Installation with Serial Console - blank screen

Getting Started with IPFire
1

Hello here!

I am trying to reinstall a Lightning Wire Labs Mini appliance with wireless module

I flashed the latest ISO: IPFire 2.27 - Core Update 167 x86_64 to an USB stick.
Connected the USB null modem cable to the PC launched the serial console with screen

Once I get to this menu and start the Serial Console Installation

https://community.ipfire.org/uploads/default/original/2X/d/df189fe0f9991d038b012764099b91c309662480.jpeg
the terminal shows the cursor and a blank screen. Only the first LED is on and nothing else happens.

I booted windows and have the same result with putty

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Is it possible that I missed something?

Thanks

2

Is your BIOS configured to boot from USB in first place / is your mSATA empty?
Do you get any output in the boot process?
What are your serial parameters?

3

1 Yes, it boots from USB, the mSATA has the previous IPfire installation on it, which I would like to replace
2 Yes, I get so far that I can select the Serial Console installation
3 those from the wiki 115200, etc…

4

I created a quick Wiki page that may help:

7 Likes
5

Hello and thank you for the link.

I recorded a video of the issue available here: ipfire serial console - YouTube

Nothing happens after I select Install IPFire (serial) and tap Return.

I recorded only three minutes, but now 10 minutes later, the terminal is still showing the same empty shell

After resizing the terminal window, this is what is shown

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6

I just downloaded the IPFire 2.23 - Core Update 138 version and followed the same procedure with success:

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7

Interesting. Did you try with CU 166?

BTW: Your BIOS version is very old. If you succeed with an installation, just try to update to a newer version of BIOS.

2 Likes
8

I did not try CU 166 yet

Can you point me in the right direction to update the BIOS? Never did that on this devices before.
Thanks

9

I don’t know whether CU 138 contains the firmware update addon yet.
But with a more ore less current Core Update you can do it as described in wiki.ipfire.org - firmware-update.

For the latest firmware go to https://pcengines.github.io/ , download the binary for apu4 and put it into /lib/firmware/pcengines/apu/. firmware-update update will do the job. Do not forget to reboot.

3 Likes
10

Thank you so much!