Setup: Soekris's Ubuntu

ubuntu-soekris.md

Installing Ubuntu onto Soekris net6501

(Timothy's default Ubuntu configuration from Mac OS X)

Image USB flash drive

• Download "alternative" network intaller image: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server
• Find disk name for SD card and prepare device:

  diskutil list
  sudo diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN    # Otherwise dd complains busy resource
  

• Image flash driver: pv mini.iso | sudo dd of=/dev/rdiskN bs=10000000 ; sync # rdisk is faster, ~10M=good

Connect via serial console

• Plug in your Serial to USB device
• Connect via screen screen /dev/tty.usbconsole 19200
• Turn on Soekris, you should see BIOS loading
• In several seconds half of the screen would clear itself with garbled text in the first column
• Press Esc twice to get to the boot prompt
• Type (slowly) install console=ttyS0,19200n8 vga=none

Troubleshooting serial console

What can go wrong? A lot of things.

• Only network-based mini.iso works well as it does not rely on video output much

• Do diff and check which tty appears after connection

• If no symbols appear or only à, ? or | appears try other speeds: 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200

• Press Ctrl-P right after box starting to get into BIOS prompt, check that system parameter values are sane

• Don't forget to reset speed to 19200, which is supported by Ubuntu

  > set ConSpeed=19200
  > set ConLock=Enabled
  > set ConMute=Disabled
  > reboot
  

• Garbled text due to alternate character set: Ctrl-A Shift-Z Ctrl-L will reset it back

• Do not use LVM it breaks GRUB/LILO

Installation

• It's ok to reformat USB flash drive, everything is in memory
• It's ok to install basic Ubuntu server
• If it seems stuck, press any key
• Expect it to take hours

Initial configuration

• Restart, login via serial:

  echo "$USER ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" | sudo tee -a /etc/sudoers
  sudo apt-get install openssh-server byobu htop mosh zsh-syntax-highlighting
  byobu-enable
  echo 'GRUB_RECORDFAIL_TIMEOUT=$GRUB_TIMEOUT' | sudo tee --append /etc/default/grub
  sudo update-grub

• In a local terminal: ssh-copy-id soekris ; mosh soekris