How to do things with the beaglebone - Revision history

ViciousCarnivore: /* Work with an EEPROM */

2026-09-14T17:22:45Z

Work with an EEPROM

ViciousCarnivore: /* Beaglebone */

2026-09-14T17:20:21Z

Beaglebone

ViciousCarnivore at 17:19, 14 September 2026

2026-09-14T17:19:42Z

ViciousCarnivore: /* Work with an EEPROM */

2026-09-14T17:10:54Z

Work with an EEPROM

ViciousCarnivore: /* Work with an EEPROM */

2026-09-14T17:10:21Z

Work with an EEPROM

ViciousCarnivore: /* Work with an EEPROM */

2026-09-14T17:09:40Z

Work with an EEPROM

ViciousCarnivore: /* Work with an EEPROM */

2026-09-14T17:09:08Z

Work with an EEPROM

ViciousCarnivore: /* Work with an EEPROM */

2026-09-14T17:08:17Z

Work with an EEPROM

ViciousCarnivore: /* dd to EEPROM */

2026-09-14T17:06:47Z

dd to EEPROM

ViciousCarnivore: /* dd to EEPROM */

2026-09-14T17:06:09Z

dd to EEPROM

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 ==Beaglebone==
 ===Work with an EEPROM===
-[[File:Beaglebone flashing image borrowed.jpg|300px|thumb|right|I have not had luck with these clip adapters, and I prefer to desolder the chip, then solder it to a breakout board that has 0.1" headers.]]
+[[File:Beaglebone flashing image borrowed.jpg|300px|thumb|right|I have not had luck with these clip adapters, and I prefer to desolder the chip, then solder it to a breakout board that has 0.1" headers. It's possible I just did not get the right clip adapter.]]
   cd /sys/bus/i2c/devices/i2c-2/
   echo 24c01 0x54 > /sys/bus/i2c/devices/i2c-2/new_device

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 ==Beaglebone==
 ===Work with an EEPROM===
-[[File:Beaglebone flashing image borrowed.jpg|300px|thumb|right|I have not had luck with this clip adapters, and I prefer to desolder the chip, then solder it to a breakout board that has 0.1" headers. Image is also reversed, ignore the pinout.]]
+[[File:Beaglebone flashing image borrowed.jpg|300px|thumb|right|I have not had luck with these clip adapters, and I prefer to desolder the chip, then solder it to a breakout board that has 0.1" headers.]]
   cd /sys/bus/i2c/devices/i2c-2/
   echo 24c01 0x54 > /sys/bus/i2c/devices/i2c-2/new_device

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 ==Beaglebone==
 ===Work with an EEPROM===
   cd /sys/bus/i2c/devices/i2c-2/
   echo 24c01 0x54 > /sys/bus/i2c/devices/i2c-2/new_device

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
   root@BeagleBone:~# echo 24c01 0x50 > /sys/bus/i2c/devices/i2c-2/new_device
 A few tips. 1) Make sure you have the right type of EEPROM. If you get the size wrong, it will not write correctly, and reading the eeprom file by sysfs will give garbage data. 2) i2cset and i2cset can be used, but only when you haven't instantiated a kernel driver.
-) There is an eeprom kernel module, an at24 kernel module (the one i used), and there is also flashrom (a program) which usually operates over SPI but also has parallel and i2c support (though it might not have support for your eeprom. Check before using). 4) Verify what EEPROM you have (again point #1), and look at the ic silkscreen, as the schematic might be wrong compared to the actual chip on board. 5) The kernel will let you instantiate the wrong device if you are not careful (and it just won't work) so double check that the new_device command above is correct. 6) Don't necessarily believe what dmesg tells you. In my case, it though the EEPROM was a 24C256, but that was false. 7) EEPROMs may be listed in bits, not bytes. So don't confuse a 24C01 1K thinking it's 1K Bytes, when in fact it's 1K Bits (128 bytes). Double check the data sheet. 8) There are other things to consider that I didn't list here. Such as underlying hardware issues (chip is write protected, or the protocol is not supported by default).
+) There is an eeprom kernel module, an at24 kernel module (the one i used), and there is also flashrom (a program) which usually operates over SPI but also has parallel and i2c support (though it might not have support for your eeprom. Check before using). 4) Verify what EEPROM you have (again point #1), and look at the ic silkscreen, as the schematic might be wrong compared to the actual chip on board. 5) The kernel will let you instantiate the wrong device if you are not careful (and it just won't work) so double check that the new_device command above is correct. 6) Don't necessarily believe what dmesg tells you. In my case, it thought the EEPROM was a 24C256, but that was false. 7) EEPROMs may be listed in bits, not bytes. So don't confuse a 24C01 1K thinking it's 1K Bytes, when in fact it's 1K Bits (128 bytes). Double check the data sheet. 8) There are other things to consider that I didn't list here. Such as underlying hardware issues (chip is write protected, or the protocol is not supported by default).
 ====dd EEPROM====

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
   root@BeagleBone:~# echo 24c01 0x50 > /sys/bus/i2c/devices/i2c-2/new_device
 A few tips. 1) Make sure you have the right type of EEPROM. If you get the size wrong, it will not write correctly, and reading the eeprom file by sysfs will give garbage data. 2) i2cset and i2cset can be used, but only when you haven't instantiated a kernel driver.
-) There is an eeprom kernel module, an at24 kernel module (the one i used), and there is also flashrom (a program) which usually operates over SPI but also has parallel and i2c support (though it might not have support for your eeprom. Check before using). 4) Verify what EEPROM you have (again point #1), and look at the physical die, as the schematic might be wrong compared to the actual chip on board. 5) The kernel will let you instantiate the wrong device if you are not careful (and it just won't work) so double check that the new_device command above is correct. 6) Don't necessarily believe what dmesg tells you. In my case, it though the EEPROM was a 24C256, but that was false. 7) EEPROMs may be listed in bits, not bytes. So don't confuse a 24C01 1K thinking it's 1K Bytes, when in fact it's 1K Bits (128 bytes). Double check the data sheet. 8) There are other things to consider that I didn't list here. Such as underlying hardware issues (chip is write protected, or the protocol is not supported by default).
+) There is an eeprom kernel module, an at24 kernel module (the one i used), and there is also flashrom (a program) which usually operates over SPI but also has parallel and i2c support (though it might not have support for your eeprom. Check before using). 4) Verify what EEPROM you have (again point #1), and look at the ic silkscreen, as the schematic might be wrong compared to the actual chip on board. 5) The kernel will let you instantiate the wrong device if you are not careful (and it just won't work) so double check that the new_device command above is correct. 6) Don't necessarily believe what dmesg tells you. In my case, it though the EEPROM was a 24C256, but that was false. 7) EEPROMs may be listed in bits, not bytes. So don't confuse a 24C01 1K thinking it's 1K Bytes, when in fact it's 1K Bits (128 bytes). Double check the data sheet. 8) There are other things to consider that I didn't list here. Such as underlying hardware issues (chip is write protected, or the protocol is not supported by default).
 ====dd EEPROM====

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 ) There is an eeprom kernel module, an at24 kernel module (the one i used) and there is also flashrom (a program) which usually operates over SPI but also has parallel and i2c support (though it might not have support for your eeprom. Check before using). 4) Verify what EEPROM you have (again point #1), and look at the physical die, as the schematic might be wrong compared to the actual chip on board. 5) The kernel will let you instantiate the wrong device if you are not careful (and it just won't work) so double check that the new_device command above is correct. 6) Don't necessarily believe what dmesg tells you. In my case, it though the EEPROM was a 24C256, but that was false. 7) EEPROMs may be listed in bits, not bytes. So don't confuse a 24C01 1K thinking it's 1K Bytes, when in fact it's 1K Bits (128 bytes). Double check the data sheet.
-====dd to EEPROM====
+====dd EEPROM====
   root@BeagleBone:~# dd if=image.png of=/sys/bus/i2c/devices/2-0050/eeprom count=128 bs=1
   or

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
   root@BeagleBone:~# echo "my text" | dd of=/sys/bus/i2c/devices/2-0050/eeprom count=7 bs=1 seek=10
 dd is a good program to verify the eeprom is working correctly in sysfs. You can use either approach above, and verify with hexdump -C -v. Note the following: bs must be used, or else you will likely get an error. With small eeproms (I have one that is 128 bytes) you can go over, (what I think) is the default bs (byte size) of 512 bytes. If you have duplicate data in the eeprom (i.e. you write to it with /dev/zero you must use the -v flag in hexdump, otherwise it will omit duplicate data (rtfm).
 * https://www.kernelconfig.io/config_eeprom_at24