The ?PandaBoard is a low-power, low-cost single-board computer based on the Texas Instruments OMAP4430 processor. If you want more general information about the ?PandaBoard visit one of the following pages:

This page describes how to install/run Debian on a ?PandaBoard.

Partition the SD card

Create at least two partitions:

  1. partition, FAT32, 10-50MB, <bootloader>

  2. partition, EXT3, at least 1G, <rootfs>

Bootloader

The boot process on the ?PandaBoard works like this: X-Loader -> U-Boot -> Kernel

To get a working Bootloader you need to put 2 files on the 1st partition of your SD card: "MLO" (which is X-Loader) and "u-boot.bin".

X-loader and U-boot can be acquired from the Debian packages for armhf,

either unpack the packages manually:

cd /mnt/my-bootloader-sd-card-partition
wget http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/x/x-loader/x-loader-omap4-panda_1.5.1+git20110715+fca7cd2-2_armhf.deb
ar p x-loader-omap4-panda_1.5.1+git20110715+fca7cd2-2_armhf.deb data.tar.gz |tar xzfO - ./usr/lib/x-loader/omap4430panda/MLO > MLO
rm x-loader-omap4-panda_1.5.1+git20110715+fca7cd2-2_armhf.deb
wget http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/u/u-boot/u-boot_2012.04.01-2_armhf.deb
ar p u-boot_2012.04.01-2_armhf.deb data.tar.gz | tar xzfO - ./usr/lib/u-boot/omap4_panda/u-boot.bin > u-boot.bin
rm u-boot_2012.04.01-2_armhf.deb

or just install them:

apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install u-boot x-loader-omap4-panda
cp /usr/lib/x-loader/omap4430panda/MLO /usr/lib/u-boot/omap4_panda/u-boot.bin /mnt/my-bootloader-sd-card-partition

Kernel

Debian has a multiplatform ARM kernel flavour for armhf: http://packages.debian.org/linux-image-armmp

kernel feature

status (sid)

SMP

works

USB host

works

USB gadget

works

Serial

works

Ethernet

works

WLAN

works (but needs firmware)

bluetooth

untested

audio

works

hdmi/dvi

works

hdmi audio

untested

hw crypto

untested

TODO

feature

status

Kernel

boots, features missing

U-boot

OK

x-loader

OK

X11

framebuffer works, omapfb doesn't 637269, add omapdrm and modesetting kernels

Install instructions

missing

 bluetooth firmware

missing

wifi firmware

missing

opengl es

missing, non-free

multimedia

missing, non-free

For reference packages, see TI PPA for ubuntu.

Prepare the rootfs

WIP (installation via Multistrap)