[Soekris] Installing Slackware 10.1 on net4801

[Leonardo Eloy]

Hi,

  I've seen many manuals and steps and etc. about installing linux on
the Soekris net4801, but none of these were enough "out-of-the-box"
for me.

  So, I was wondering if there was some easier way in installing
Linux, and since I'm a Slackware addicted, I sure thought in doing it
with this distribution.

  Stuff needed:
- USB CF Reader/Writer;
-   256mb CF card: base linux, utilities, networking;
or 128mb CF card: base linux, utilities, very tight networking setup;
- Slackware 10.1 (didn't test with 10.2);
- Natürlich, a Soekris net4801.

Steps:
(Note: I did these with VMWare.)

1) Boot with the USB CF RW plugged;
1a) If using VMWare, VM > Removable devices > USB > (choose);
2) fdisk /dev/sda, n, 1, (enter) twice <-- Creates a new Linux
partition using the full card size, there's no need to create boot or
swap partitions;
3) Type setup and go straight to TARGET;
4) Choose /dev/sda1, format it (I recommend using ext3, it works fine);
5) While choosing packets, just mark A and N;
6) Choose "expert" packet installation;
7) Just select relevant software, e.g. you'll really need 'infozip'?
(Note: NFS and/or Samba are good options);
8) Install it, choose cdrom's bare.i kernel;
9) No modem, set the correct timezone;
10) LILO configuration: choose expert;
11) Begin, for the installation to work properly, I needed to pass
these options: root=/dev/hda1 console=ttyS0,19200n8;
12) Linux, point to /dev/sda1;
13) Install... done. (No framebuffer, please!)

So, you've installed Slackware Linux correctly, now you just need to
change a few parameters in order to make it work (serial port, network
driver, etc...):

1) vi /mnt/etc/inittab:
Comment the standard console login getties (c1-c6)
Uncomment the s1 serial line. After, it must look like this:

# These are the standard console login getties in multiuser mode:
#c1:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty1 linux
#c2:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty2 linux
#c3:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty3 linux
#c4:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty4 linux
#c5:1235:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty5 linux
#c6:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty6 linux

# Local serial lines:
s1:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L -i ttyS0 19200 vt100
#s2:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L ttyS1 9600 vt100

Note: the -i option tells agetty not to show the "issue message" (/etc/issue)

2) vi /mnt/etc/fstab
Change /dev/sda1 to /dev/hda1, remove cdrom- and floppy-related lines.

3) vi /mnt/etc/lilo.conf
Change /dev/sda1 to /dev/hda1
(Can be easily done with vi, type :1,$ s/sda/hda/g)

4) vi /mnt/etc/rc.d/rc.modules
Find the line: /sbin/modprobe natsemi, and uncomment it.
(Note: although people might think that ns83820 is the right driver,
natsemi is the one that has to be used.)

5) Now you can do some hardening stuff (edit /etc/inetd.conf) and
disable some startup scripts;


Done! Now you should be able to boot the card correctly. Once you see
the prompt, make sure to run 'lilo' so it can be installed correctly
(rembember that little root=/dev/hda1 trick?).

I know nobody here is a beginner with Soekries devices, but this might
get indexed by Google someday and help other people.


P.S.: I might have missed some step or told something wrong. I
actually dumped everything from my brain to this mail... :) If
anything goes wrong, please, drop me a line.

Regards,
Leonardo Eloy