BBB - Expand File System

The system images provided by the BeagleBone foundation are designed to be as small as possible in order to support small SD cards. When these images are applied to large SD cards (typically greater than 4GB) there is a significant amount of unusable space left on the SD card. Expanding the primary partition to use this previously unallocated space allows access to the full capacity of the storage device.

Using LINX Target Configuration Wizard


During the software installation process the LINX Target Configuration Wizard will display a warning if the target device is not using the full capacity of the storage device and provide the option to automatically expand the file system.

Manual Process


  • SSH into the BeagleBone.

  • Run:
    fdisk /dev/mmcblk0


  • Press p to see the partition information.

  • There should be a single Linux partition: /dev/mmcblk0p1.

  • Press d to delete the partition information.

  • Press c to create a new partition.

  • Press p to create a primary partition.

  • Press Enter to use the default partition number.

  • The entire storage device will be used by default. Press Enter, Enter to use the default first and last sector.

  • The changes have not yet been saved to the storage device. Press p to examine the partition information.

  • If everything looks correct press w to save the changes. If not press Ctrl+z to discard the changes.

  • Reboot the BeagleBone.