Getting Started with Cubieboard

Leverage the power of the ARM-based Cubieboard to create amazing projects

About This Book

• Learn how to choose a development board, install various Linux distributions, and put them to real-world use
• Understand how to start using a Cubieboard for work-related purposes
• Learn how to perform the steps involved in building a system and tailor it to your needs

Who This Book Is For

If you are anywhere from a beginner to an advanced user of ARM, who wishes to get into the rapidly advancing world of development boards, such as Cubieboard, this is the book for you. Whether you are a hobbyist or a professional, you will learn from this book as it teaches you in an easy-to-follow manner. No previous ARM experience is required.

In Detail

Embedded platforms are interesting because they combine two fun fields. On one side, there is open source software, and on the other side, there is open source hardware. But a little further from that, we have electronics (AVR-microcontrollers), which can be very interesting and fun to work with. Cubieboard is a powerful single board computer, similar to Raspberry Pi, that supports multiple operating systems, such as Ubuntu and Debian.

This book will teach you everything you need to know about project development using Cubieboard, even if you are not an embedded platform expert.

The book starts by going over the most well-known Allwinner development boards, helps you choose a board, and recommends additional required hardware. Next, the book briefly explains how to “talk” to the board. Then, things start to get interesting with the installation of a desktop OS onto an SD card and booting into a fully graphical desktop system. Concluding this work, the last chapter gives you an example of how to connect external peripherals such as an LED.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Choosing the Right Board
Chapter 2 : Getting Started with the Hardware
Chapter 3 : Installing an Operating System
Chapter 4 : Manually Installing an Alternative Operating System
Chapter 5 : Setting Up a Home Server
Chapter 6 : Updating the Bootloader and Kernel
Chapter 7 : Compiling the Bootloader and Kernel Using a BSP
Chapter 8 : Blinking Lights and Sensing the World
Appendix A: Getting Help and Finding Other Helpful Online Resources
Appendix B: Basic Linux Commands Cheatsheet
Appendix C: The FEX Configuration File
Appendix D: Troubleshooting the Common Pitfalls