CM-T3730: Linux: Getting started

Preparation steps

• Obtain a Linux PC workstation with a serial communication port and a micro SD card reader.
• Download the Linux package for CM-T3730 from CompuLab website. Unzip the package to a directory on your host workstation.
• All image files mentioned below can be found in images subdirectory.
• The micro SD card, supplied with the CM-T3730 Evaluation kit, has already been pre-partitioned as described in CM-T3x: U-Boot: Firmware Overview article.

Image installation

• Plug the micro SD card, supplied with CM-T3730 Evaluation kit, into the micro SD card reader attached to your desktop workstation.
• Depending on your desktop system setup, following steps might require super user privileges.
• The following steps assume that the micro SD card is /dev/sde (this might change depending on the desktop system setup) and the desktop system used does not perform automount.
• Mount the first (boot) partition of micro SD card:

sudo mkdir -p /media/boot && sudo mount /dev/sde1 /media/boot/

• Copy the uImage-cm-t3730.bin to the micro SD card first (FAT) partition and name it uImage-cm-t3730:

sudo cp cm-t3730-linux/images/uImage-cm-t3730.bin /media/boot/uImage-cm-t3730

• Copy the bootscr.img to the micro SD card first (FAT) partition and name it boot.scr:

sudo cp cm-t3730-linux/images/bootscr.img /media/boot/boot.scr

• Format the third micro SD card partition with EXT4 filesystem:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sde3

• Mount the third micro SD card third partition:

sudo mkdir -p /media/rootfs && sudo mount /dev/sde3 /media/rootfs/

• Extract the content of Angstrom-image-cm-t3730.tar.bz2 onto that partition:

sudo tar -xpjvf cm-t3730-linux/images/Angstrom-image-cm-t3730.tar.bz2 -C /media/rootfs && sync

• Unmount all micro SD card partitions:

sudo umount /dev/sde1; sudo umount /dev/sde3

• Remove the micro SD card from the SD card reader and install it in the CM-T3730 micro SD card socket (P5).

Starting the CM-T3730

• Connect the host PC to the SB-T35 base-board (connector P12) via the serial cable supplied with the evaluation kit.
• Start terminal emulation software on your PC. Set baud rate to 115200 bps, 8 bit per frame, 1 stop bit, no parity, no flow control.
• Turn on the CM-T3730 evaluation system. The U-Boot boot-loader will start and load the Linux kernel.

If you want to get back to U-Boot prompt, hold Ctrl-C during reset.

CM-T3730 will boot Angstrom Linux from the micro SD card.
Note, that the first boot takes a long time because Angstrom Linux performs a lot of one-time initialization tasks.

When the Angstrom Linux is run for the first time it presents several configuration screens. Make sure to choose "Angstrom" profile in the profile selection.

Troubleshooting

• CM-T3730 does not load Angstrom Linux:
  • Check that you followed all the above steps closely.
  • Power on the CM-T3730 while holding Ctrl-C.
  • In U-Boot command prompt, restore the default environment:

    CM-T3730 # env default -f

  • Save the environment onto the micro SD card:

    CM-T3730 # saveenv

  • Reset the CM-T3730 (SW2 on SB-T35)

See also

• CM-T3730: Linux: Angstrom
• CM-T3730: Linux: Kernel
• Linux Development for ARM modules
• U-Boot for CM-T3730