Create MachineKit SD Card Without a Linux Machine

NOTE: The latest BeagleBone MachineKit releases include both a tar.xz file, and a raw image file.  If you don't have a Debian or Ubuntu Linux system handy, I suggest you use the raw image file and copy it directly to the uSD card.  Use dd if you have any Linux machine available, or one of the Windows disk imaging utilities if you only have Windows.  It is no longer recommended that you create your uSD card image using the instructions below, which remain here in the hope that they may be somewhat informative (and to avoid broken links).

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If you have a BeagleBone and want to play with my MachineKit image but are stuck on Windows without a handy Linux system (other than the 'Bone itself), here's how to do it.

WARNING: These instructions are meant to be easy to follow, but are not targeted at the complete Linux novice.  If this is your first experience with the Linux command line, find a friend with a Linux machine and get them to make you an SD Card image.  If you don't have any friends with Linux machines, Google a bit to find a LUG or maker space near you, and offer to buy someone a beer if they'll burn an SD image for you.  Presto!  You now have friends with a Linux box!  :)

OK, let's get started.  First, gather up all the supplies you need:

• Download my MachineKit image (start it now, it takes a while)
• A 4G or larger USB Key, with at least 3G or so of free space
• A USB SD-Card Reader
• A 4G or larger SD card plugged into the SD-Card reader.  This is the SD card that will contain the MachineKit install when you are finished.
• A USB Hub with a power cord.  Trying to power the hub from the BeagleBone will not work reliably.

Once the image file finished downloading, you need to extract it.  Download and install the excellent 7-Zip archiver if you don't have it already.  Find the downloaded <file>.tar.xz image file in Explorer, right-click, and select "7-Zip -> Extract Here".  You will get a much larger <file>.tar.  Right-click on the new Tar file and select "7-Zip -> Extract Files".  In the extraction dialog that pops up, change the "Extract to:" destination to point to your USB key with at least 3G of free space, and make sure you add a directory name so you can find the files.  My USB Key is drive G:, so I used "G:\MachineKit" as the extraction path.  Click OK, and wait for a while as the files are extracted to your USB key.  Eject the USB key from your Windows machine and set it aside for now.

Plug a USB hub with your USB Key and SD Card reader into your BeagleBone with the BeagleBone TURNED OFF (USB hot-plug is broken on several early versions of the AM335x kernel, so this makes sure you will be able to see your devices).

Power up and boot your BeagleBone as usual and obtain a command prompt.  You can do this stand-alone with a keyboard and HDMI monitor (Black only), tethered via USB, using a serial-port cable, via ssh, etc.  If you can't get to a command prompt on your BeagleBone stop now, go read the BeagleBone documentation, and don't come back until you can tell me how much free space is left on your root filesystem by running 'df' at a command prompt.

 So go ahead and run the df command.  Recent BeagleBone images should auto-mount the USB storage into the /media directory.  Here's what it looks like on my 'Black:

root@beaglebone:~# df
Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs           1738184 1297492    350728  79% /
/dev/root        1738184 1297492    350728  79% /
devtmpfs          255216       0    255216   0% /dev
tmpfs             255320       4    255316   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs             255320     236    255084   1% /run
tmpfs             255320       0    255320   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs             255320       4    255316   1% /tmp
/dev/mmcblk0p1     71133   55179     15955  78% /media/BEAGLEBONE
/dev/sda         3919868 2737024   1182844  70% /media/CRUZER 4G
/dev/sdb2       15116684 2892476  11449656  21% /media/rootfs
/dev/sdb1          66396       0     66396   0% /media/BOOT

Note the four lines at the bottom.  In order, they are:

1. /dev/mmcblk0p1
   This is the BeagleBone boot partition
2. /dev/sda
   My 4G USB Key
3. /dev/sdb1 & /dev/sdb2 These are two existing partitions on my SD card.

To avoid the potential for confusion and data corruption, unmount the SD Card partition(s) now:

umount /dev/sdb1
umount /dev/sdb2

Now change to the directory where you extracted the image.tar.xz file.  In my case, that is "/media/CRUZER 4G/MachineKit/".  You will know you are in the right place if you see the setup_sdcard.sh script:

root@beaglebone:~# cd /media/CRUZER\ 4G/MachineKit/
root@beaglebone:/media/CRUZER 4G/MachineKit# ls
debian-7.0.0-machinekit-armhf-2013-06-14
root@beaglebone:/media/CRUZER 4G/MachineKit# cd debian-7.0.0-machinekit-armhf-2013-06-14
3.7.10-x12-dtbs.tar.gz            uInitrd-3.2.42-psp27
3.8.13xenomai-bone20-dtbs.tar.gz  uInitrd-3.7.10-x12
armhf-rootfs-debian-wheezy.tar    uInitrd-3.8.13xenomai-bone20
hwpack                            user_password.list
initrd.img-3.2.42-psp27           vmlinuz-3.2.42-psp27
initrd.img-3.7.10-x12             vmlinuz-3.7.10-x12
initrd.img-3.8.13xenomai-bone20   vmlinuz-3.8.13xenomai-bone20
setup_sdcard.sh

Now all you have to do is run the setup_sdcard.sh script with the proper options.  The --mmc device should be the base device of your SD Card (WITHOUT any trailing partition number!), and the --uboot option should always be bone_dtb, so for my setup, I run:

# bash ./setup_sdcard.sh --mmc /dev/sdb --uboot bone_dtb

I see...
/sbin/fdisk -l:
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 1920 MB, 1920991232 bytes
Disk /dev/mmcblk0boot1: 1 MB, 1048576 bytes
Disk /dev/mmcblk0boot0: 1 MB, 1048576 bytes
Disk /dev/sda: 4022 MB, 4022337024 bytes
Disk /dev/sdb: 15.9 GB, 15931539456 bytes

Review the partitions CAREFULLY and if everything looks OK, let the script continue on.  Once the script completes, you can power down and you should have an SD Card you can boot from that runs the MachineKit Debian install with LinuxCNC.