Share the internet access from laptop to beaglebone black and then access it through VNC server

Question

I am trying to share the internet with the Beaglebone Black from my laptop. Here is what I tried till now-

1. I connected Beaglebone Black to my laptop running Windows 8 via USB cable. Then, I went to network and sharing center. Then, the network which I want to share, I shared it with the Beaglebone(It says Local Area Connection). Now, I went to the Gate one SSH on Beaglebone and wrote - "ping www.google.com". But it said "Unknown Host".

2. Now, since the above didn't work, I connected the Beaglebone Black with the standard ethernet cable and again tried sharing my network, but it still didn't work.

Here is what I am trying to do- If I am able to connect to internet, I want to set up VNC server and through that I want to load the GUI of linux on my laptop.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. If there is any other method to accomplish this, please tell me about it. I have tried most of the tutorials on the internet, but didn't succeed.

Answer 1

Here is the detailed answer, after long long waiting I finally figured out how to share internet on BBB. This question is being seen at least 10 times everyday so I though I should answer it by my own. (Also SO gave me Popular question badge for this!)

First thing I tried was:

I connected the BBB(running angstrom) to laptop (running windows 8). The laptop recognized the device and I was able to SSH it through putty.

Now, I tried to ping my computer back whose IP address is 192.168.7.1 .. This step never worked for me, my BBB was never able to ping my computer back but, I was able to ping the beaglebone itself through the provided IP that is 192.168.7.2 (which is obvious)

I searched everywhere on internet and did everything to overcome this glitch such as:

I made the default gateway in BBB to 192.168.7.1

/sbin/route add default gw 192.168.7.1

but that also didn't worked.

I previously thought that it is necessary for me to ping 192.168.7.1 in order to get the internet on BBB.

Since nothing was working I decided to skip this step.

I simply connected the BBB, and then went to network and sharing center in windows 8 and from there, I shared the internet connection from my wifi connection to the beaglebone.

As you will do this, you will see that BB will loose its connection from the putty (if you started putty before network sharing), This is because computer assigns an IP to the BB which you have to change to 'Obtain the IP automatially'

To do this right click and go to properties of the BB connection and then from the list select the IPV4 tcp/IP and go to its properties. In that, you will see the option 'Obtain IP automatically'

Now again start putty (as previous connection will get terminated) and you will see that BB is able to connect.

Now simply add the default gateway as I showed above and then you will be able to ping 8.8.8.8 or any other IP address. Now, simply add the nameserver like this:

cd /etc
more resolv.conf
nano resolv.conf 

and add this line below nameserver 127.0.0.1

nameserver 8.8.8.8

and save it, you will be able to ping google.com.

Now comes the VNC server part. For that case also I was wrong. To connect to VNC server you do not need internet connection on the BBB. Yes, you will need that for installing the VNC server on it but not afterwards. Once it is installed, you have to simple do this in BB:

x11vnc -bg -o %HOME/.x11vnc.log.%VNCDISPLAY -auth /var/run/gdm/auth-for-gdm*/database -display :0  -forever

and press enter and BB will reply with VNC started at port 5900

Thats it, now comeback to windows and start VNC server, add the address 192.168.7.2 and you can see the GUI on the screen. I am also able surf internet on the beaglebone.

Thank you for the support and if I am wrong here in my question then please notify me. Also if you have any doubt, refer to this awesome video my derek molloy: He has explained it very well and remember to skip the step of pinging back 192.168.7.1 if it is not working.

I have not yet figured it out. I will edit the answer once I get it.

Answer 2

1) On your Beaglebone:

sudo su

ifconfig usb0 192.168.7.2

route add default gw 192.168.7.1

2) Now share the network and make sure your pc's ip is 192.168.7.1 after you do