Installing Debian on Alix3d2
This quick how-to should work on other Alix computers, feel free to add your comments.
Introduction
This small computer is somewhat special, it has usb ports, but can't boot on them. So here is an working installation method.
Required hardware
- Alix2d3 from pcengines.ch
- Compact flash (mine is 4Go).
- Serial (RS232) crossed cable.
- Host computer
- With the serial port connected to the Alix board
- With a CF card reader
- USB storage
Debian testing installation
File Prepare
- run unetbootin
- Choose Debian and Testing_Hdmedia
- Choose the CF card
- Mount the CF card and edit the syslinux.cfg file
Add console=ttyS0,115200 to the append file
- Umount and eject the CF card
- Put the debian-testing-i386-businesscard.iso on the USB storage
Hardware setup
- Connect the Serial port to the host computer
Installation
- Plug the CF card and the USB storage into the Alix computer
BIOS
When the Alix hangs while booting a Linux 3.2 Kernel from Debian, it will probably need a BIOS update. The new version will have some workaround for MFGPT disabled which cause trouble with the current configuration of the driver. BIOS updates can easily be done with flashrom from a running system.