aos/config/configure-prime.txt

This file contains notes on setting up a new BBB image.
Doing it right requires knowing what you're doing as a Debian sysadmin, so the
main goal of this file is to avoid forgetting anything.

Daniel last updated this on 2014-01-20 with Debian Wheezy.

1.  Install Debian stable.
    Follow the instructions here:
    http://blogs.bu.edu/mhirsch/2013/11/install-debian-7-to-emmc-internal-flash-drive-of-beaglebone-black/
    Create a "driver" user.
2.  Install aos.conf and starter.
	  I just changed aos.conf to give driver permissions instead of the group.
3.  Install and configure exim4.
    TODO (daniel): We might not need this.
    `apt-get install exim4-config`
    `dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config` and select the option for making minimal
    DNS queries (it also says some junk about modems).
4.  Configure the network.
    Edit /etc/network/interfaces to give it the right static IP address.
	  Set up eth1 like the default eth0 in case the NIC gets assigned that (see
    #8 below). That shouldn't be a problem any more, but it's probably good
		to be on the safe side because it can be a pain to find a screen to fix
		it otherwise.
5.  Install stuff.
    This includes the realtime kernel.
    Note that at the time of this writing, you can't apt-get install the
    realtime kernel packages directly on the beaglebone.
    You must download them on your computer, copy them to the beaglebone,
    and install them using dpkg -i.
    <http://robotics.mvla.net/files/frc971/packages/>.
    After you do this, you will still need to modify the zImage
    symlink to point to the right kernel.
    `rm /boot/zImage`
    `ln -s /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.13.9-rt20+ /boot/zImage`
    After you reboot, you should be running the rt kernel.
    (Check it with `uname -r`.)
    Besides the realtime kernel packages, you'll figure everything else out
    as you start trying to run stuff.
6.  Make SSH logins faster.
    Add the line "UseDNS no" to /etc/ssh/sshd_config.
7.  Make it so that the programming team can log in without passwords.
    Everybody will have to run `ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub BBB` (see
    <http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/152> for details).
8.  Make udev stop being annoying and naming NICs eth1.
    udev wants to remember the ethernet NIC from each device and name the one
    in a new BBB eth1, which breaks stuff. If that happens, removing
    /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules will make it autogenerate a
    new one and fix it.
    To prevent this problem from happening in the first place, follow the
    directions in 10-net-eth0.rules.
9.  Set up /etc/fstab sanely.
    Open /etc/fstab on the bbb and remove the last two lines, which the
    comments indicate mount both partitions on the uSD card.
	Because the uSD card shows up as /dev/mmcblk0 and pushes the internal emmc
	to /dev/mmcblk1 when it's plugged in, using those names for the two of them
	doesn't work very well. Instead, we use /dev/disk/by-path.
	Add "/dev/disk/by-path/platform-mmc.14-part1 /boot/uboot msdos defaults 0 2"
	to mount the uboot partition.
    Also add
	"/dev/disk/by-path/platform-mmc.5-part1 /home/driver/tmp/robot_logs ext4 defaults,noatime,data=writeback 0 0"
	to mount the uSD card in the right place for the logs to go to it.
10. Set up logging.
    Fairly straightforward here. We want it to log to the uSD card, so:
    `mkdir ~/tmp`
    `mkdir /media/driver/sdcard/robot_logs`
    `ln -s /media/driver/sdcard/robot_logs ~/tmp/robot_logs`
11. Set the correct date.
    `date` to check if date is correct.
    `date -s <date string>` to set it if it isn't.
12. Fix the locale setup for SSHing in.
    `dpkg-reconfigure locales`, leave it with "en_US.UTF-8" only being
	enabled, and then select "None" instead of that for the default in
	the second screen.
30. Download the code!
50. Clone the image to the rest of the BBBs.
    Boot up from a uSD card.
    `dd if=/dev/mmcblk1 | gzip -c > BBB.img.gz`
    You can then copy this image to your computer.
    Use this image to flash other uSD cards and/or BBBs.