Basic Software instructions

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IGEP Boards are compatible with many Linux distributions. In this tutorial we are using IGEP firmware Yocto, which is the pre-installed software from ISEE.

In case you are not familiar with Bash instructions, here comes some basic instructions to help you startup with the board.

First of all, log in to IGEP with a console from your host PC (via serial port or via SSH), as shown previous sections in this article. Remember the default settings:

login: root
password: (none: press return)

Bash Useful Instructions

Once you are logged in IGEP, run the following commands:

cd /
ls

You have moved to the root directory, that is "/". The instruction "ls" lists all the existing files and directories in the current "path".

Now let's go to the directory /home/root/ with:

cd /home/root/

You can always check at which directory you are with the instruction:

pwd

Most instructions include a 'help' option that can be accessed by inserting the parameter --help. Check out the help page of 'echo' instruction, for example:

echo --help

You can try the instruction by yourself and type:

echo Hello

You have sent the text "Hello" to the standard output, that is the console you are interacting with.

But you can change and 'redirect' the output by using the character '>' :

echo Hello world! > /home/root/name.file

Now notice you have redirected the output to a file called name.file :

ls

You can append any file using '>>' instead of '>'. You can print the content of the file to the standard output:

cat /home/root/name.file

Building a basic script

You can create a script that can run any instruction you want to use in Bash. The main advantage is that you do not have to compile the code, as is auto-interpereted by the system.

We are going to create a basic 'Hello World' script that is going to run the same command you have actually used before:

echo "echo Hello world!" > /home/root/example.sh
cat example.sh

Now you have created a file called example.sh, but by default it has no execute permissions (x):

ls -la

We are going to add permission to the file by:

chmod a+x example.sh
ls -la

Now you can run the script:

./example.sh

You can edit this file (example.sh) with 'vi', the pre-installed text editor in IGEP.

vi example.sh

Press ESC and:

  •  :q! , to exit without saving
  •  :w , to save
  •  :wq , to quit and save
  • i , to insert text

Other simple & useful instructions

  • mkdir
  • rmdir
  • find
  • grep

You can stop any instruction by pressing CTRL+C

Mount a MicroSD card

Mount MicroSD card from Flash Boot.

Log into IGEP and run any of the following commands:

  • Access to Generic FAT32 microSD:
mount -t vfat /dev/mmcblk0 /mnt/tmp/
  • Access to Generic USB Flash disk:
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/tmp/
  • Safety Remove microSD:
umount /mnt/tmp
  • Access to IGEP demo microSD:
mount -t jffs2 /dev/mmcblk0 /mnt/tmp/

Mount Flash Memory

Mount Flash memory from MicroSD Boot. Flash memory has 3 partitions:

  • /dev/mtdblock0
  • /dev/mtdblock1
  • /dev/mtdblock2

Example, mount mtdblock 1 partition at /tmp/temp directory:

mkdir /tmp/temp
mount -t jffs2 /dev/mtdblock1 /tmp/temp