Running Debian Distribution and Getting GUI in Beagleboneblack

Pandi October 25, 2013 2 min read

Introduction:

beagleboneblack-topweb Beaglebone Black is one of the more exciting thing in the development platform.Developers and the hobbyist are happy about the rich features available in Beaglebone Black(BBB)

What makes the BeagleBone Black Powerful when compare with BeagleBone?

Processor Speed 1Ghz
2GB NAND Flash Memory
512MB DDR3 RAM
microHDMI(audio and video)

Supported Distributions

Angstrom(default from the flash memory)
Ubuntu 12.04
Ubuntu 13.04
Debian both console and GUI
Android(4.2)

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Porting Debian on microSD card

Step 1:

Download the Win32 Disk Imager (tool for porting an image) from the here. Insert your microSD Card and then run Win32 Disk Imager.exe. It may give an error message on startup, but you can often ignore it. It should find your SD Card drive or if not select it. You can get the prebuilt image from here. Unzip and select the file ‘#.img’ image file you wish to use and then press write. Once it completes you are ready to go, insert your microSD card into the Beaglebone black.

disk

Step 2:

For powering up connect your USB-A to mini-B cable with your beagleboneblack with your PC which is provided with the box.And connect the Ethernet cable for Internet connection.For video out connect the micro HDMI to HDMI or micro HDMI to DVI cable.We have the micro HDMI to HDMI female adapter for BBB which is available from our store (working good with BeagleBone Black). After some time you will get the console window which prompt you for user name and password.

Username : debian

Password : debian

Note: The default Debian image comes with console window only not the Desktop version. For getting the desktop kindly type the following command in the command prompt(BBB must connected to the internet).

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get -y install lxde lxde-core lxde-icon-theme

It will take half an hour for installing the LXDE Desktop.After finishing the installation just restart your system and enter the same login credentials.Then you will get the desktop in your monitor as per image the shown below.