Starting
I bought this board over a year ago. After playing with it a little it went on my shelf along with the BeagleBoard. Now it seems I've found an usage for this. As a first task it will monitor UPS, possibly carrying more duties over time. From the past I recall the simplest installation for Linux was Ubuntu distribution. So I went to Ubuntu downloads page and picked 12.04 preinstalled desktop image for Texas OMAP4 processors. More details about which version to pick and how to flash it to the SD card (including BeagleBoard) can be found here. Also a great resource on OMAP architecture is omapmedia.org.Hardware
My PandaBoard is connected to the monitor through HDMI output using HDMI-DVI cable. The network is accessed over build-in WiFi card.First Problems
At the past I had no issues booting PandaBoard with Ubuntu. So naturally I expected it will be better this time. Apparently my DVI monitor doesn't work with the PandaBoard right now. I'm not sure if this is the matter of the HDMI-DVI cable I'm using right now (I used another cable in the past) or something other. The only way to bring the Ubuntu up is to disconnect the HDMI connector from the PandaBoard before it boots, which makes it configured with 1024x720 (or so) resolution. Then connect the cable once the system is fully up. The resolution is not the best but at least I can reach the system, setup WiFi and install sshd.Bookshelf
