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pc_engines_apu_debian_buster

PC Engines APU2 - Debian 10, Buster

2020-09-18 - This is a how to guide for updating the BIOS and installing Debian Buster on the PC Engines APU boards. This is a network based installation, connect internet via Ethernet.

Documentation

Required hardware

  • APU board.
  • Power supply.
  • Internet over Ethernet.
  • Serial (via Serial↔USB adapter).
  • mSATA SSD

Update BIOS

  • Download the latest BIOS for your version of the board here: https://pcengines.github.io/.
  • Download the TinyCore image.
  • Write image to USB flash drive.
    zcat apu2-tinycore6.4.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=1M conv=fsync status=progress
  • Mount the USB flash drive.
    sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
  • Copy rom to flash:
    sudo cp apu2_v4.12.0.4.rom /mnt
  • Unmount the flash drive and boot the APU board from it.
    sudo umount /mnt
  • If you see a lot of messages like below, just ctrl-c:
    FAT partition not mounted yet, retrying since 3 s
    FAT partition not mounted yet, retrying since 6 s^C
  • Flash the BIOS and reboot when finished:
    cd /media/SYSLINUX
    flashrom -p internal -w apu2_v4.12.0.4.rom
    
    reboot
    
    ...
    PC Engines apu2
    coreboot build 20202708
    BIOS version v4.12.0.4
    4080 MB ECC DRAM
    ...

Install Debian 10

  • Copy image to USB drive:
    sudo dd if=debian-10.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4k status=progress
  • Unmount USB drive.
  • Boot APU from USB.
  • Press h and <ENTER>.
  • Then enter the following 'install' command:
    #Press F2 through F10 for details, or ENTER to boot: 
    install vga=off console=ttyS0,115200n8
  • Press <ENTER> to start install.
  • During install, deselect any desktop environment and select the SSH server and standard system utilities.
  • At first reboot, you'll get the following error:
    text is deprecated. Use set gfxpayload=vga=off before linux command instead.
  • Reboot, and at the grub menu press e and remove the vga=off option. Press ctrl-x to boot.
  • Then edit /etc/default/grub, remove vga=off and run update-grub.
pc_engines_apu_debian_buster.txt · Last modified: 2021/10/09 15:14 by 127.0.0.1