Installing Pyramid Linux on a Compact Flash Card
Problem
There you are with your new single-board computer, and it looks very nice, but you’re wondering how to get an operating system on it.
Solution
The two most common methods are via a Compact Flash (CF) writer, or bootstrapping the operating system from a PXE boot server. This recipe tells how to install Pyramid Linux using the first method. You need:
A Compact Flash writer
The Pyramid Linux dd image
The most common CF writers cost around $20 and connect to a USB port. This is the easiest kind to use. Linux automatically recognizes and mounts the device when you plug it in.
A second option is an IDE CF writer. You’ll know if you have one of these because they take up an IDE slot on your system and a front drive bay. A system with one of these needs to be booted with the CF card in the reader, or it won’t see it.
First, download the latest dd image:
$ wget http://metrix.net/support/dist/pyramid-1.0b1.img.gz
Next, find the /dev name of your CF card with the fdisk -l command. A USB CF writer looks like this:
# fdisk -l
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 977 62512 83 Linux
An IDE CF writer looks like this:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 * 1 977 62512 83 Linux
Copy the image to your CF card with these commands, using your own correct image and /dev names. Do not use any partition numbers:
# gunzip -c pyramid-1.0b1.img.gz | dd of=/dev/sdb bs=16k
3908+0 records in
3908+0 records out
And that’s all there is to it. Now it’s ready to go in your routerboard.