Howto: Installing on PCengines alix apu2c4 (serial, no-vga)

Here is my description how I was able to install freepbx from win7 on an APU board using a “null modem” cable, in my case it was using an USB to serial adapter. Maybe it helps someone as I was not able to find myself a working description.

  1. Download freepbx, in my case this was:
    SNG7-PBX-64bit-1712-2, Release Date: December 2017

  2. Use Rufus (portable version is sufficient) to burn the image on an usb stick, make sure that it is burned as an iso image and not as dd.

  3. on the usb stick use a text editor (e.g. notepad++) to edit \isolinux\isolinux.cfg. After line 1 (serial 0 115200) add a new line “console 0”; store the changed file

  4. boot the usb stick on the apu device, select the vnc installation type

  5. configure your settings using vnc

  6. once the installation is running show some patience. Installation proceeds quickly until about step 584, then it stalls for hours. I went to sleep after 6 hours, the next morning then the installatin was completed sucessfully

For some reason I needed 3 attempts to complete the installation, at least one time I was not patient enough. If you run into some weird error, just reboot the device and retry before giving up.