Now that you've unpacked your Overo system, it's time to connect a few cables and power it up!

Setting up your Overo for a simple console session

This is the simplest way to set up your Overo. It only requires two connections (power and USB), and will give you a console session using your laptop or PC as the terminal.

The Overo daughterboard contains a FTDI USB/serial converter chip. This chip is connected to the USB port labeled "CONSOLE" on the board. It will allow you to talk to the Overo processor's serial port console by simply connecting the Overo to your computer with a USB cable and launching your favorite terminal emulation program (115200 8N1, no flow control). These sample instructions will assume you are using kermit as your terminal emulation program.

First connect a standard mini-B to A cable between your PC and your Overo's CONSOLE USB port. A green LED near the connector will illuminate. Do not connect power to the board yet.

Your PC should detect the USB/serial port chip at this point and mount it. This will typically be at /dev/ttyUSB0 unless you have other USB/serial dongles connected.

Launch kermit, configure it, and connect to the Overo:

$ kermit -l /dev/ttyUSB0
C-Kermit>set flow-control none
C-Kermit>set carrier-watch off
C-Kermit>set speed 115200
/dev/ttyUSB0, 115200 bps
C-Kermit>connect
Connecting to /dev/ttyUSB0, speed 115200
Escape character: Ctrl-\ (ASCII 28, FS): enabled
Type the escape character followed by C to get back,
or followed by ? to see other options.
----------------------------------------------------

Now that we are set up to view the Overo boot messages it is time to connect power to your board. An LED will iluminate on the Overo motherboard and boot messages will begin to appear on your kermit session:

Texas Instruments X-Loader 1.4.2 (Sep 10 2008 - 08:47:04)
Reading boot sector
Loading u-boot.bin from mmc
U-Boot 2008.10-rc1 (Sep 13 2008 - 21:47:56)
OMAP3503-GP rev 2, CPU-OPP2 L3-165MHz
Gumstix Overo board + LPDDR/NAND
DRAM:  128 MB
NAND:  256 MiB
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 
reading uImage
2502044 bytes read
## Booting kernel from Legacy Image at 82000000 ...
Image Name:   Angstrom/2.6.27-rc6+r30+gitde112
Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
Data Size:    2501980 Bytes =  2.4 MB
Load Address: 80008000
Entry Point:  80008000
Verifying Checksum ... OK
Loading Kernel Image ... OK
OK
Starting kernel ...
[snip]
The Angstrom Distribution overo ttyS2
Angstrom 2008.1-test-20080911 overo ttyS2
overo login: 

You can log in as root (no password) and begin to explore.

Note: If you see the boot messages but are unable to enter the login info it is very likely that you neglected to disable hardware flow control in your terminal emulator setup.

Adding peripherals

Once you've verified that the Overo boots successfully you might want to begin to add peripherals to your setup. Lets start with a monitor, and a USB keyboard, mouse, and network dongle. Prior to adding peripherals, shutdown your Overo and unplug power.

Monitor

The Overo board will connect to your monitor via its HDMI connector. If your monitor doesn't have an HDMI input, you can use an HDMI/DVI-D adaptor. Your monitor should be able to support 1024 x 768 @ 60 Hz. Note that old style analog monitors will not work, the HDMI connector provides only digital signals.

Keyboard/Mouse

We will be using the USB OTG port for connecting our keyboard and mouse. You will need to use a powered USB hub, an unpowered hub will not work since the OTG port will only provide 100 ma of power.

It is also important to use the proper cable to connect the OTG port to your hub. It is recommended that you use a cable like this USB Mini-B to Mini-A Adapter . Though it will fit, the common USB Standard-A to Mini-B type cable will not work. OTG ports require a cable that grounds the ID pin in order to enable the port to act in host mode.

Plug your keyboard and mouse into your hub.

NETWORK

This would also be a good time to plug in an ethernet or wifi USB dongle. The Overo kernel is built with support for many popular devices. See the Compatible USB devices page for further information.

Now that your peripherals are connected you can reapply power to your Overo. If all goes well you will be greeted with a Tux boot screen followed shortly thereafter by the Enlightenment window manager. The demo rootfs includes browser,email, chat, word processor, and spreadsheet. Mplayer is also included for playing mp3's and movies.