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Create a boot SD card

Follow these instructions to create an Altair boot SD card or a Wi-Fi enabled Altair boot SD card.

Install the prerequisite software

  1. Install Balena Etcher to flash an SD card.
  2. Install Python 3 from the Python download web page.
  3. Install PyYaml

Create an Altair boot SD card

  1. Plug the Micro SD Card into your computer.
  2. Start Balena Etcher.
  3. Select Flash from file.
  4. Select the altair_burn_disk_image.bin from the Altair_sd_card_image_tools folder.

    Note, when warned the partition table is missing, select Continue.

  5. Select the target.
  6. Select Flash to write the contents of the altair_burn_disk_image.bin file to the SD card.
  7. When the copy has completed, remove the SD card from your computer, insert into the Mikroe micro SD card Click, then power on the Azure Sphere device.

Create a Wi-Fi enabled Altair boot SD card

The Azure Sphere supports the following Wi-Fi network authentication protocols.

  • Open
  • PSK
  • EAP-TLS

Create a Wi-Fi profile

  1. From a command prompt, navigate to the Altair_sd_card_image_tools folder.

  2. There are three Wi-Fi profiles in this folder. Select and edit the profile based on your Wi-Fi authentication requirements.

    • wifi_open.yaml
    • wifi_psk.yaml
    • wifi_eap.yaml

Create a Wi-Fi enabled Altair boot image

The following command adds the Wi-Fi profile to the altair_burn_disk_image.bin boot image and generates the altair_burn_disk_image_wifi.bin boot image.

  1. Run the altair_wifi_config.py script passing the desired Wi-Fi profile.

    python3 altair_wifi_config.py -p {profile}.yaml

Flash the Wi-Fi enabled Altair boot image

Finally, flash the Altair boot image to an SD card. When the Altair emulator boots from the SD card it will look for a Wi-Fi profile. If a Wi-Fi profile is found, the Azure Sphere Wi-Fi network is provisioned and then the Wi-Fi profile is erased from the SD card.

  1. Plug the Micro SD Card into your computer.
  2. Start Balena Etcher.
  3. Select Flash from file.
  4. Select the altair_burn_disk_image_wifi.bin from the Altair_sd_card_image_tools folder.

    Note, when warned the partition table is missing, select Continue.

  5. Select the target.
  6. Select Flash to write the contents of the altair_burn_disk_image_wifi.bin file to the SD card.
  7. When the copy has completed, remove the SD card from your computer, insert into the Mikroe micro SD card Click, then power on the Azure Sphere device.