Debian GNU/Linux on a Via EPIA CL-Series Mini-ITX

This is a living document which contains my own notes on how to install Debian GNU/Linux on a Via EPIA CL-Series Mini-ITX. Please note, there might be errors and misleading text here, which may lead to problems for you. In any case I am not responsible for anything at all.

Author: Alfred E. Heggestad <aeh@db.org>

Things remaining

Current configration

This section contains the latest configuration on my machine.

Specifications

      Machine:		Via EPIA-CL
      CPU:		VIA C3/VIA Eden EBGA processor
      Memory:		512 MB
      Disk:		200 GB IDE
      CD-rom:		NEC DVD_RW ND-2500A, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
      Gfx:		Integrated VIA Unichrome AGP graphics with MPEG-2 accelerator
      NICs:		VIA VT6105 LOM+VT6103 10/100 Base-T Ethernet PHY
      Audio:		VIA VT1612A 2 channel AC97 Codec

Installing from CD-rom

Installation using the Debian Installer is pretty straight forward.

http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

Grab the netinst CD image and you should be up and running in less than half an hour..

Upgrading the kernel to linux 2.6.15

I upgraded the linux kernel to 2.6.15 by doing: 
	# apt-get install kernel-source-2.6.15
	# cd /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.15
        # make menuconfig
        # make
        # make modules_install install

Installing my preferred packages

Normally when I install Debian I only install the base-system and then install packages depending on what I need. The following packages was *removed* after complete upgrade: 
      nvi
The following new packages was *installed* after complete upgrade: 
      vim
      less
      ssh
      make
      gcc
      ncurses-dev
      
      apt-get install gcc libc6-dev

Audio

Audio is working using the VIA 82xx ALSA driver.

System configuration files

Reference