BeagleBoard-xM and Windows 7 CE – 1: Now kiss…

No seriously, they’re supposed to kiss, make out, give birth to babies and have a whole bunch of family right there!

Anyway, I’ve been trying to run Windows7 CE on this little beast but I faced so many dumb difficulties so I went full retard when I realized my mistakes. I’m not done yet, I’m just presenting that it is possible and few initial steps and suggestions on what to do and what not to do.

Actually, I’ll start with describing BeagleBoard-xM

Its basically a microcomputer (Can’t say controller, its bigger in performance than that) that can run Full HD (1080p) videos without breaking a sweat. So, performance-wise, it should be an interesting gadget!

Anyway, I decided to run Windows 7 CE on this thing because, well, I’m more comfortable playing around with Windows than Linux. That, and its a harder task to play with Windows than Linux in these cases. So, why not?

Now, here are some steps and what you should do and what you shouldn’t do…

Initially, you’ll have to have a USB-TO-SERIAL cable. Believe it or not, I had hard time finding one AND installing it on my laptop. In fact, I had to borrow my dad’s (Mine previously, he took over it) Sony VAIO laptop because it runs Windows 7 32-bit since almost all USB-TO-SERIAL supports 32bit drivers, not 64bit drivers.

Then, you need to download the right Windows 7 CE BeagleBoard image. I downloaded mine from my vendor here.

Once you do that, extract the zipped folder, go to “Tools” folder and run the SD-Card formatting tool which will format your SD-Card with the provided in “Images” folder (You’ll have to follow the steps by choosing the .MLO file then other extra files).

Once you do that, kick the SD-Card in your BeagleBoard-xM, connect the serial port, power cable (This can be through USB port from another source or any power source that provides 5 volts. DON’T GO OVER THAT! MIGHT DAMAGE YOUR BOARD!) and connect your HDMI cable.

Then, before it boots your Windows, you’ll probably want to adjust the resolution by pressing the “Space” button before it finishes counting to five, fix the resolution then save on flash (I had issues with saving so I’m doing it every single fucking time! Must find a solution) and you should be getting Windows 7 CE running there.

Here’s a video of how it’d look like:

Next, I need to figure out why the hell I’m not able to store screen settings and why the fuck I can’t use S-VIDEO instead of HDMI!? (For mobility purposes)