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Nov 28, 2016  Anyone tried a PC Engines APU2C4 yet? Thread starter ZarathustraH Start date May 31, 2016; May 31, 2016. Can't get serial console output out of it. Possibly because the original APU boards from PC engines did have realtek NIC's. The APU2 boards like mine - however - have Intel NIC's. Install PfSense on APU Board with Serial Console Install PfSense on APU Board with Serial Console. Then you have to commission and judge the board with TinyCore from PC-Engines first. Console: 115200,8,n,1. Software: Apu2-TinyCore6.4. Reply Quote 0. 1 Reply Last reply. AaronvaB last edited.

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I’ve not been much of a fan of off-the-shelf home routers for a long while now. Always opting to build a linux box of some sort to do the job, going back this used to be the old white box with a couple of network cards, and until recently it was a DreamPlug plug-pc. The DreamPlug was starting to have some power issues, so it was best to pro-actively replace it.

A colleague suggested I take a look at the PC Engines ALIX, and the (then) in development APU. The ALIX sounded interesting, but given that the APU was right around the corner I decided it was best to wait and get the new model. I ordered the Voyage Wireless Kit once the APU was available for sale, as this included everything I needed (enclosure, SSD, wifi, etc exlcuding PSU), also being shipped from Hong Kong I hoped it would arrive quickly, which it did thanks to SpeedPost.

As an aside, I choose to run a linux based router generally for two reasons. I like being able to script up, and control the configuration of the router without having to use the generally, very crappy web based UIs that most have; and secondly that I can then manage the router as I see fit and are not limited to the provided features of the device (such as multiple IPoverIP tunnels), which usually wont change once released. With linux I can upgrade as new releases occur.

At the heart of the APU is a low power AMD x86/x64 cpu, unlike the DreamPlug which was ARM based. This means that all the regular linux distrobutions will be suitable without needing anythign to specifically target the device. I chose to use Debain.

Shown left to right, GSM Mini-PCIe, Wifi & 16GB SSD (mSata). There is also a SIM card slot on the underside of the SD card reader, wired up to one of mini-pcie slots.

The voyage kit includes everything needed, except a suitable PSU, with some assembly required. For the PSU i found that an old Apple Airport Extreme PSU works perfectly.

I purchased a USB serial adapter & a null-modem cable to make installing linux a bit easier, as I wasnt familiar with the device. This is nessesary as no form of display-out is provided on the device. I purchased the Serial app for the mac to make the software side of the terminal emulation easier.

Linux Installation

The installation tripped me up and had me scratching my head for a bit trying to get the debian live CD to work with the APU.

The live CD needs to be configured to output to the serial console, using the correct speed for the APU. However, to update the live CD configuration I found that using unetbootin on windows (not Mac if you want to stay sane) was the easist way to get a writeable USB to update the config files. Alternative suggestions are very welcome.

I found that updaing the following successfully allowed the console to be used for display output and a normal linux install to proceed. Once installed and networking setup, everything else was performed over SSH.

The PC Engines forum was quite useful for getting this right, the post ‘APU + Ubuntu 14.04 LTS - install via serial console’ in particular.

syslinux.cfg include the following at the start of the file:

Update the kernel entry to include console=ttyS0,115200n8 like so:

isolinux/isolinux.cfg include the following at the start of the file:

Linux Setup

I needed to do a couple of things to complete the install on debian. Taking some cues from Debian installer USB Stick for PC Engines APU board with mSATA drive

Does Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac 8.0.9 support server port:i: parameter in.rdp files? Our RDS environment use non-standard RDP port. And I can't connect to it with RD for Mac 8.0.9, app says. Microsoft remote desktop for mac 9. Get the Remote Desktop client. Download the Microsoft Remote Desktop client from the Mac App Store. Set up your PC to accept remote connections. (If you skip this step, you can't connect to your PC.) Add a Remote Desktop connection or a remote resource. You use a connection to connect directly to. Download Microsoft Remote Desktop 8 for macOS 10.9 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. ‎With the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, you can connect to a remote PC and your work resources from almost anywhere. Experience the power of Windows with RemoteFX in a Remote Desktop client designed to help you get your work done wherever you are. Mac OS X 10.9 Microsoft Remote Desktop. Using Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac OS X will connect but only with IP Address. Using Remote Desktop from any other Windows PC on same network to same always works with PC Name. What is going on.

sysctl

From pcengines-apu-debian-iso / profiles / apu.postinst:

Ensure the serial console is used by grub

Edit /etc/default/grub, update:

Then run (per the instructions in the file):

Enable non-free package source for apt

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list ensuring that non-free is used. Then run apt-get update.

Install device firmware

Run the following for the ethernet & wifi firmware:

Install sensors for temperature monitoring

Final Thoughts

The APU is a very capable little unit, which has been running stable for over a month in a low airflow area. I originally had some concerns about heat disapation but the unit remains about 52.0°C most of the time.

I’m still yet to setup the GSM device as a backup network link, hopefully a future post.