This documentation assumes you have some experience installing Debian, that you will work from a Debian machine to perform this install, and that you have purchased and correctly assembled your PC Engines APU2.
Credits: This gist came from this teklager.se guide and this custura.eu guide.
Caution: This process will write over existing data on your APU2. Make sure to do any necessary backups of your data.
I believe that the APU requires non-free firmware. As of this writing, that means downloading firmware-11.0.0-amd64-netinst.iso.
Use dd or Disk Image Writer which is built into Nautilus on Debian.
Plug the USB into the APU. Attach the null serial cable to your computer and APU. Do not supply power to APU quite yet.
To use the null serial cable, make sure to add your user to the dailout group. You may need to logout and log back in for this to take effect.
sudo usermod -a -G dialout YOUR_USERNAME
Install PuTTY and launch it. Please notice: The left pane shows categories. The right pane shows configuration options.
Connection type: Serial
Serial Line:
/dev/ttyUSB0
Speed:
115200
Saved Session: APU 2
Click the Save button.
Serial line to connect to: /dev/ttyUSB0
Speed (baud): 115200
Data bits: 8
Stop bits: 1
Prity: None
Flow Control: XON/XOFF
Click the Save button again.
Click the Open button to launch the PuTTY terminal window.
The APU does not have an on/off switch. Caution: plugging a live (electrified) barrel connector into your APU can damage it. So, do this:
- Make sure the APU is completely unplugged.
- Plug the barrel connector of the power cable into the APU.
- Plug the prong connector of the power cable into the mains (the power strip).
Various options from the APU should show up in the Putty window. Your goal is to get to the Debian install screen. You may need to press F10 to select a boot device (the USB you plugged in). You may need to make other selections. Play around, and unplug the "mains" end of the power cable to restart the APU if you mess up.
By making the correct selections, you should end up at the Debian install screen. Once there, follow one of these two options...
Press the Tab button on your keyboard. This will show your install options. Press the backspace key and retype the options changing the values in bold:
/install.amd/vmlinuz vga=off initrd=/install.amd/initrd.gz --- quiet console=ttyS0,115200n8
Press H at the intall screen. This will highlight the Help section of the install screen. Press the Enter key on your keyboard to enter the Help section. Within the Help section, enter the following information by simply typing on your keyboard:
install vga=off console=ttyS0,115200n8
Try typing out the command a bit, then hitting the backspace key once. It makes the display look less bad.
Now press the Enter key on your keyboard. This should allow you to install Debian as normal.