Soekris Manual

​http://soekris.com/Manuals/net4801_manual.pdf

boot infrastructure

The netboot image for debian is already around. You need

wget ​http://centerclick.org/net4801/pxelinux/pxelinux.0.gz

as opposed to the pxelinux.bin that's already around. You need to make a link in pxelinux.cfg to an appropriate pxelinux configuration file, namely the one for serial. To the end of the 'install' image you want to add:

DEBIAN_FRONTEND=text

(we did this, so it's probably already there.)

Minicom should be set for 9600 baud, 8 databits, no parity, 1 stop bit, no flow control. Turn hardware flow control off in minicom. The UNIX device for talking to the console is almost certainly /dev/ttyS0.

configure the Soekris net4801 BIOS

Look at the banner from when the net4801 boots. Get the BIOS version and check it against the Soekris web site.

Hit C-p as it is booting to get to a BIOS prompt.

Issue these commands at the BIOS prompt, filling in today's date and the current time.

date YYYY/MMDD time HH:MM:SS set ConSpeed=9600 set BootDrive=F0 FF 80 81

The only reliable way to obtain the MAC address of 'Eth 0', without having an operating system already loaded, is to watch the diagnostic output of

boot f0

current problem

Debian net-install can't find the CF card to install to. We've tried:

• 2.4 and 2.6 kernels

• patched and unpatched kernels

• all of the above with each of the stable/testing/unstable repos

The "Kingston Elite Pro" CF card is reported by the 4801 as

Pri Sla SAMSUNG CF/ATA LBA Xlt 1012-32-63

The SimpleTech CF card is

Pri Mas Hitachi XX.V.3.7.0.0 LBA 993-16-63