Updated instructions to use Android on the Beagle board
These instructions are derived from Embinux.org’s Android Porting Guide to Beagle Board, based on their work to port Android on the Beagle board. They correct multiple inaccuracies in this guide, and also add many useful details.
These instructions were tested on xubuntu 9.04. There shouldn’t be many differences if you use other recent Ubuntu or Debian versions.
Install needed software packages
At the time of this writing, note that Android requires Sun’s Java5 JDK, and doesn’t support the Java6 one.
apt-get update apt-get dist-upgrade apt-get install git-core bison sun-java5-jdk flex g++ zlib1g-dev apt-get install libx11-dev libncurses5-dev gperf uboot-mkimage
Android also uses its own repo script as a git front-end:
mkdir -p ~/bin cd ~/bin wget http://android.git.kernel.org/repo chmod +x repo
We are also going to need a 2007q3 toolchain from Code Sourcery
cd wget http://www.codesourcery.com/sgpp/lite/arm/portal/package1787/public/arm-none-linux-gnueabi/arm-2007q3-51-arm-none-linux-gnueabi-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2 cd /opt sudo tar jxf arm-2007q3-51-arm-none-linux-gnueabi-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2
You could also get this toolchain from our website:
cd wget http://free-electrons.com/pub/demos/beagleboard/android/arm-2007q3-51-arm-none-linux-gnueabi-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.lzma cd /opt sudo tar --lzma -xf ~/arm-2007q3-51-arm-none-linux-gnueabi-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.lzma
Download sources
Our instructions create a directory in your home directory, but of course, it can be placed anywhere!
mkdir ~/beagledroid cd ~/beagledroid repo init -u git://labs.embinux.org/repo/android/platform/beaglemanifest.git/ repo sync
Caution: this can take a lot of time, as this downloads and extracts 2.4 GB of data. On a fast workstation with a 500KB/s Internet connection, it took about 90 minutes.
If your corporate network doesn’t let you use the git protocol, you can use our snapshot available on http://free-electrons.com/pub/demos/beagleboard/android/:
cd tar --lzma -xvf beagledroid-git-20090603.tar.lzma
Building Android
make
If your workstation has multiple CPUs, you could save a lot of time by running multiple jobs in parallel:
make -j 4
On our machine, this took about 4 hours!
Building the kernel
export CC_PATH=/opt/arm-2007q3/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabi- cd ~/beagledroid/kernel ../vendor/embinux/support-tools/beagle_build_kernel.sh
Copying the Android root filesystem
Android’s root file system is generated in ~/beagledroid/out/target/product/generic
cd ~/beagledroid/out/target/product/generic mkdir ~/beagledroid/rootfs cp -a root/* ~/beagledroid/rootfs/ cp -a system/* ~/beagledroid/rootfs/system/ cd ~/beagledroid/rootfs sudo chown -R root.root . sudo chmod -R a+rwX data system
Formatting an MMC/SD card
First connect your card reader to your workstation, with the MMC/SD card inside. Type the dmesg command to see which device is used by your workstation. Let’s assume that this device is /dev/sdb
Type the mount command to check your currently mounted partitions. If MMC/SD partitions are mounted, unmount them.
In a terminal edit partitions with fdisk:
sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
Delete any existing partition with the d command.
Now, create the boot partition:
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-239, default 1): 1
Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-239, default 239): +64M
Change its type to FAT32:
Command (m for help): t Selected partition 1 Hex code (type L to list codes): c Changed system type of partition 1 to c (W95 FAT32 (LBA))
Using the n command again, create a second partition filling up the rest of your card (just accept default values).
Now, format the partitions in your card:
sudo mkfs.vfat -n beagleboot -F 32 /dev/sdb1 sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb2
Remove and insert your card again. Your new partitions should be mounted automatically.
Copying data to the MMC/SD card
Start by copying the X-loader and U-boot on the first partition.
cd /media/beagleboot wget http://free-electrons.com/pub/demos/beagleboard/android/MLO http://free-electrons.com/pub/demos/beagleboard/android/u-boot.bin cp ~/beagledroid/kernel/arch/arm/boot/uImage .
Now copy the Android root filesystem to the second partition (assuming it is mounted on /media/disk:
sudo rsync -a ~/beagledroid/rootfs/ /media/disk/
Finish by unmounting your MMC/SD partitions:
sudo umount /media/beagleboot sudo umount /media/disk
Boot setup
The last thing left to do is to specify how the board boots Linux.
Plug the Beagle board on your computer, and also connect it to a DVI-D monitor. Start minicom (corresponding to Hyperterminal in Windows) on /dev/ttyS0, or on /dev/ttyUSB0 if you are using a serial to USB adapter. Power up the board.
First, stop Minicom from truncating long lines by typing [Ctrl] [a] followed by z and w.
In the U-boot prompt, make the board boot automatically on the MMC/SD card:
setenv bootcmd 'mmc init;fatload mmc 0 80000000 uImage;bootm 80000000' saveenv
Now set the kernel command line arguments:
setenv bootargs console=ttyS2,115200n8 noinitrd root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 video=omapfb.mode=dvi:1280x720MR-24@50 init=/init rootfstype=ext3 rw rootdelay=1 nohz=off androidboot.console=ttyS2
You may need to adapt the video settings to the capabilities of your DVI display. You should now see Android boot!
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I have downloaded the snapshot view from http://free-electrons.com/pub/demos/beagleboard/android/ which is in tar.tat format. I am not able to uncompress it. Pleawe help
I have downloaded the following:
arm-2007q3-51-arm-none-linux-gnueabi-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.tar
beagledroid-git-20090603.tar.tar
Hi Sanjeev,
Are you using Windows to extract these archives? In this case, we can’t help you?
If you use GNU/Linux, you will find examples about how to use wget to download these files and how to extract the .tar.lzma archives. That’s what we recommend.
Good luck,
Cheers,
Michael.
Hi…i am not able to run the uImage obtained through the snapshot on our Beagle board.It says unsupported kernel image…what could be the problem?Please help!
Hi Sany,
Try to run the following command:
mkimage -l ~/beagledroid/kernel/arch/arm/boot/uImage
… and give us the output (if you use Debian or Ubuntu, you may need the
uboot-mkimagepackage). This way, we will be able to check whether the image looks correct or not.Here’s what we got:
Image Name: Linux-2.6.29-omap1-07174-g7fbc41
Created: Mon Jun 1 17:37:32 2009
Image Type: ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
Data Size: 1913608 Bytes = 1868.76 kB = 1.82 MB
Load Address: 0×80008000
Entry Point: 0×80008000
Cheers,
Michael.
My output was ,
mkimage: Bad Magic Number: “uImage” is no valid image
Thank you for this guide. I was able to build Android for Beagle Board painlessly just following your instructions. I spent a day wrestling with the original Embinux guide to no avail.
I have followed all the steps, i have created SD card with u-boot,MLO,uImage and copied file system in the second partition.
but when i insert it into beagle board xM Rev.b, No result on Hyperterminal. no LED on the Memory Card also not glown.
But when i insert Memory Card which is provided by Beagle Board supplies its working( This is just for confirming that Memory card slot and other parts are working on beagle board)
Please help on this
I have downloaded the snapshot view from http://free-electrons.com/pub/demos/beagleboard/android/ which is in tar.lzma format.
I have downloaded the following:
beagledroid-git-20090603.tar.lzma
When i try to uncompress, it give me the following errors:
EOF in archive
tar: Unexpected EOF in archive
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
Please help…
The archive can be extracted with “tar –lzma -xvf beagledroid-git-20090603.tar.lzma”.
When i say “uncompress”,i refer to “tar –lzma -xvf beagledroid-git-20090603.tar.lzma”.
it still give me the following errors:
EOF in archive
tar: Unexpected EOF in archive
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
any idea to solve this problem? Btw, I can extract the file “arm-2007q3-51-arm-none-linux-gnueabi-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.lzma” with no problem..
Try to check that your download went fine. Here is an md5sum checksum for this file: http://free-electrons.com/pub/demos/beagleboard/android/beagledroid-git-20090603.tar.lzma.md5
And I confirm that the archive extracts fine on my side.
Hi all,
I am trying to create filesystem of android but when i run make command
it gives following error..
please help me out.
Thanks in advance.
Copying out/target/common/obj/JAVA_LIBRARIES/core-tests_intermediates/classes-full-debug.jar
target Jar: core-tests (out/target/common/obj/JAVA_LIBRARIES/core-tests_intermediates/javalib.jar)
java.util.zip.ZipException: duplicate entry: hyts_Foo.c
at java.util.zip.ZipOutputStream.putNextEntry(ZipOutputStream.java:192)
at java.util.jar.JarOutputStream.putNextEntry(JarOutputStream.java:109)
at sun.tools.jar.Main.addFile(Main.java:731)
at sun.tools.jar.Main.update(Main.java:585)
at sun.tools.jar.Main.run(Main.java:220)
at sun.tools.jar.Main.main(Main.java:1167)
make: *** [out/target/common/obj/JAVA_LIBRARIES/core-tests_intermediates/javalib.jar] Error 1
make: *** Deleting file `out/target/common/obj/JAVA_LIBRARIES/core-tests_intermediates/javalib.jar’
I am getting the same error as Siddharth.
Same error here. Downloaded tools from codesourcery, but the tgz of the source from this site.
Hello Everyone,
I got the tools installed …..compiled the code. my problem is in the directory ~/beagledroid/kernel/arch/arm/boot/ i only find files zImage and Image. I do not see any file named uImage.
I would appreciate if people can explain this problem.
Thanks a lot,
chris
Hiii.. i have got the source code from
http://free-electrons.com/pub/demos/beagleboard/android/
as i had some problems in installing repo and git in my system..
Can someone tell me the proper order of coping these 6 files to mmc for successful boot? whether only these 6 files are sufficient to port android on beagleboard??
or some files like boot.scr , uboot for flash, normal.scr are required?
Kindly follow the procedures in “Formatting an MMC/SD card”. You need to create 2 partitions one FAT format for booting and the other one is Linux format for the Android files.
You just need the following in the FAT format partition:
cd /media/beagleboot
wget http://free-electrons.com/pub/demos/beagleboard/android/MLO
http://free-electrons.com/pub/demos/beagleboard/android/u-boot.bin
cp ~/beagledroid/kernel/arch/arm/boot/uImage
The following for the LINUX partition:
sudo rsync -a ~/beagledroid/rootfs/ /media/disk/
Make sure you download beagledroid-git-20090603 from http://free-electrons.com/pub/demos/beagleboard/android/
If you want to build beagledroid-git-20090603, you need sun-java-JDK5. So ensure your environment has this. I used Xubuntu 9.04 and did not update.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for this article, great.
Having trouble. In particular, the error I get is during the boot process:
Failed to execute /init. Attempting defaults…
Kernel panic – not syncing: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.
Has anyone gotten past this error?
Hi,
Try adding this option “init=init” in the bootargs and ensure init is executable in in your rootfs or at a symbolic link in /sbin/init linking to /link.
I manage to complete the above from free-electrons files. I am now able to boot Android in my beagleboard.
When I try to download the source, it gets aborted at this stage
Getting manifest …
from http://labs.embinux.org/embinux-android-build/android-omap3/repo/android/platform/manifest.git
fatal: http://labs.embinux.org/embinux-android-build/android-omap3/repo/android/platform/manifest.git/info/refs not found: did you run git update-server-info on the server?
fatal: cannot obtain manifest http://labs.embinux.org/embinux-android-build/android-omap3/repo/android/platform/manifest.git
It would be great if you make actual this post… I’m sure than exist more options to Sun’s Java5 JDK, It can’t be found at ubuntu 10.10 repos… wich alternative jdk can we use? Thank you.
Until Froyo (2.2), you need Sun’s java5 JDK. You can find it here
With gingerbread (2.3) and newer, the openjdk distributed with ubuntu works fine. We use it every day here.
ERROR the labs.embinux server seems to be down…
* [new tag] v1.7.4.2 -> v1.7.4.2
* [new tag] v1.7.4.3 -> v1.7.4.3
Getting manifest …
from git://labs.embinux.org/repo/android/platform/beaglemanifest.git
labs.embinux.org[0: 59.160.172.206]: errno=Connection timed out
fatal: unable to connect a socket (Connection timed out)
fatal: cannot obtain manifest git://labs.embinux.org/repo/android/platform/beaglemanifest.git
alejandro@wil:~/bb1/bin$
This was the most interesting post about Android on BeagleBoard… idk where i have to go now :S
You can take a look at rowboat instead, which is an android distribution for TI’s SoC-based boards. They have some pages on their wiki explaining how to build a system from the source for the Beagle.
hye. thanx 4 this cool article. i’hve try it and faced some problems..
i have downloaded the sources but can’t run this command:
tar –lzma -xvf beagledroid-git-20090603.tar.lzma
the output:
tar: beagledroid/system/core/.git/description: Cannot create symlink to `../../../.repo/projects/system/core.git/description’: Operation not permitted
……….
tar: beagledroid/.repo/projects/external/bsdiff.git/hooks: Directory renamed before its status could be extracted
…………..
tar: beagledroid/development: Directory renamed before its status could be extracted
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors
can anyone guide me..? thanx
Hi,
I am trying to build this image to run android on a beagleboard xm
I get to the 7th line and this it can’t find the server
sudo wget http://android.git.kernel.org/repo
–2011-09-10 16:21:56– http://android.git.kernel.org/repo
Resolving android.git.kernel.org… failed: Name or service not known.
wget: unable to resolve host address `android.git.kernel.org’
How do I fix this?
Thanks
Hi,
This happens because the kernel.org servers are down for maintenance, because an intruder broke in.
To run Android on the BeagleBoard XM, have a look at Linaro:
http://www.linaro.org/downloads/ (look for “Beagle” on that page)
Cheers,
Michael.
beagleboard does not recognize a USB Hub. needs the self-powered USB Hub?
sorry for bad english.
Hi everybdY,
I compiled the android (kernel, sgx, rowboat, using eclair config), after android install I get the pretty android screen. But, android hangs up !!! I don’t know if there is a pb with sgx because I get some patch in uboot to get the 24bit color.
10x
Hi,
This is a very nice article. Thanks. I am facing a problem, where by with given uboot, my USB port is not working. So that I cann’t use mouse or keyboard. I am usning C4 beagleboard. Please help.
Rgds,
Ashwin.