Install new image

Many operating systems can be installed on the beaglebone, and a lot of preconfigured disk images exist that can be installed on a micro-SD card, for booting from the SD card, or even copied to the built-in MMC so that the beaglebone boots a new operating system from the MMC.

At this time, the latest beaglebone is revision C, has 4GB built-in MMC, and comes with pre-installed Debian Wheezy. Another use of this procedure is when you have messed up the builtin Debian to the point where you want to restore the beaglebone to the original OS.

First we have to download an image from

official images:

http://beagleboard.org/latest-images

additional images:
http://www.armhf.com/
http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu


If the image file has the extension img.xz, do the following steps (On Ubuntu PC):

• in the file manager, right-click on the file and click on "extract here"
• right click on the extracted image and click on "open with disk image writer"

Boot from microSD card

to boot the Beaglebone from this new image, insert the microSD card in to the microSD slot on the beaglebone. Then simultaneously hold down the boot button and power up the beaglebone.

You can let go of the button once the blue LED's have come on.

Flashing the Image to built-in eMMC

Plug the microSD card into the PC and let it mount.

In /boot/uEnv.txt:
uncomment
#cmdline=init=/opt/scripts/tools/eMMC/init-eMMC-flasher-v3.sh

Reference:
http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian


Then boot from microSD card as described above (by holding the boot button down while powering up)
Use a power supply, not the USB cable.
When the LED's follow a knightrider/cylon pattern, let go of the button. It may take up to 45 minutes to flash the board. The flashing is finished when all LED's are solid on.

Note: This microSD card is now "armed", in other words, if you boot the beaglebone with this card inserted, it will overwrite the eMMC again! It is recommended to disable the line in the uEnv.txt file after successful flashing of the image to prevent accidental future eMMC overwriting.