I’ve tried to enable CAN on my BeagleBone Green board. I had to stop the work before verification, because my logic analyzer is unavailable now. I record what I did in this article to make things reproducible when the logic analyzer is back.

There are several helpful links:

http://www.embedded-things.com/bbb/enable-canbus-on-the-beaglebone-black/

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/195416/beaglebone-black-can-bus-setup

https://groups.google.com/forum/embed/?place=forum/beagleboard&showsearch=true&showpopout=true&showtabs=false&hideforumtitle=true&parenturl=http%3A%2F%2Fbeagleboard.org%2Fdiscuss%23bone_forum_embed#!category-topic/beagleboard/can/SjWwVngIPh8

Readings to understand device tree overlay:

Device Tree for Dummies:
http://events.linuxfoundation.jp/sites/events/files/slides/petazzoni-device-tree-dummies.pdf

Device Tree Overlays (in adafruit)
https://learn.adafruit.com/introduction-to-the-beaglebone-black-device-tree/device-tree-overlays

Here are what I did:

# make a workspace
root@beaglebone:~# mkdir can
root@beaglebone:~# cd can
root@beaglebone:~/can# pwd
/root/can

# check if CAN is enabled ... no
root@beaglebone:~/can# dmesg | grep can

# take backup of the original device tree blob file for CAN
root@beaglebone:~/can# cp /lib/firmware/BB-CAN1-00A0.dtbo BB-CAN1-00A0.dtbo.orig

# make the device tree overlay
root@beaglebone:~/can# vi BB-DCAN1-00A0.dts
root@beaglebone:~/can# cat !$
cat BB-DCAN1-00A0.dts
/dts-v1/;
/plugin/;
 
/ {
    compatible = "ti,beaglebone", "ti,beaglebone-black";
 
    /* identification */
    part-number = "dcan1pinmux";
 
    fragment@0 {
        target = <&am33xx_pinmux>;
        __overlay__ {
            dcan1_pins_s0: dcan1_pins_s0 {
                pinctrl-single,pins = <
                    0x180 0x12  /* d_can1_tx, SLEWCTRL_FAST | INPUT_PULLUP | MODE2 */
                    0x184 0x32  /* d_can1_rx, SLEWCTRL_FAST | RECV_ENABLE | INPUT_PULLUP | MODE2 */
                >;
            };
        };
    };
 
    fragment@1 {
        target = <&dcan1>;
        __overlay__ {
             #address-cells = <1>;
             #size-cells = <0>;
 
             status = "okay";
             pinctrl-names = "default";
             pinctrl-0 = <&dcan1_pins_s0>;
        };
    };
};

# install the new device tree blob for CAN
root@beaglebone:~/can# dtc -O dtb -o BB-DCAN1-00A0.dtbo -b 0 -@ BB-DCAN1-00A0.dts
root@beaglebone:~/can# ls
BB-CAN1-00A0.dtbo.orig    BB-DCAN1-00A0.dtbo  BB-DCAN1-00A0.dts
root@beaglebone:~/can# cp BB-DCAN1-00A0.dtbo /lib/firmware/
root@beaglebone:~/can# cmp BB-DCAN1-00A0.dtbo /lib/firmware/BB-DCAN1-00A0.dtbo

# add the device
root@beaglebone:/lib/firmware# cat /sys/devices/platform/bone_capemgr/slots
 0: PF----  -1 
 1: PF----  -1 
 2: PF----  -1 
 3: PF----  -1 
root@beaglebone:~/can# echo BB-DCAN1 > /sys/devices/platform/bone_capemgr/slots 
root@beaglebone:~/can# cat !$
cat /sys/devices/platform/bone_capemgr/slots
 0: PF----  -1 
 1: PF----  -1 
 2: PF----  -1 
 3: PF----  -1 
 4: P-O-L-   0 Override Board Name,00A0,Override Manuf,BB-DCAN1

# check dmesg ... looks fine
root@beaglebone:~/can# dmesg | tail -n15
[   25.499860] wlan0: send auth to 00:1d:73:33:47:a0 (try 1/3)
[   25.522620] wlan0: authenticated
[   25.524815] wl18xx_driver wl18xx.2.auto wlan0: disabling HT/VHT due to WEP/TKIP use
[   25.528911] wlan0: associate with 00:1d:73:33:47:a0 (try 1/3)
[   25.538576] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:1d:73:33:47:a0 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=4)
[   25.764831] wlan0: associated
[   25.765114] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[   26.579282] wlcore: Association completed.
[ 3395.588267] bone_capemgr bone_capemgr: part_number 'BB-DCAN1', version 'N/A'
[ 3395.588337] bone_capemgr bone_capemgr: slot #4: override
[ 3395.588380] bone_capemgr bone_capemgr: Using override eeprom data at slot 4
[ 3395.588425] bone_capemgr bone_capemgr: slot #4: 'Override Board Name,00A0,Override Manuf,BB-DCAN1'
[ 3395.613523] bone_capemgr bone_capemgr: slot #4: dtbo 'BB-DCAN1-00A0.dtbo' loaded; overlay id #0
[ 3395.648848] CAN device driver interface
[ 3395.689001] c_can_platform 481d0000.can: c_can_platform device registered (regs=fa1d0000, irq=192)

# load CAN modules
root@beaglebone:~/can# sudo modprobe can
root@beaglebone:~/can# sudo modprobe can-dev
root@beaglebone:~/can# sudo modprobe can-raw
root@beaglebone:~/can# lsmod | grep can
can_raw                 5852  0 
can                    28397  1 can_raw
c_can_platform          6602  0 
c_can                   9577  1 c_can_platform
can_dev                11663  1 c_can

# Startup the CAN interface. Set CAN channel rate 500kbps.
root@beaglebone:~# ip link set can0 up type can bitrate 500000
root@beaglebone:~# ifconfig can0
can0      Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  
          UP RUNNING NOARP  MTU:16  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:10 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:192 

# Check the device status. Status UNKNOWN doesn't sound right...
root@beaglebone:~/can# ip -d -s link show can0
4: can0: <NOARP,UP,LOWER_UP,ECHO> mtu 16 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 10
    link/can  promiscuity 0 
    can state ERROR-ACTIVE (berr-counter tx 0 rx 0) restart-ms 0 
      bitrate 125000 sample-point 0.875 
      tq 500 prop-seg 6 phase-seg1 7 phase-seg2 2 sjw 1
      c_can: tseg1 2..16 tseg2 1..8 sjw 1..4 brp 1..1024 brp-inc 1
      clock 24000000
      re-started bus-errors arbit-lost error-warn error-pass bus-off
      0          0          0          0          0          0         
    RX: bytes  packets  errors  dropped overrun mcast   
    0          0        0       0       0       0      
    TX: bytes  packets  errors  dropped carrier collsns 
    0          0        0       0       0       0      

Then I have to stop here.

How to login from MacOS:

1. Connect to the BeagleBone by a USB cable.
2. MacOS restart is necessary for some reason.
3. SSH to 192.168.7.2

WiFi setup:

Use connmanctl as described in /etc/network/interfaces.

root@beaglebone:~# connmanctl
connmanctl> tether wifi disable
Error disabling wifi tethering: Already disabled
connmanctl> scan wifi
Scan completed for wifi
connmanctl> services
Analog20 wifi_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_managed_psk
connmanctl> agent on
Agent registered
connmanctl> connect wifi_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_managed_psk

… and so on

Following links give useful information:
http://xx-prime.hatenablog.com/entry/2016/08/13/012059 (in Japanese)

https://www.mail-archive.com/beagleboard@googlegroups.com/msg40785.html

The wlan0 device power management can be turned off by

# iwconfig wlan0 power off

TBD how to turn this off permanently.

Take SD backup

1. Insert the SD into the MacBook
2. “diskutil list” to know the path to the device.
3. run “sudo dd if=<device_name> conv=sync,noerror | gzip -c > archive.img.gz

Following link is helpful to know how to backup disks in several styles:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/disk_cloning

Connecting to the host via serial port

Useful when the SSH access has a problem:

$ ls /dev/tty.*
$ screen