Freescale Semiconductor Babbage 2.5 User guide

|Babbage 2.5 Ubuntu Startup Guide
Because of an order from the United States International Trade Commission, BGA-packaged
product lines and part numbers indicated here currently are not available from Freescale for
import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: i.MX51 Product Family
Babbage 2.5 Ubuntu Startup Guide
Introduction
This document shows the procedure to start up the Babbage 2.5 board. The board arrives
with a pre-flashed SD card that contains all the necessary images to launch Ubuntu. The
first section of the document shows the connection that need to be made and the quick
steps in order to get Ubuntu working.
In case the SD card requires to be flashed again, the second section of the documents
provides the detailed steps and requirement in order to make the Ubuntu launch possible.
The last section shows the known issues recognized so far.
I. Boot verification section
Requirements
-An pre-flashed SD Card (Ultra II SanDisk SD card)
o8GB will be ideal although 4GB SD card will suffice
oTesting at Freescale has been done only with SanDisk SD Cards
-Serial interface (in order to see redboot messages and change the boot script)
such as Hyperterminal in Windows or Minicom in Linux-based Systems.
-Cables and Connectors:
oDVI cable
oDB9 Serial Cable
o5V Power source
oUSB mouse and USB keyboard
oRegular speaker or headphone if audio is desired
oEthernet cable
Steps
-Move the SD card to the Babbage2 board on to the SD slot “P1” on the bottom of
the board.
-Make sure that the dip switch on the Babbage board is set to SW7=SW8=ON,
everything else OFF
-Connect a serial cable to the P5A1 port and on the PC host open a serial console,
(in windows could be Hyperteminal, in Linux could be minicom) set the terminal
to 115200, 8N1, no FlowControl

|Babbage 2.5 Ubuntu Startup Guide
Because of an order from the United States International Trade Commission, BGA-packaged
product lines and part numbers indicated here currently are not available from Freescale for
import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: i.MX51 Product Family
-Connect a DVI cable in the DVI port on Babbage board (P4) and on the other site
plug it to a monitor (that at least supports 800x600)
-Connect an Ethernet cable to the Ethernet connector (P3)
-Connect USB keyboard and mouse to the Dual-USB_A connector
-Connect speaker or headphone if audio is desired. JK1 audio jack (optional)
-Connect the 5V supply
-Press the SW1 push button around ~5 seconds to power up and make sure that
you see the boot message on the UART console (hyperteminal or minicom).
DISP-Card
Connector
Micro_USB
Connector
MIC_IN
Jack
Audio
Jack
Mini_PCI
Connector
LVDS
Connector
DVI Connector UART
Connector
Power
Jack
Ethernet
Connector
Dual-
USB_A
Connector
MMC/SD
Connector
POWER
Button SW1
RESET
Button SW2
ACCESSORY_CA
RD Connector

|Babbage 2.5 Ubuntu Startup Guide
Because of an order from the United States International Trade Commission, BGA-packaged
product lines and part numbers indicated here currently are not available from Freescale for
import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: i.MX51 Product Family
II. Step by step setup and startup guide
General Notes
The procedure described in the following pages shows how to add the Ubuntu System to
the SD card. The SD card is the boot device for Babbage 2.5 board. The procedure shown
is made entirely using an Ubuntu host; this implies that the commands are specific to this
distribution.
The sections in grey indicate the commands that need to be executed in each step using
the Linux host. Most of the commands executed, require a supervisor level, so most of
the cases use the sudo before each command. The sections in blue indicate the commands
needed to be executed in the terminal when Ubuntu is launched in the Babbage board.
Requirements
-Linux Host
oA terminal or linux console to execute the commands shown
oTest at Freescale were only made running Ubuntu 9.04
-An SD Card (Ultra II SanDisk SD card)
o8GB will be ideal although 4GB SD card will suffice
oTesting at Freescale has been done only with SanDisk SD Cards
-An SD card reader (usually interfaced through USB and supporting SDHC due
to the density of the SD card used), it is used in order to make the SD visible to
the system in case that the host computer does not contain an SD card slot. The
testing employed an SanDisk MicroMate for SDHC support
-Serial interface (in order to see redboot messages and change the boot script)
-Make sure that the package “gparted” is present in your Linux host System. If
not present, it is possible to add it by using: $ sudo apt-get install gparted
-Download the packages
oBabbage2.5release15Jul2009.tar.gz: It contains scripts and packages
needed to prepare the SD card and also the bootlader and kernel binaries
for the setup. It can be found in: (compass site/extranet site)
oUbuntu root filesystem:
“9.04_jaunty_armel_offical_release_rootfs_april_21_09.tar.gz” from
http://people.ubuntu.com/~jerone/ubuntu_jaunty_9.04/
-Cables and Connectors:
oDVI cable

|Babbage 2.5 Ubuntu Startup Guide
Because of an order from the United States International Trade Commission, BGA-packaged
product lines and part numbers indicated here currently are not available from Freescale for
import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: i.MX51 Product Family
oDB9 Serial Cable
o5V Power source
oUSB mouse and USB keyboard
oRegular speaker or headphone if audio is desired
oEthernet cable
Detailed Steps
1. Setting the SD card in the proper filesystem
a. Connect the SD card (with the reader if needed) to the Linux Host
b. Format the whole SD card into one partition with EXT3 filesystem
type.
i. The gparted application is able to perform this task. If the SD card
connection to the Linux host was successful a dev node should be
created automatically; some options may be /dev/sdd, /dev/sdc or
/dev/sdb. In order to make sure, run the gparted application and in
the options shown in the right corner look for the device that
matches the size of the SD card used.
$ sudo gparted
ii. Delete current content in the SD if needed. In this example, the
SD card is mounted in /dev/sdb and it was already formatted. So
select it (by clicking in the /dev/sdb1 line) and click the Delete
button. After that hit Apply button and confirm the action. It
should erase the filesystem and the current partition.

|Babbage 2.5 Ubuntu Startup Guide
Because of an order from the United States International Trade Commission, BGA-packaged
product lines and part numbers indicated here currently are not available from Freescale for
import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: i.MX51 Product Family
c. Create the new partition with the ext3 filesystem. The SD card should
look like an unallocated space. Click in the Next button and in the “Create
new Partition” window set the File System to ext3. Click Add, then click
the Apply button and finally confirm the action. After this, close the
gparted application.
2. Initialize the SD card and load the bootloader (redboot).
a. Unpack the Babbage2.5release15Jul2009.tar.gz into the Linux Host to the
location best preferred by the user (as example /home/Babbage) and
access to the created new folder (Babbage2.5-releasel15Jul2009)
$ cd /home/Babbage
$ tar zxvf Babbage2.5release15Jul2009.tar.gz .
$ cd Babbage2.5-releasel15Jul2009

|Babbage 2.5 Ubuntu Startup Guide
Because of an order from the United States International Trade Commission, BGA-packaged
product lines and part numbers indicated here currently are not available from Freescale for
import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: i.MX51 Product Family
b. Run the updater.sh script to initialize the SD card (-i) and to load the
redboot.bin to the SD card (-b). The script expects the user to pass the /dev
node where the SD card is associated (-n); this example uses /deb/sdb
$ sudo ./updater.sh –i –n /dev/sdb
$ sudo ./updater.sh –b babbage/redboot.bin –n /dev/sdb
$ sudo sync
NOTE: Please use the 'redboot' source package on the Freescale's extranet site to build
the latest Babbage2 bootloader image. The 'redboot.bin' available with this tar ball was
built off of the 'redboot_200918.zip' release.
3. Create a new partition on the SD Card (for the kernel image)
a. Unplug the SD card and re-insert it to the Linux Host
b. Run the gparted application (it should take the same /dev node that it used
to have, however use dmesg command to look for the mount point). In this
case it is assumed that it stayed in the same /dev node (dev/sdb)
$ sudo gparted /dev/sdb
NOTE: It is possible that when gparted opens the SD card, the card seems like
unallocated or without any file system. This should not be a problem.
c. If needed, umount (for umount, right click when inside the partition area
and select umount) the existing partition and delete it (by clicking in the
Delete button but don’t click Apply yet)
NOTE: It is possible that a previous message appears mentioning that the current device
does not contain any filesystem or partition table, follow the steps that the system shows
with the default values (Button Create, see below)

|Babbage 2.5 Ubuntu Startup Guide
Because of an order from the United States International Trade Commission, BGA-packaged
product lines and part numbers indicated here currently are not available from Freescale for
import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: i.MX51 Product Family
d. Create a new partition with ext3 file system but make sure to set “Free
Space Preceding” to 20 MB (see figure below). Click Add, and then click
Apply (finally confirm the action).
It should look like this (below), after that close the application:
4. Install the kernel on the SD card
a. Unplug the SD card and re-insert it to the Linux Host. This time it should
be mounted not only as a device node but also as an interface in /media. In
order to check us the “df” command and you should see where the
/dev/sdbX is associated with a mount point, in this example the mount
point is /media/disk
NOTE: Please download and build the kernel image from the latest ER drop that's
available on the Freescale BSP extranet site. The prebuilt kernel image available with
Babbage2.5 tar ball was built off of the ER8 drop.
b. Run the updater application to load the kernel to the SD and umount the
SD card (for testing purposes)
$ sudo ./updater.sh –k babbage/zImage –n /dev/sdb

|Babbage 2.5 Ubuntu Startup Guide
Because of an order from the United States International Trade Commission, BGA-packaged
product lines and part numbers indicated here currently are not available from Freescale for
import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: i.MX51 Product Family
$ sudo sync
$ sudo umount /media/disk
5. Validate the steps so far by attempting to boot from the Babbage board
a. Move the SD card to the Babbage2 board on to the SD slot “P1” on the
bottom of the board.
b. Make sure that the dip switch on the Babbage board is set to
SW7=SW8=ON, everything else OFF
c. Connect the 5V supply and make sure that you see the boot message on
the UART.
i. Use 115200, 8N1, no FlowControl
d. Press the SW1 push button of the board (around 5 seconds) until the leds
on the board turn on and you can see something in the serial terminal.
e. You'll see the 'Kernel Panic – not syncing' message. This is normal, since
we have not yet programmed the rootfs.
6. Copy the Ubuntu Rootfilesystem to the SD Card
a. Move the SD card to the Linux Host
b. Change the name of the downloaded Ubuntu package from (go to the
location where it was downloaded)
9.04_jaunty_armel_offical_release_rootfs_april_21_09.tar.tar to
9.04_jaunty_armel_offical_release_rootfs_april_21_09.tar.gz
$ mv 9.04_jaunty_armel_offical_release_rootfs_april_21_09.tar.tar
9.04_jaunty_armel_offical_release_rootfs_april_21_09.tar.gz
c. Extract the content of the package in the SD (it should be mounted in the
same way as the last time, as example in here the place is /media/disk).

|Babbage 2.5 Ubuntu Startup Guide
Because of an order from the United States International Trade Commission, BGA-packaged
product lines and part numbers indicated here currently are not available from Freescale for
import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: i.MX51 Product Family
$ sudo tar --numeric-owner –zxvf
9.04_jaunty_armel_offical_release_rootfs_april_21_09.tar.gz –C /media/disk
$ sudo sync
NOTE: Look for the latest release from Ubuntu as appropriate, the tar step may take a
while.
7. Update the /etc folder on the SD Card
a. Located in the Babbage2.5… package folder, copy the etc_files into the
/etc folder inside the SD card
$ sudo cp –R Ubuntu/etc_files/* /media/disk/etc
$ sudo sync
8. Copy the install files on the SD Card
b. Located in the Babbage2.5… package folder, copy the installs_files into
the /home/ubuntu folder inside the SD card
$ sudo cp –R Ubuntu/install_files/ /media/disk/home/ubuntu
$ sudo sync
9. Power ON the board with the proper connections and login
a. Now make all the connections needed for running Ubuntu into the board
(see the image below). You should already have connected the power (5V)
and the serial cable for the console.
i. Connect a DVI cable in the DVI port on Babbage board (P4) and
on the other site plug it to a monitor (that at least supports
800x600)
ii. Connect an Ethernet cable to the Ethernet connector (P3)
iii. Connect USB keyboard and mouse to the Dual-USB_A connector
iv. Connect speaker or headphone if audio is desired. JK1 audio jack
(optional)
b. Move the SD card to the Babbage board and power ON the board
v. Press the SW1 push button of the board until the leds turn on and
you can see something in the terminal.
c. Configure Redboot properly for setup
vi. When 'redboot' boots up, hit CtrlC to enter the Redboot menu.
1. Run 'fconfig'
2. Set the 'Boot Script' to the following
a. fis load kernel
b. e –c “noinitrd console=tty1
console=ttymxc0,115200 root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rw
video=mxcfb:800x600-16@60” (it can support
1280x800)

|Babbage 2.5 Ubuntu Startup Guide
Because of an order from the United States International Trade Commission, BGA-packaged
product lines and part numbers indicated here currently are not available from Freescale for
import or sale in the United States prior to September 2010: i.MX51 Product Family
c. Chage to true the value of the option Set FEC
Network Hardware Address [MAC]
d. Save changes (update)
d. Reset the board (by pressing the SW2 reset push button or by holding 5
seconds the SW1 push btton for power down and other 5 seconds for
power up)
Micro_USB
Connector
MIC_IN
Jack
Audio
Jack
DISP-Card
Connector
Mini_PCI
Connector
LVDS
Connector
DVI
Connector
UART
Connector
Power
Jack
Ethernet
Connector
Dual-
USB_A
Connector
MMC/SD
Connector
POWER
Button SW1
RESET
Button SW2
ACCESSORY_CA
RD Connector