If you're reading this post than you are probably where I was a couple of months ago. You wanted to jump on the bandwagon of the single board, SOC craze and ran out and bought a Beagleboard XM (rev C in this case). You did this not because you're a developer or a potential product manufacturer but you thought the idea of a 1Ghz computer that fits into the palm of your hand is just plain AWESOME. You got it in the mail, opened it up, plugged it into your TV, and played with the demo image for 5 full minutes before going "ok, what else can I do with this?"
Then you started researching (and perhaps started secretly wishing you bought a Pandaboard or RasPi due to the overwhelming amount of prebuilt software/support available). You spend hours sifting through Google Groups, forums, and blogs only to find that there are hardly any detailed 'how-tos'. Or even worse, only brief glimpses of people who are facing the exact same issues you are or the occasional, "I HAVE AN ISSUE"........."NEVERMIND. I FIXED IT" with nothing explanation as to how....
So I decided that I could either be part of the problem, or part of the solution. These posts won't contain issues or 'work in progress'. These will be detailed how-to's on how myself and my partner in crime plan on turning a Beagleboard XM rev C into a "Swiss Army Knife" of portable computing. Each 'phase' will basically be it's own 'sdcard' to swap out at will depending on what you want to accomplish.
Upcoming Projects:
Phase 1 - XBMC
- Phase 1.5 - XBMC - CarPC
- Phase 2 - Full Android System (rooted, google apps, etc)
- Phase 3 - Wireless Webcam Monitoring System (mjpegstreamer, lighttp)
- Phase 4 - Headless Music Server (MPD, lighttp)
- Phase 5 - OpenWRT Wireless Router
Phase 1 - XBMC
The first time I saw this little board my mind immediately jumped to using this thing as a replacement for my CarPC. While that process is ongoing, the majority of my time was spend just getting Angstrom, SGX, and XBMC to play nicely. Here is EXACTLY how to get XBMC running on your Beagleboard XM rev C (as long as you already have some basic knowledge of Linux).
(continued after the break)
