PC Engines APU2

Hardware requirements

Storage Module

The APU can boot from an SD card or an m-SATA SSD. These instructions are written assuming you will use an SD card because they are easier to flash from another machine. However, we do frequently build Paradrop routers with SSDs to take advantage of the higher storage capacity and read/write speeds. The 4GB pSLC module listed above is known to be very reliable, but you may also prefer a larger SD card.

Preparing the SD card

  1. Download the latest build of the Paradrop disk image. https://paradrop.org/release/0.9/paradrop-amd64.img.xz

  2. Insert the SD card into the machine you used to download the image and find the device node for the card. This is often “/dev/sdb”, but please make sure, as the next command will overwrite the contents of whatever device you pass.

  3. Copy the Paradrop image to the SD card.:

    xzcat paradrop-amd64.img.xz | sudo dd of=<DEVICE> bs=32M status=progress; sync

  4. Remove the SD card and proceed to assemble the router.

First Boot

The first time you boot the Paradrop router, you will need to connect a serial cable to complete the installation process through a console. The default configuration is 9600 8N1. After the router boots, press Enter when prompted and follow the instructions on the console to configure Ubuntu Core. If you have an Ubuntu One account, you can enter the email address here. Otherwise, you may also enter the address “info@paradrop.io”. You will be able to manage your router and install chutes through paradrop.org either way.

Take note of the IP address displayed in the console. You will need this address for the next step, activating the router. For example, the message below indicates that the router has IP address 10.42.0.162.

Congratulations! This device is now registered to info@paradrop.io.

The next step is to log into the device via ssh:

ssh paradrop@10.42.0.162