FLOW Linux Setup

From GizmoForYou Wiki

Overview

Most of the preparations on setting up the Build environment and Linux setup are based on guidelines and explanations located at Gumstix websites. If you wish to learn more about Gumstix (since this is the platform FLOW is based on) then we suggest you visit their website.

Here we shall explain in brief the steps needed to build the required environment and set it up for the FLOW hardware compatibility. It is assumed that you know what you are doing and have at least some prior experience on doing something similar.

All of the Compilations and development for the FLOW described here, is done with the Fedora 11 - i386, more information about Fedora and downloads of the Operating System can be found here

Getting started

Before you begin compiling and adding software to your build machine we suggest you firstly make sure that your FLOW motherboard is functioning properly and that you have access to the Terminal serial port for software debugging and customization.

Connect your FLOW Developers Cable (or the FLOW USB Cable) to the FLOW Motherboard and fire up the Hyper Terminal (if you are using Windows). In order to communicate correctly you need to set up the Serial to have the following configurations:

115200 - 8N1 - no flow control

If you are using Linux then launch kermit, configure it, and connect to the FLOW:

$ kermit -l /dev/ttyUSB0
C-Kermit>set flow-control none
C-Kermit>set carrier-watch off
C-Kermit>set speed 115200
/dev/ttyUSB0, 115200 bps
C-Kermit>connect
Connecting to /dev/ttyUSB0, speed 115200
Escape character: Ctrl-\ (ASCII 28, FS): enabled
Type the escape character followed by C to get back,
or followed by ? to see other options.

Power up your FLOW by pressing once the Power button and releasing after 1 second. You should see the Overo platform booting. Login as root without any password and you are set.

Pre-built images for the Micro-SD card

If you need just to test the FLOW or don't want to build the images from source then you can download the latest images for the Micro-SD card in the Files section of the project. We keep the images located there always up to date. These images are to be uploaded to a Micro-SD card which is used for booting the Overo platform located inside FLOW.

Setting up the Micro-SD card

We are using the Micro-SD card to load the Linux kernel and the file system for the FLOW so you need to prepare the card in order to be able to load the files required on it. Again, the info for doing this is located on the Gumstix website and we have it here just in brief for reference. To read about how to setup the Micro-SD card and load the files on it please visit our Setting up the microSD section.

Preparing the Build environment

If you wish to build the images required for the FLOW from source then please read this section which explains how to set up the build environment and enable the compatibility for the FLOW hardware.

The complete explanation on building the images for the Micro-SD Basic which we have in our shop can be found in the FLOW Build Environment section.

Most of this info can also be found on the Gumstix website with the exception of some minor tweaks required for the FLOW hardware to function properly. If you need further explanation about this process then we recommend that you visit the Gumstix website and read about it.