Robot Control Library
Networking USB

Table of Contents

One of the more convenient features of the BeagleBone Debian image is the included USB network gadget that creates a network over a USB. This allows you to use standard network protocols such as TCP and SSH to communicate with your BeagleBone without needing a network router.

Once configured, your BeagleBone will have the static IP address 192.168.7.2 and the host computer will have the address 192.168.7.1

Linux

  1. Plug in your BeagleBone and wait a minute for it to be recognized.
  2. Open a terminal and try to ping 192.168.7.2, it will likely work right away.

Pinging 192.168.6.2 may also work as modern Linux distributions usually detect both the Windows focused (7.2) and OSX-focused (6.2) interfaces. If you cannot successfully ping either address, manually assign it a static IP like you would for any other network.

For network-manager based GUI applets:

  1. Open network manager and click 'edit connections'
  2. Select the BeagleBone's connection for editing, probably called "Wired Connection 1"
  3. In the IPv4 tab, set the static IP address '192.168.7.1', the netmast to '24' and the Gateway to '192.168.7.2'
  4. Click the 'Routes' button and select the option called 'Use this connection only for resources on its network'
  5. Save the network settings, wait a few seconds, and try pinging 192.168.7.2 again.

Manually specifying an IP is a relic of the past now and DHCP should set up your computer and the BeagleBone to have the proper IP address.

Windows 7

  1. Download the 64-bit driver or the 32-bit driver.
  2. Run the installer and agree to any prompts.
  3. Plug in your BeagleBone and wait a few minutes.
  4. Check that the new network device appears in network manager.
  5. Install puTTY, WinSCP, and Sublime Text.
  6. Open putty and try to ssh into 192.168.7.2 as the root user with an empty password.

Windows 10

NOTE, as of time of writing, Microsoft has not updated the expired signature for the USB networking gadget. As as such the driver may not install at all in Windows 10.

  1. Consider not using Windows 10, seriously.
  2. Use the search bar to search "advanced startup options"
  3. select "Change advanced startup options"
  4. Click on "restart now" (computer will restart)
  5. When computer boots, select advanced options, then select startup settings.
  6. You must click restart... again
  7. When computer reboots, press 7 (or F7) to select "disable driver signature enforcement"
  8. Computer will boot into windows.
  9. Follow the instructions for Windows 7 to install the drivers.

OSX

OSX requires two drivers to be installed. Both are available along with instructions at the BeagleBoard.org Getting Started page.