FreeBSD on BeagleBone Black

[John-Mark Gurney]

Bernd Walter wrote this message on Wed, Oct 08, 2014 at 03:04 +0200:
> On Tue, Oct 07, 2014 at 05:05:10PM -0400, AN wrote:
> > Hi List:
> > 
> > I have been using FreeBSD current on amd64 for many years.  I now have a 
> > project that I want to try to run on FreeBSD.  I'm trying to boot a 
> > FreeBSD image on a BeagleBone Black Rev C without success.
> > 
> > FreeBSD-11.0-CURRENT-arm-armv6-BEAGLEBONE-20140903-r270990.img
> > FreeBSD-arm-10.0-BEAGLEBONE.img
> > 
> > The above images fail to boot.
> 
> Basicly the BBB works very well under FreeBSD.
> Did you check the uart output?
> I'm not sure if those images are build with grafic support and
> there will be nothing on HDMI or attached LCD without it.
> To be honest: I don't even know if we have support for that output
> already with the BBB.

We definately do not support output on HDMI...  I'm trying to get the
datasheet so I can get HDMI output working...

> Most people use the boards with uart console.
> Unfortunately with the Beaglebone, as well as with many others,
> the uart is only available as pin header using a 3.3V TTL uart.
> Most people use USB uarts for that, which are available at many
> electronic shops these days.

The original BeagleBone White has an onboard USB<->uart chip which
didn't require an extra cable...

> At best you should hook up to the console uart to see what's going
> on.
> As a workaround you can mount the SD card on your amd64 and setup
> rc.conf and sshd for your network and ssh to the BBB.
> But in the end you realy want to have console access if anything goes
> wrong.
> Maybe someone else can say something definitive about BBB LCD and HDMI
> support in FreeBSD.
> 
> > I saw discussion on the list previously discussing:  Re: [RFC] Add and 
> > armv7hf TARGET_ARCH (Andrew Turner)
> > 
> > So, would someone please explain the status of FreeBSD on the BeagleBone 
> > Black REV C, does it work now, are there plans to make it work, what is 
> > the general timeframe?
> 
> This is purely about some speed optimization by compiling with features
> not available on lower ARM cores.
> Since this changes function call convetions it has to be done that way
> for every single code, therefor it is a decision at OS installation time.
> The BBB runs fine with the current state.

-- 
  John-Mark Gurney				Voice: +1 415 225 5579

     "All that I will do, has been done, All that I have, has not."