Instructions on how to load the Alix2c3 boxes with Debian Etch, as someone 
from Wednesday's meeting requested.  Replied to my own post for thread 
following reasons.

On Wednesday 07 May 2008, Chris Knadle wrote:
> On Wednesday 07 May 2008, Alan Snyder wrote:
> > i wont be able to attend... can you send a link to the hardware you're
> > talking about? thanks
>
>    Sure.  It's the Alix2c3 from PC Engines
>        http://www.pcengines.ch/alix2c3.htm
>
>    Addition of a RTC backup battery is $1 but must be requested.
>
>    Also available in the US for the same price at:
>        http://www.mini-box.com/Alix-2B-Board-3-LAN-3-MINI-PCI_1
>
>    -- Chris

Fun little boxes.  Loading Debian wasn't terribly hard (because I found 
instructions), though because there's no VGA they require understanding how 
to redirect all of the normal console I/O to the serial port (grub, kernel 
bootup messages, getty login).  For those who want to see how it's done, I 
used the instructions (see the 2008/02/21 post) at:
    http://yasu-2.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html

No I can't read the text either, but the screenshots are in English.  Yes 
that's really what I based my installs on.  No I didn't translate the web 
page, I just used what was in the screenshots.

Another set of instructions (in Enlish this time, and the poster installed sid 
rather than etch) at:
    http://peter.wm.sk/p/?p=20

[etch = Debian Stable, lenny = Debian Testing, sid = Debian Unstable.  
Stable/etch is oldest but most stable (it's about 13 months old now), 
Testing/lenny is very new (about 2 weeks behind Unstable), Unstable/sid is 
the "bleeding edge" and is typically six months newer than the latest 
Ubuntu.]

   Eventually I did one more tweak to the install procedure from the first 
link; instead of manually entering the /boot/grub/menu.lst file, I installed 
the 'grub' package and ran 'update-grub' which makes a default menu.lst 
file -- then added the 'serial' related lines from the instructions, and 
modified the '# kopt' line to be:
   # kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro console=ttyS0,38400n8

Then I modified /etc/kernel-img.conf to contain ("--" lines not included):
--------------------------------
# Kernel Image management overrides
# See kernel-img.conf(5) for details
do_symlinks = no
relative_links = yes
do_bootloader = no
do_bootfloppy = no
do_initrd = yes
link_in_boot = no
postinst_hook = update-grub
postrm_hook = update-grub
--------------------------------
and then ran 'update-grub' again after installing the linux-image-486 package, 
so the Grub boot entries are made automatically.  This way the boot menu will 
also get automatically updated if and when there's a kernel update, just like 
you'd normally see happen with Ubuntu.


   When I put up my own web page on this with step-by-step instructions I'll 
reply to this thread again and post a link.

   -- Chris

-- 

Chris Knadle
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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