relevant ssid:

cat <<EOF > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
ctrl_interface=/run/wpa_supplicant
update_config=1

network={
    ssid="MYSSID"
    psk="passphrase" 
}

EOF

Check your personal ssids by running : ‘iw dev wlan0 scan’

5. Make sure it works:

Restart your device and it should connect to the wireless network. If it doesn't, repeat above steps or get help from an adult.

For more information about using wpa_supplicant , you can refer to wpa_supplicant or wpa_supplicant.

Bluetooth

1. For showing all Bluetooth devices, run the following:

apt-get install bluez
hciconfig -a

2. Choose a device, and turn it on:

hciconfig hci0 up

3. Set up the Bluetooth name:

hciconfig hci0 name 'SolidRun_Ble'

4. Make your Bluetooth detectable by other devices:

hciconfig hci0 piscan

5. If you want to connect to other devices:

Start by scanning for other Bluetooth devices:

hcitool scan

Choose a MAC address and connect :

rfcomm connect 0 $MAC 10 &

You can check the communication between the devices by writing :

l2ping -c 4 $MAC

TLV EEPROM Support

Starting from April 01. 2022, the EEPROMs on Carriers, i.MX8M Plus SoMs are being programmed with identifying information such as the product name and SKUs to allow for programmatic identification of hardware. Check our iMXMP EEPROM documentation for additional information.