[Devil-Linux-discuss] Install devil-linux 1.3.6 on ALIX 2C3 and install-on-usb BUG

[Marcello D. <m.d...@st...>]

I just got a PC Engines' ALIX 2C3 board and I'm doing some tests using
the development version of devil-linux.

The installation on Compact Flash is straightforward, but a couple of
changes are needed to let you login into the system from serial console.
Basically you have to spawn a getty process on the serial port (inittab)
and add the serial console to the pool of ttys that root is allowed to
login from (securetty).

In doing this, I encountered a little BUG in install-on-usb script. If,
when requested, you specify a configuration file to preload to disk, it
gets copied as 'etc.tar.bz2' and not as 'etc-mods.tar.bz2" as it should.

A more detailed description of the installation steps:

1) Create a modified copy of etc/inittab (from iso image) adding the
line:
S0:2345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L 38400 ttyS0 vt102
Without this you don't get a login prompt. You can also comment all of
the lines referring to any ttyX, they are useless without VGA's virtual
consoles.

2) Create a modified copy of etc/securetty (from iso image) adding the
line
ttyS0
Without this you cannot login as root from serial console.

3) Create a modified copy of 'config/etc-mods.tar.bz2' (from iso image)
archive including files created at points 1 and 2

4) Connect CF to a PC *WITHOUT* mounting it

5) Partition CF with 2 partitions. One for ISO and one for configuration

6) Install CF using install-on-usb script, choosing "GRUB with serial
console" and setting 38400 speed (which is the default serial port speed
of the ALIX BIOS)

7) Mount the "configuration" partition created at point 2 and copy the
modified etc-mods.tar.bz2 to it

8) Unmount the partition

9) Remove the CF card and insert it in the ALIX board

10) Connect a serial terminal emulator (picocom, minicom, gtkterm) to
the ALIX board and power on

Note that instead of going through steps 7-8, you should specify your
custom cfg file when requested by install-on-usb script. I'm not doing
so due to the bug reported above. I guess it will be fixed soon.

Hope it helps.

Marcello Desantis
Storming Sas