Thu, 12 May 2005
Installing Debian Sarge on a 4801 with a serial console
I just got two 4801 boards. One running m0n0wall, which is working great
already and the other for an embedded Linux project. After a full day
and a half of reading and trial and error I have Debian testing running
with an interactive serial console.
I realize there are other ways to do this but this way provides the most
interactive feedback and requires nothing more than the standard
debian-installer system. I'm writing this because there are a lot of
conflicting documents on the web on this subject. Here's the steps I
took:
Download the netboot.tar.gz archive from the debian-installer directory
of an official Debian mirror.
Follow the instructions for configuring debian-installer to PXE boot.
Download a modified pxelinux.0 bootloader, since the one in the Debian
archive isn't functional. I'll
reference the bug report I opened yesterday in case it eventually gets fixed.
Rename pxelinux.cfg.serial-9600 pxelinux.cfg. Currently this is placed
in /var/lib/tftpboot by default. Install minicom (or another terminal
program) and connect the 4801's serial port to a desktop with a null
modem cable. Set your terminal program to 19200 8n1. Turn on the 4801
and you should see the BIOS in your terminal. Press ctrl + p and type
'boot f0' to boot from the first network port.
If everything is configured correctly, you should now see a bunch of
random characters on your screen. Disconnect your terminal, reset it to
9600 8n1 and start it up again. You should see the debian-installer
screen or a bootloader prompt. You can now install Debian as normal.
When the installation is finished and it asks you to reboot, do that but
disconnect your terminal and set it back to 19200 8n1. Turn off the 4801
and pull out the CF card. Connect it to a desktop PC and mount it. You
now have to edit some files to get Grub, Linux and getty to send their
output to the serial port. This is
well documented.
Once all those configs are set to (make sure the speed is 19200 8n1) you
can safely umount the CF card, put it back in the 4801, turn it on and
Linux should boot as normal. Since CF cards have a finite life span,
this is not the best way for building up the OS. I haven't figured out
the best way yet...
posted at: 23:09 | path:
/hacking |
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