wiki:embedded/alix

Version 2 (modified by dkg, 5 years ago) (diff)

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ALIX compact system boards

getting it working with a netboot installer

I was working with an Alix.2 device. It starts out with the BIOS running at 38400 8n1. If you hit "S" during the initial memory test, it allows you to configure the BIOS. i switched the mode to 115200 8n1 (press "1" in the BIOS setup) to match my netboot environment.

I tried to get PXEboot working by just pressing "N" during the memory test, but got the message: 

No boot device available, press Enter to continue.

When i switched to regular, repeatable PXE netboot ("E" in BIOS setup), and had a network cable plugged into LAN1 (the NIC nearest the power jack), i could get a reliable netboot -- at least, i could reliably get the PXE stack to pull the initial file recommended from the correct TFTP server. I tried booting with ​pxegrub, but it never even got to the point of requesting the menu.lst file -- i suspect that version of grub doesn't quite know what to do when there is no graphical console, but only a serial port.

Anyway, PXELinux from ​syslinux worked fine. The relevant part of the config was: 

SERIAL 0 115200 0
DEFAULT install
LABEL install
        kernel debian-stable/linux
        append vga=normal initrd=debian-stable/initrd.gz -- console=ttyS0,115200n8

the kernel and initrd were downloaded from ​the usual place, using the CMRG netboot environment preparation scripts​.

open questions

  • front-panel LEDs: i expected to see an LED indicating writes to the CF. i don't see that happening during the installer. Is this an OS-level thing?