Integrating the Sona TI351 Wi-Fi with the BeagleBone Black (BBB)

Sona TI351

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to provide step-by-step instructions for integrating a TI AM3358-based BeagleBone black SBC with Ezurio's Sona-TI351 Wi-Fi module. We do this through the Sona TI351 DVK via a Yocto Scarthgap-based Linux image.

Hardware

  • Linux-based PC

  • BeagleBone black, MicroSD card, cables, and power supplies

  • Sona TI351 DVK (P/N 453-00200-K1)

https://www.ezurio.com/part/453-00200-k1image-20250503-101123.png

Building and Running the Yocto Image

Prerequisites on build machine

sudo apt-get install bc gawk wget git diffstat unzip texinfo gcc-multilib \
build-essential chrpath socat cpio python3 python3-pip python3-pexpect \
xz-utils debianutils iputils-ping libsdl1.2-dev xterm libncurses5-dev \
pkg-config socat subversion texi2html texinfo u-boot-tools\

Download Yocto

mkdir bbb
cd bbb
git clone git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky
cd poky
git checkout scarthgap

Download BeagleBone black BSP

git clone git://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-ti
cd meta-ti
git checkout scarthgap
cd ..

Initialize environment

source oe-init-build-env build_bbb

Note: This creates a build directory (build_bbb) and changes to it.

Adjust bblayers.conf

cd conf
nano bblayers.conf

Add the path to TI's meta-ti layer via the BBLAYERS variable:

# POKY_BBLAYERS_CONF_VERSION is increased each time build/conf/bblayers.conf
# changes incompatibly
POKY_BBLAYERS_CONF_VERSION = "2"

BBPATH = "${TOPDIR}"
BBFILES ?= ""

BBLAYERS ?= " \
  /home/alex/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/meta \
  /home/alex/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/meta-poky \
  /home/alex/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/meta-yocto-bsp \
  /home/alex/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/meta-ti \
  "

Note: Save the changes!

Adjust local.conf

Find the following passage in local.conf and remove the '#' in front of the beaglebone-yocto line (line 5 below).

MACHINE ?= "beaglebone-yocto"

…
There are also the following hardware board target machines included for
demonstration purposes:

MACHINE ?= "beaglebone-yocto"
#MACHINE ?= "genericarm64"
#MACHINE ?= "genericx86"
#MACHINE ?= "genericx86-64"
…

Note: Save the changes!

Troubleshooting: Fixing missing layer.conf file error in ‘meta-ti’ layer

You may witness the following error:

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] file /home/alex/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/meta-ti/conf/layer.conf not found

The solution to the above is as follows:

mkdir <poky-dir>/meta-ti/conf
touch <poky-dir>/meta-ti/conf/layer.conf

Build first image

cd ..
bitbake core-image-base

Note: In our testing, we initially found a fetch error (gperf). The solution was to start a bitbake process again, which overcame the issue.

Flashing image to SD card

The newly built image can be found at:

../poky/build_bbb/tmp/deploy/images/beaglebone-yocto

Flash this image to an SD card with Linux tool “dd:”

Note: Be VERY careful to select the correct target (denoted in the of= argument below)

sudo dd if=core-image-base-beaglebone-yocto.rootfs.wic of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M conv=sync

Insert the SD card into the BeagleBone and push the boot switch while applying power. This ensures the BeagleBone will boot from the SD card.

Gaining console access on BeagleBone black

You can use the information on the following page to gain console access to the BeagleBone Black:

https://www.dummies.com/article/technology/computers/hardware/beaglebone/how-to-connect-the-beaglebone-black-via-serial-over-usb-144981/

Note: Other USB/Serial converters might work as well.

Flashing internal eMMC of the Beaglebone to free the SD card slot for the Sona TI351

The following command shows the available block devices on the BBB:

root@beaglebone-yocto:~# ls /dev/mmc* -al
brw-rw----    1 root     disk      179,   8 Jan  1  2000 /dev/mmcblk0
brw-rw----    1 root     disk      179,   9 Jan  1  2000 /dev/mmcblk0p1
brw-rw----    1 root     disk      179,  10 Jan  1  2000 /dev/mmcblk0p2
brw-rw----    1 root     disk      179,   0 Jan  1  2000 /dev/mmcblk1
brw-rw----    1 root     disk      179,  16 Jan  1  2000 /dev/mmcblk1boot0
brw-rw----    1 root     disk      179,  24 Jan  1  2000 /dev/mmcblk1boot1
brw-rw----    1 root     disk      179,   1 Jan  1  2000 /dev/mmcblk1p1
crw-------    1 root     root      247,   0 Jan  1  2000 /dev/mmcblk1rpmb

Line 5 above, mmcblk1, is the internal eMMC memory.

Write the contents of the SD card (mmcbkl0) to the internal emmc memory (mmcblk1) as follows:

root@beaglebone-yocto:~# dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=/dev/mmcblk1 bs=1M

Note: Power off the Beaglebone, remove the microSD card, and restart the Beaglebone:

image-20250429-125902.png

Adding software for the Sona-IF351 Wi-Fi module

Adding Ezurio's Yocto meta layer to the build environment

Back on the build machine, in the Poky layer, execute the following command:

alex@bigNUC:~/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky$ git clone https://github.com/Ezurio/meta-summit-radio/
Cloning into 'meta-summit-radio'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 4715, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (229/229), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (96/96), done.
remote: Total 4715 (delta 164), reused 171 (delta 128), pack-reused 4486 (from 1)
Receiving objects: 100% (4715/4715), 936.14 KiB | 5.38 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (3003/3003), done.

alex@bigNUC:~/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky$ cd meta-summit-radio/
alex@bigNUC:~/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/meta-summit-radio$ git checkout lrd-12.103.8.x
Branch 'lrd-12.103.8.x' set up to track remote branch 'lrd-12.103.8.x' from 'origin'.
Switched to a new branch 'lrd-12.103.8.x'

Adjust bblayer.conf to add ‘meta-summit-radio’ layer

alex@bigNUC:~/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/build_bbb/conf$ nano bblayers.conf
POKY_BBLAYERS_CONF_VERSION is increased each time build/conf/bblayers.conf
changes incompatibly

POKY_BBLAYERS_CONF_VERSION = "2"

BBPATH = "${TOPDIR}"
BBFILES ?= ""

BBLAYERS ?= " \
  /home/alex/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/meta \
  /home/alex/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/meta-poky \
  /home/alex/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/meta-yocto-bsp \
  /home/alex/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/meta-ti \
  /home/alex/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/meta-summit-radio/meta-summit-radio \
  "

Note: Save the changes!

Adjust local.conf file to include Ezurio and other required or useful recipes

Add to local.conf:

# added by user for Ezurio:
CORE_IMAGE_EXTRA_INSTALL += "\
pulseaudio \
ethtool \
iw \
openssh \
kernel-module-ti-backports \
ti351-firmware \
summit-supplicant-ti \

PREFERRED_RPROVIDER_wpa-supplicant = "summit-supplicant-ti"
PREFERRED_RPROVIDER_wpa-supplicant-cli = "summit-supplicant-ti"
PREFERRED_RPROVIDER_wpa-supplicant-passphrase = "summit-supplicant-ti"
PREFERRED_RPROVIDER_wireless-regdb-static = "wireless-regdb"

Note: Save the changes!

Fixing missing layer.conf file error in 'meta-summit-radio' layer

You may witness the following error:

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] file /home/alex/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/meta-summit-radio/conf/layer.conf not found

The solution to the above is as follows::

mkdir <poky-dir>/meta-summit-radio/conf
touch <poky-dir>/meta-summit-radio/conf/layer.conf

Prepare kernel config for Ezurio backports

Run the following command:

bitbake -c menuconfig virtual/kernel

Remove the Bluetooth subsystem:

image-20250429-133433.png

Set ‘Wireless’ to <M>:

image-20250429-133543.png

Remove Wireless LAN driver as highlighted below:

image-20250429-143321.png

Add ECDH support as highlighted below:

image-20250429-151952.png

Note: Save the changes!

Adjust BBB device tree for TI351

In the following directory:

../poky/build_bbb/tmp/work-shared/beaglebone-yocto/kernel-source/arch/arm/boot/dts/ti/omap$

…add this to the file 'am335x-bone-common.dtsi'

vmmc-supply = <&reg_usdhc1_vmmc>;
    max-frequency = <50000000>;
    cap-power-off-card;

    #address-cells = <1>;
    #size-cells = <0>;

    wlcore: wlcore@2 {
            compatible = "ti,cc33xx";
            reg = <2>;
    };

under node:

&mmc1 {
        status = "okay";
        bus-width = <0x4>;
        pinctrl-names = "default";
        pinctrl-0 = <&mmc1_pins>;
        cd-gpios = <&gpio0 6 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>;

        vmmc-supply = <&reg_usdhc1_vmmc>;
        max-frequency = <50000000>;
        cap-power-off-card;

        #address-cells = <1>;
        #size-cells = <0>;

        wlcore: wlcore@2 {
                compatible = "ti,cc33xx";
                reg = <2>;
        };
};

Build the image that includes Sona-TI351 software and adjusted device tree

Compile the device tree as follows:

alex@bigNUC:~/Projects/yocto/bbb/poky/build_bbb$ bitbake linux-yocto -f -c compile

Repeat the steps for building the Yocto image, and flashing the emmc memory of the BB via SD card.

Final results

Boot the BeagleBone and log in:

image-20250503-093649.png

Observe the correct placement of the TI351 firmware:

image-20250503-093917.png

Insert the TI351 DVK into the microSD card slot and observe the following console output:

image-20250503-095317.pngimage-20250503-100908.png

Verify the availability of the wlan0 interface:

image-20250503-095356.png