Running a C HelloWorld on ARM BeagleBoard

In this simple tutorial I will show you howto prepare your linux distribution for compiling and running C code on a BeagleBoard (ARM architecture). In short, you will need to install the cross-compiler, connect the board with your computer, load the compiled binaries to the board and finally execute them. Here we go in more details:

0. Prerequisites

• Linux OS distribution (Ubuntu or Fedora should do)
• BeagleBoard-xm with ARM A7 processor (or higher)

1. Install the ARM compiler

You will need to install a compiler for ARMv7 / Linux. See for example ARM/GNU Linux.

Let's assume you have installed the compiler into the following location: /opt/CodeSourcery/Sourcery_G++_Lite.

Then add the location into your PATH:

$ export  PATH=$PATH:/opt/CodeSourcery/Sourcery_g++_Lite/bin

And test your compile by executing:

$ arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc  -o hello.arm hello.c

This should work, later on we will use the generated hello.arm to run it on the beagle-board.

2. Connecting the BeagleBoard

Here is a nice manual on setting up the BeagleBoard on a linux-server machine:
http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardBeginners

After going through the manul, your board should be sitting on your network at some IP address, it may be for example 192.168.0.2

To connect to the board:

$ shh root@192.168.90.2

Tip: If you reboot your linux desktop, you probably want to do the following to re-enable the connection with the board:

$ sudo ifconfig usb0 192.168.0.3

3. Running HelloWorld on BeagleBoard

First, we need to copy the executable to the BeagleBoard:

$ scp hello.arm root@192.168.0.3

And then just login to the board and run the executable:

$ shh root@192.168.90.2

$ ./hello.arm 
Hello World!

And that should be all.

[Note: This tutorial is based on my notes when working with the beagle-board, so it may omit some details. Hope it will help anyway.]