Installing an Pyramid image from a Windows box

If you are running Windows, you can use a utility from the m0n0wall project to read the compressed image and write it to a CF. You can do this as follows:

  1. Download the Pyramid image you need for your device from http://metrix.net/support/dist/ - look for downloads that end in .img.gz
  2. Download the CF writing utility from http://m0n0.ch/wall/physdiskwrite.php
  3. Unzip physdiskwrite
  4. Go to a cmd prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd)
  5. Enter the command, substituting the appropriate image filename for the example one below:
  physdiskwrite pyramid-1.0b1-img.gz

Physdiskwrite will prompt you to choose the correct drive to write to. This is a good time to be paranoid. I first run the program with no CF installed, and then again with the CF. Then I can be sure I'm going to write to the correct card. For example, with no CF, my machine displays:

  D:\bin>physdiskwrite pyramid-1.0b1-img.gz

  physdiskwrite v0.5.1 by Manuel Kasper <mk@neon1.net>
  
  Searching for physical drives...
  
  Information for \\.\PhysicalDrive0:
     Windows:       cyl: 19458
                    tpc: 255
                    spt: 63
  
  Information for \\.\PhysicalDrive1:
  DeviceIoControl() failed on \\.\PhysicalDrive1.
  
  Information for \\.\PhysicalDrive2:
  DeviceIoControl() failed on \\.\PhysicalDrive2.
  
  
  Which disk do you want to write? (0..0)  ^C

Use CTRL-C to exit physdiskwrite. Then insert the CF. My display changes to:

  Information for \\.\PhysicalDrive0:
     Windows:       cyl: 19458
                    tpc: 255
                    spt: 63
  
  Information for \\.\PhysicalDrive1:
  DeviceIoControl() failed on \\.\PhysicalDrive1.
  
  Information for \\.\PhysicalDrive2:
     Windows:       cyl: 7
                    tpc: 255
                    spt: 63

Drive 2 has changed now that it has a 64MB CF card inserted. Go ahead and enter the number for your drive (2 in this case), confirm the write with 'y' and you should see similar output to this:

  Which disk do you want to write? (0..2) 2
  About to overwrite the contents of disk 2 with new data. Proceed? (y/n) y
  Found compressed image file
  64028672/64028672 bytes written in total

Congratulations! Your CF is now ready to install into your computer.