StompBox
Mobile 3G/WiFi Router Project
CF (Compact Flash) Image
After a number of delays and interruptions I've finally got a basic compact flash image up. This should make building a stompbox a much easier process for someone not terribly Linux-savvy. Many thanks are due to my partner-in-crime Garth for putting the install script together.
This is currently seriously-way-beta in nature and as such starts with version 0.9. Here's what you need to know before you download and use the image file:
- This was created for use on a 128mb CF card. I used a dirt-cheap ($19) PQI-branded one I got from Fry's. Smaller ones will not work unless you go to a lot of effort to mount and trim down this image file before you put it on a card. Putting it on a larger one will result in unpartitioned space being left over unless you again rebuild the image manually. It was created with the 'dd' command and is a direct disk-image from an existing CF card.
- Basic install notes can be found here: stompbox-install.txt . Read these first.
- The image is designed for the exact hardware I've used in my own Stompbox, as outlined on these web pages you are reading. Specific drivers/hooks are in place for the Verizon 5220 3G card, Senao 2511 WiFi card, pl2303 USB-to-Serial converter and D-Link web camera. While you can ignore the converter and camera, this image will not work if you have different 3G and WiFi cards. You can, however, use it as a basic installation to modify for the cards of your choice.
- Putting this image on a compact flash card is both tricky and risky. I use the 'dd' command on my Powerbook (Mac OSX "Tiger", 10.4.1), though it's available in nearly all Unix variants. The 'dd' command simply copies disk images from a file to a device and vice versa. If you specify the wrong device you can quite easily blow away a drive in your system. Use with extreme caution! There are other utilities for writing an image to a CF card using the platform of your choice. Finding and using these tools is left as an excercise for the reader.
- As an example, here is how I do it. On my Powerbook my PQI-branded 7-in-1 memory card reader has its CF slot show up as "/dev/disk1". In the directory where I've copied the image file I run the following command:
dd if=stompbox.0.9.img of=/dev/disk1 bs=8192
The important part here is to be sure to use a blocksize of 8k, thus 'bs=8192'. Change the input file and output file as appropriate for your system.
- Once you boot your Stompbox with the newly imaged CF card it will not yet function. You have to log in via serial to run the install script located in /usr/local/bin/initial-setup . Again, this is documented in the install notes.
Compressed image: stompbox.0.9.img.bz2 (58mb)
Uncompressed image: stompbox.0.9.img (128mb)
Mirroring of these files is appreciated and encouraged. If you put up a mirror, please let me know about it so I can put a link to the mirror on this page. As the files get updated I'll post them here along with release notes. I'm putting them all under the Creative Commons license shown at the bottom of the web page. At some point in the future I'll see about putting them up on Sourceforge or similar version-control hosting.
If you give the image a try please let me know how well it did (or didn't) work for you. And remember -- be careful when you write the CF image using your computer. Don't go damaging one of your other hard drive volumes by using the wrong device!
Contacts: Tor Amundson and Garth Minette . Questions, suggestions and criticisms appreciated! Flames will most likely be snickered at.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.