Subject: [alpine-user] alpine 3.4.0 on soekris 4501, 4801, and 5501

From: Joel Sandin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2016 22:34:57 -0400

First time using this distro - Successfully booted 3.4.0 on two net5501s!
But had problems on the net4501 and 4801.

The wiki entries for the soekris 4801 are out of date, but it was easy to
create a bootable CF card and there is good documentation for the process:

1. Boot alpine-3.4.0-x86.iso on a physical system or virtual machine and
follow the steps here to format and prepare a compact flash card:
https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Create_a_Bootable_Compact_Flash
2. Mount the compact flash card and enable the serial console.  I did this
by editing /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg as (more or less) described here:
https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Enable_Serial_Console_on_Boot
3. Boot your soekris with the CF card you prepared.

CF fully booted no problem on net5501s but on both the net4501 and net4801
it booted but failed to mount boot media, and didn't seem to see the (CF)
drive.

I'll investigate further soon but just wanted to give folks a heads up -
I'm using Kingston CF which deviates from soekris recommendations.

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From: Laurent Bercot <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2016 11:33:12 +0200

On 04/06/2016 04:34, Joel Sandin wrote:
> CF fully booted no problem on net5501s but on both the net4501 and
> net4801 it booted but failed to mount boot media, and didn't seem to
> see the (CF) drive.
>
> I'll investigate further soon but just wanted to give folks a heads
> up - I'm using Kingston CF which deviates from soekris
> recommendations.

  What size is your CF? It's been a long time, but ISTR there's a size
limit on the CF that the net4501 can recognize. It's an old BIOS!
(I booted mine with a 32 MB CF. Those were the days.)
Not sure about the net4801, but if it's the same BIOS or close to it,
it may be the same issue.

-- 
  Laurent

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