Revision as of 19:08, 23 April 2012

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IGEP Technology Devices Guides - Part 2/3 - Summary

1) Booting up IGEPv2

2) Updating the pre-installed software

3) Flashing the latest firmware to the IGEPv2 flash memory

4) Connect to IGEPv2 via network interfaces

5) Basic instructions

6) Send a file between a PC and IGEPv2

7) Handle IGEPv2's

8) Mount a MicroSD card

Booting and setting up

This distribution consists on a minimal Linux-based distribution with a lite X Window System and GNOME Mobile based applications created with Poky Platform Builder.

In the previous chapter of this tutorial, we have booted IGEPv2 with its pre-installed software.

Once the board has booted up, it asks for a login in the serial debug port. You can log in into IGEPv2 via the serial interface.

*The default login user is: root 
*There is no password for this user. 

Boot priority

In fact, IGEPv2 can boot from many other devices (listed by priority):

1. from USB
2. from UART3
3. from a MMC/MicroSD card
4. from OneNAND memory

As we haven't set any other boot device rather than the oneNAND (the IGEPv2 flash memory) the system boots from it.

But, as the MicroSD card has an upper priority than the flash, if you plug a MicroSD card (with the right configuration on it) to the MicroSD card reader, IGEPv2 will boot from it and won't boot from the flash memory.

Now, We are going to use this functionality to update your pre-installed software.

Updating the pre-installed software

We are now going to update the pre-installed software to the latest version.

(if you are familiar with Linux, there might be some instructions and comments you can ignore, as they are for Linux newbies)

1) Downloading the latest firmware

The first thing you'll need to do is to download the latest firwmare from ISEE.

At your Linux host PC you should open Terminal and type the following command:

wget http://downloads.igep.es/binaries/firmware/poky-firmware-3.3.1-10.tar.gz

• Or download it from: http://www.isee.biz/component/zoo/item/igep-firmware

2) Uncompressing the downloaded file

Now you have downloaded a compressed file with the latest official firmware into the current directory (.tar.gz).

Next, we will use the application 'tar' to untar (uncompress) the downloaded file. In the same Terminal session, type:

tar xzf poky-firmware-3.3.1-10.tar.gz

Next, you can go into the extracted directory with the system 'cd' instruction:

cd poky-firmware-3.3.1-10/

3) Create a MicroSD card

We are going to create the MicroSD card with the latest firmware. Before it, you have to know which 'device' is the MicroSD listed in the /dev/ directory, a directory where the detected devices are listed by the Linux system.

To know the device name, follow this instructions:

Insert your MicroSD card into the Linux host machine (the machine where you have downloaded the firmware).

In your Terminal session, run the following system command:

dmesg

This instruction will prompt all the system traces. If your MicroSD card has actually been detected by the system, the last lines of that prompt will correspond to the MicroSD card detection and mounting.

Check the MicroSD name and path, for example: /dev/sdb and remember it.

Now you can run the following script in the folder you have just extracted, and you will have to add some parameters. In your Terminal session, type:

./poky-media-create --mmc [device] --binary poky-image-sato-igep00x0-[timestamp].tar.gz --machine igep0020

where:

• [device] is the SD card device name, for example: /dev/sdb
• [timestamp] the parameter --binary is actually the name of another .tar.gz compressed file that you have already extracted in the previous steps. If you want to auto-complete the [timestamp] parameter, press TAB in the timestamp when writing the instruction and the system will write the name of the file automatically.

This instruction will last a few minutes. When the process ends, you will have a MicroSD card with the latest software on it.

4) Plug the MicroSD card

Therefore, you are ready to try it. Plug the MicroSD card into IGEPv2 and power up your board.

Flashing the software image

Now your IGEPv2 has the latest firmware running from MicroSD card.

But you might want to write the firmware to the flash memory, so you won't need the MicroSD card when booting the board. So let's do it.

Note: The following process is assuming that your host PC is connected to IGEPv2 via the Serial Debug port. If not, read the Serial Port instructions in the previous chapter of this tutorial.

Enter to IGEPv2 using:

* root as login name 
* an empty password

The software provided by ISEE has a script that flashes the content of your MicroSD Card to the flash memory in your IGEPv2.

You have to run this script, that is located at /opt/firmware directory. Open a Terminal and run:

cd /opt/firmware
./flash.sh

This will last a few minutes. When it is ready, unplug the SD card from IGEPv2 and reboot the board:

reboot

Enjoy the new firmware running from flash memory.

Other references: update your pre-installed software image

Connect to IGEPv2 via network interfaces

You can log into IGEPv2 via many interfaces with network connectivity, such ethernet, wifi, usb-ethernet gadget, etc.

In this tutorial we are going to connect via an ethernet cable. To to that, you need to set an IP in IGEPv2 (host) and start a SSH session in your PC (client). Let's do it.

First of all, you will need:

• an Ethernet cable
• a Linux or a Windows host PC

Log into IGEPv2 via the serial cable to the serial debug port in IGEPv2, as you have done in the previous chapter of this tutorial guide.

Once you are logged in, run the following command:

ifconfig

This will list all the enabled network interfaces in your IGEPv2.

We are going to focus on 'eth0'. This is the ethernet interface in your IGEPv2, which is the interface we will connect to from our host PC.

Connect the ethernet cable between your host PC and IGEPv2 (or through any wired network such switch).

Now, let's set an static IP to this interface in IGEPv2, so we will be able to reach the target from the PC.

Type the following command in your serial console:

ifconfig eth0 192.168.6.2

Next, set an IP within the subnet in your host PC, for example: 192.168.6.3

Then, run a SSH client such Putty and start a SSH session to the target from your host PC.

You can download it from its official page at: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Install and run Putty. It will look like this:

1. Select the SSH at connection type.
2. Next insert the IP address of the target. In this case, the IGEPv2 IP you have already set (192.168.6.3).
3. Ensure that the port is set to 22, the default for SSH communications.
4. Finally, push the Open button to start the SSH session.

If everything goes right, you will be able to access to an IGEPv2 console from your PC via ethernet.

Basic instructions

IGEPv2 is compatible with many Linux distributions. In this tutorial we are using Poky Linux, 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 IGEPv2 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)

Once you are logged in IGEPv2, 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 IGEPv2.

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

Send a file between a PC and IGEPv2

In a Linux host PC, you can use SCP (secure copy) via SSH to transfer files between IGEPv2 and your host PC.

First of all, set an static IP to your Linux Host (for example, 192.168.6.3) and another IP within the subnet for IGEPv2 (for example, 192.168.6.2).

First of all, you check the connectivity (From IGEPv2 console):

ping 192.168.6.3

Press CTRL-C to stop the command.

Now let's transfer a file called original.file in your host PC to IGEPv2 in /home/root/

In your Host PC open Terminal and type:

scp -r original.file root@192.168.6.2:/home/root/destination.file

You can repeat the process from the IGEPv2 console, and transfer a file from IGEPv2 to your Host PC.

How to handle the gpio-LED's

IGEPv2 has many devices that can be controlled using simple instructions.

In this tutorial, we are going to use the 4 LED's available in the board, which probably is the most simple feature in the board, but sometimes you may want LED's to be a way of checking the status of some of your applications.

You can easily turn LED's on and off using the 'echo' instruction.

Log into IGEPv2 (via serial port or via SSH, as shown before), and run the following commands to turn LED's on:

echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/leds-gpio/leds/d240\:green/brightness
echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/leds-gpio/leds/d240\:red/brightness
echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/leds-gpio/leds/d440\:green/brightness
echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/leds-gpio/leds/d440\:red/brightness

You can turn them down using the same command and write '0' instead of '1'.

Other functionalities

If you want to trigger the leds you can enable this mode and select the trigger source (none by default) to: mmc0, mmc1, timer, heartbeat and default-on.

To enable any of this modes you just have to change a parameter in the directory of the led you want to control. You can see all the possibilities using the instruction 'cat':

$   cat /sys/devices/platform/leds-gpio/leds/d240\:green/trigger

[none] mmc0 mmc1 timer heartbeat default-on

In the example above, we have checked the status of the trigger in led D240:green. Mode 'none' is selected.

To change it, for example, to the timer mode you can use 'echo':

echo timer > /sys/devices/platform/leds-gpio/leds/d240\:green/trigger

In this case, we have set the trigger to the 'timer' mode. Now you can set the time for what the led is ON and the time it is OFF using:

echo 250 > /sys/devices/platform/leds-gpio/leds/d240\:green/delay_on
echo 750 > /sys/devices/platform/leds-gpio/leds/d240\:green/delay_off

Now the selected led is configured with a timer consisting of 250 miliseconds ON and 750 miliseconds OFF.

Mount a MicroSD card

(Work in progress section!)

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/

How to use RS-485

How to get sound out (audio out)

The amplifiers for the headset output are disabled by default, so the first thing you'll do is enable these amplifiers with:

amixer set -D hw:0 'Headset' 0dB
amixer set -D hw:0 'HeadsetL Mixer AudioL2' on
amixer set -D hw:0 'HeadsetR Mixer AudioR2' on

Then you can easily play a *.wav sound with the application Aplay, for example:

aplay sample.wav

How to get sound in (audio in)

You can record audio in with the application Arecord, for example:

arecord -t wav -c 2 -r 44100 -f S16_LE -v audio-in.wav

Following output is expected on console:

Recording WAVE 'audio-in.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
Plug PCM: Hardware PCM card 0 'TWL4030' device 0 subdevice 0
Its setup is:
stream       : CAPTURE
access       : RW_INTERLEAVED
format       : S16_LE
subformat    : STD
channels     : 2
rate         : 44100
exact rate   : 44100 (44100/1)
msbits       : 16
buffer_size  : 32768
period_size  : 2048
period_time  : 46439
tick_time    : 7812
tstamp_mode  : NONE
period_step  : 1
sleep_min    : 0
avail_min    : 2048
xfer_align   : 2048
start_threshold  : 1
stop_threshold   : 32768
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 0
boundary     : 1073741824

When ever you think you want to stop recording just press CTRL+C

Continue with this tutorial at: [[Start developing under IGEP Technology]]