Debian Start Here

DART-MX8M-MINI Debian First Time? Start Here

Step One: Read Documentations

Please download and read the development kit documentation on Variscite website

NOTE:
Make sure you read the Quick Start Guide.

Step Two: Setup Linux host PC Development Environment

Set up your development environment.

• Setting a Development Environment

Step Three: Evaluation Kit Power Up

You should have the serial cable connected to the debug port, as describe in the quick start guide.
Under Ubuntu (or other Linux based OS) minicom or picocom are recommended.
Under Windows PuTTY or Tera Term are recommended.
For example, to use picocom under Ubuntu:
Open a terminal a run:

$ dmesg
One of the last lines should be something like: "FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSBX" (the X should be a number)
$ sudo apt-get install picocom
$ sudo picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSBX (replace the X with the number from the dmesg output).
 
(If you want to exit picocom press Ctrl+A+X)

And to use PuTTY under Windows:

Click the "Windows key"+"R" to open the "Run" window, type "devmgmt.msc" and hit "Enter" to open the Device Manager.

In Device Manager, expend the "Ports (COM & LTP)" entry.
You should have a "USB Serial Port (COMXX)" entry there after you connect the Debug cable (the XX should be a number).

Run PuTTY as an administrator.

In the Putty "Session" screen:
Choose "Serial" under "Connection type".
in the "Serial line" field, put in COMXX (replace the XX with the number seen in your Device Manager).
Under "Speed" put in "115200".

In the "Connection" -> "Serial" screen:
Make sure the "Data bits" are set to "8", "Stop bits" to "1", "Parity" to "None" and "Flow control" to "None".

Click on "Open".

Note:
If you are using a virtual machine, make sure the USB device is used by the correct OS.

Power up the board.
When the board boots, make sure you see the U-Boot and kernel prints on your host PC terminal. You will need to type in commands in the command prompt late in the development stages.

It is useful to have a serial console available for debugging purposes.

The Linux login is root (and root password).

Step Four: A quick test with recovery SD card

Please follow the below guide to boot Evaluation Kit with a bootable SD card, and burn a complete Debian into SOMs internal storage eMMC / NAND.

• Using the recovery SD card

Step Five: What next?

Your next step can be one of :

• Build Debian from source code.
  This guide will help you build a complete Debian build, resulting in images you can flash to eMMC.

• Contact Support for any customization or help required for your porting etc.
• Variscite Customer Portal
  Register at Variscite Customer Portal to get high quality engineering support for Variscite products