3. Getting Started with Debian

The SD card Debian Image provided on the AM62x-SDK-Download-page is all you need to get started and explore Debian on TI microprocessors.

The Debian Image provided has all the basic packages required to boot with weston as default window manager. The user can install any new package using Debian’s default apt package manager and customize the filesystem as desired.

Follow the steps mentioned in this page to flash an SD Card.

3.1. Hardware Setup

In addition to the SK Evaluation Module (EVM) itself, the following hardware is needed:

  • USB Type-C 5V - 15V and 3A power supply

  • Micro-SD card reader

  • Micro-SD card (16GB or larger recommended)

  • USB Micro-B cable for UART serial communication

  • HDMI display and HDMI cable

  • USB mouse and Keyboard (For controlling the UI)

  • Ethernet cable or CC33xx M.2 WiFi card (For network access)

3.2. Flash SD Card using balenaEtcher

  1. Download the default bootable SD card image (IMG file) available on the release page:

    tisdk-debian-<debian version>-<TI EVM board>-<TI PSDK version>-Armbian-<armbian version>.img

  2. Download and install the balenaEtcher tool:

    Balena Etcher is an open-source utility that can be installed on both Linux and Windows. Download the tool from this link and install it.

  3. Flash the IMG image to the SD card:

    Insert a micro SD card into the USB SD card reader and start Etcher. Choose the debian img image to be flashed, choose the USB SD card reader as the target, and then click “Flash”. Etcher will decompress the image and write it to the SD card, as shown below:

    ../../../_images/balena_etcher.png

3.3. Set the EVM to SD card Boot mode

The simplest way to run Linux on the SK EVM is through an SD card. For that, configure the EVM for SD card boot mode. Refer to AM62x SK EVM User’s Guide for detailed information about boot mode configurations. For quick reference, the figure below shows the boot mode switch setting for SD card boot.

../../../_images/AM62x_SD_boot.jpg

3.4. Boot and Validate Debian

Make sure to connect the Ethernet cable or CC33xx M.2 WiFi card, HDMI Display, Mouse and Keyboard to the EVM. Insert the SD Card in the board and Power ON the EVM.

During first bootup, a setup script will run. This script guides the user through setting up user account, root password, date and so on. Once the setup ends, reboot the board. Weston screen will appear on the display.

Note

In case you do not see the setup script during first boot, note that Armbian will automatically set the root account to its defaults:

  • Username: root

  • Password: 1234

This could happen for several reasons, such as power cycling the board during first boot.

../../../_images/debian_homescreen.png

You’ve successfully booted Debian on AM62x.

If the board is connected to a private network, setup the proxy to be able to access the Internet. For more info, refer to apt.conf(5) man page

Also export http_proxy, https_proxy, ftp_proxy and no_proxy with appropriate values if needed.

Do an apt update to make sure that the proxy is properly set and apt recognizes it. The sample output of the command is as shown below:.

../../../_images/debian_apt_update.png

To install any package available on Debian Standard Package Archive and TI Package Archive use apt install.

As an example to install and run fortune package.

../../../_images/debian_apt_install.png

More packages can be installed at runtime following the instructions provided to help with the development work flow.