AM64x HummingBoard-T Quick Start Guide

Owned by SolidRun
Last updated: Sept 01, 2024 by Yazan Shhady
4 min read

Revision and Notes

Date

Owner

Revision

Notes

Date

Owner

Revision

Notes

26/10/2021

Josua Mayer

1.0

Initial release

26/06/2023

Josua Mayer

1.1

Production release

Table of Contents

 

Purpose

This guide provides basic instructions for operating the SolidRun AM64 HummingBoard-T and booting into Linux. Advanced usage scenarios are covered by separate technical documentation.

Hardware Setup

Connections

  • 12V DC Power Adapter (12V recommended, HummingBoard-T supports 9V-36V)

  • microUSB cable for serial console

  • microSD card for storing bootable SW

 

Boot Select

Configure the boot-mode for microSD using onboard DIP switch S1:

Switch

1

2

3

4

5

6

Switch

1

2

3

4

5

6

microSD (FAT partition)

0

0

0

1

0

1

microSD (RAW)

1

0

0

0

1

1

eMMC

1

0

0

1

X

X

Note: 0 = OFF, 1 = ON, X = don't care.

Console

Start an application for serial console - such as PuTTY or tio. Configure it for baud rate 115200 and the COMx or ttyUSBy interface representing the micro-USB console connection. For details also see Serial Connection.

Software Setup

Prepare bootable microSD Card

  1. Download prebuilt sdcard image based on debian: microsd-41a660b-debian-bookworm-sr1

  2. uncompress downloaded image file

  3. write image file to microSD card to create a byte-for-byte copy. https://etcher.io/ is recommended, professionals may use unix “dd” command.

Attention: The AM64x SOM modules are programmed with critical identifying information, including the product name and SKU, stored in an EEPROM at I2C bus 0, address 0x50. This data is structured according to the ONIE TLV standard and is essential for initializing the product and aligning the software accordingly. The tlv_eeprom command in U-Boot can be used to read this data.

Important: If this information is deleted or becomes corrupted, it will impact the correct initialization and functionality of the product. In such cases, please contact SolidRun support immediately for assistance.

First Steps with Debian reference system

Log-In

After inserting the programmed microSD card in the HummingBoard-T and after (re-)connecting the 12V power, the system should automatically boot to a login prompt displayed on the serial console:

Debian GNU/Linux 11 3f60b4ebfc7f ttyS2 3f60b4ebfc7f login: root Linux 3f60b4ebfc7f 5.10.168-00011-g0f54435fab1c #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun May 21 16:21:43 UTC 2023 aarch64 The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software; the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright. Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law. root@3f60b4ebfc7f:~#

Log in with user-name “root”, no password.

Networking

By default networking is not configured. For advanced or persistent configurations please refer to the Debian Documentation.

For connecting the first RJ45 port (next to power connector) using automatic configuration, execute:

root@3f60b4ebfc7f:~# dhclient eth0 root@3f60b4ebfc7f:~# ip addr show eth0 2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000 link/ether 34:88:de:e3:c0:17 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff inet 192.168.1.225/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic eth0 valid_lft 552sec preferred_lft 552sec inet 192.168.1.226/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global secondary dynamic eth0 valid_lft 552sec preferred_lft 552sec inet6 fe80::3688:deff:fee3:c017/64 scope link valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Log-In via SSH

To log in via SSH, an ssh key must be installed first. Copy your favourite public key, e.g. from ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub, into a new file in the root users home directory at ~/.ssh/authorized_keys:

root@e7c450f97e59:~# mkdir .ssh root@e7c450f97e59:~# cat > .ssh/authorized_keys << EOF ssh-ed25519 AAAAinsertyour pubkey@here EOF

Expand Root Filesystem

After flashing the root filesystem is smaller than the eMMC. To utilize all space, resize both the rootfs partition - and then the filesystem:

  1. inspect partitions:

    Using fdisk, view the current partitions. Take note of the start sector for partition 2!

  2. resize partition 1:

    Drop and re-create partition 2 at the same starting sector noted before, keeping the ext4 signature when prompted:

  3. resize root filesystem:

    Linux supports online-resizing for the ext4 filesystem. Invoke resize2fs on partition 1 to do so:

Additional Information

SolidRun Ltd.