ZERO SOM/ZERO Evaluation Kit/Getting started/Connections and first boot

History
Issue Date	Notes
2026/01/13	First documentation release

Connections

This section describes how to quick start the Evaluation Kit. The picture below shows the ZERO SOM Evaluation Kit:

The system is programmed to automatically boot Linux at power up, loading the bootloader, the kernel and device tree image and the root file system from the SD card memory.

To connect to the system:

• connect the 12Vcc power supply to J4 on the board
  • start your favorite terminal emulator software on PC (eg: PuTTY, Minicom, ...); communication parameters are 115200,N,8,1
• (optional) connect the ethernet cable from your LAN hub/switch to the J19 ETH_A RJ45 connector
  • start SSH, using the following parameters:
    • ip address: 192.168.0.89
    • username: root
    • empty password

First boot

DESK-RZ-L Evaluation Kit has an hardware limitation on serial console debug cable. Firstly, power the board-on, then connect the USB cable to the Evaluation Kit. Once the USB console is connected, the board can be reset off/on without any more issue.

Once the EVK has been powered and reset, U-Boot bootloader will be executed and the debug messages will be printed on the serial console. U-Boot automatically runs the autoboot macro, that loads the kernel/dtb and launches it with the options for mounting the root file system from the SD card.

At the end of the boot process, a demo application is launched and you can interact with the system using the touchscreen. The Linux shell is available on the serial console. Moreover, both telnet and ssh services are available to connect to the system through the network.

Serial console

A simple Windows serial and SSH/telnet client and terminal can be downloaded from here.

The following picture shows the serial setup for connecting to the EVK:

PuTTY connection using Serial Port

once selected the COM[x] serial port, click the Open button which starts the terminal. Once powered, the EVK shows the U-boot debug messages printed on the serial console.

Connecting through SSH

The following picture shows the SSH connection to the EVK:

PuTTY connection using SSH

once selected the IP address, click the Open button which starts the terminal. Once connected, the EVK shows the linux kernel prompt login for inserting the login:

PuTTY SSH login

Then use the root login username without password:

PuTTY SSH connected