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From: Victor M. <vic...@so...> - 2025-12-31 00:55:51
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I am updating a home router for a friend that has been running for years on a WRAP. The only box I could find on E-bay was a used PCEngines ALIX. Since there has been a discussion on this list about using Windows to install LEAF, I thought I would document a Windows install. ###Hardware Puchase a cable USB to serial DB9 male - with a FTDI chipset Useful --- Cable Matters crossover ethernet adapter for initial setup outside of your network hardware Purchase an Extreme CF adapter (Red color) on Amazon that allows an SD card to plug into Compact Flash frame. This adapter is thin enough to plug into the ALIX CF slot. ###Programs you will need for your windows box. Putty for Windows or Tera Term 5 for Serial RS232 connection for initial setup https://teratermproject.github.io/index-en.html Tera Term is hosted in Japan. https://putty.org/index.html Download the latest version of syslinux-6.04.zip from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ Extract the bios subdirectory, to c:\Documents\bios You don't need the other subdirectories. Download 7zip installer for windows https://www.7-zip.org [1] run the exe file to install 7-zip Download the version of LEAF you wish to install. In my case it was Bering-uClibc_7.5.1_geode_syslinux_serial115200.tar.gz ###Proceedure I plugged the SD card (between 1GB and 2 GB) into the Windows box and formatted it for fat32. On my Windows it was drive H: Run the 7-zip program and navigate to the Download directory extract Bering-uClibc_7.5.1_geode_syslinux_serial115200.tar.gz to the SD card, in my case drive H: If you try to extract by right clicking the .tar.gz file, it may complain about unrecognized file type or filename too long. This is a Windows problem? since it works from the 7-zip menu. From Windows Start Menu scroll to the Terminal program, right click to run as administrator. cd Documents\bios\win32 .\syslinux -i -m -a -f -s -d syslinux H: This installs syslinux in the directory syslinux, marks the partition as active, and installs the mbr all with one command Start the Tera Term or Putty terminal program Select serial, select the USB com port it recommends and set the baud rate to 115200 Then plug the SD into the CF adapter boot LEAF on the ALIX box - the terminal should spew text. If some of the text is garbled, but some is ok, reset the local and the remote terminal from the terminal program menu. Login as root give yourself a password From the lrcfg menu type q to exit set the UTC date by adding or subtracting the proper number of hours for your time zone. date -s YYYY.MM.DD-hh.mm This will set the date and time so your configuration files will show the correct date hwclock it will show you hardware clock date hwclock --systohc Sets the hardware clock to the system clocks In my case, the ALIX board did not have a RTC battery, so I will solder one in. lrcfg and begin setting up the ALIX through putty or Tera Term's serial terminal. #### Using putty from a Linux box, in this case Kubuntu Install putty Run kate, the kubuntu terminal program whoami will let you know your login name which will be $USER in the next command sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER This gives putty permission to access the USB serial port reboot Kubuntu so putty gets its permission on putty, select serial /dev/ttyUSB0 115200 login to LEAF etc... Victor Links: ------ [1] https://www.7-zip.org/ |