These instructions are rather terse and assume you have some familiarity building Debian filesystems from scratch. InstallOnGumstixOvero has more detail, some of which will be relevant here.

1. Change Soekris to 57600 baud

   Ctrl-P
   > set ConSpeed=57600
   

2. Create Debian image

   mkdir rootfs
   multistrap -f squeeze.conf -d rootfs
   (copy rootfs/ to USB drive or mSATA / SATA hard drive (e.g. /media/be0c7e46-8652-4e13-b6e5-b9eff62ac4a2)
   sudo mount -o bind /dev /media/be0c7e46-8652-4e13-b6e5-b9eff62ac4a2/dev
   sudo chroot . /bin/bash
   mount proc/
   dpkg --configure -a
   

   The above referenced squeeze.conf (omit references to LAMSS unless you have those packages available locally): :

   # Example multistrap configuration file for the squeeze shortcut.
   
   [General]
   arch=i386
   directory=
   # same as --tidy-up option if set to true
   cleanup=false
   # same as --no-auth option if set to true
   # keyring packages listed in each debootstrap will
   # still be installed.
   noauth=true
   # whether to add the /suite to be explicit about where apt
   # needs to look for packages. Default is false.
   explicitsuite=false
   # extract all downloaded archives (default is true)
   unpack=true
   # the order of sections is not important.
   # the debootstrap option determines which repository
   # is used to calculate the list of Priority: required packages.
   debootstrap=Debian Lamss
   aptsources=Debian Lamss
   
   [Debian]
   packages=apt grub linux-image-2.6-686 zile adduser makedev less isc-dhcp-client netbase ifupdown iproute net-tools iputils-ping ntp
   source=http://mirrors.mit.edu/debian
   keyring=debian-archive-keyring
   suite=squeeze
   
   [Lamss]
   packages=moos-ivp-apps lamss-apps lamss-shared-apps lamss-internal-apps lamss-dsop-apps
   source=copy:///home/toby/archive squeeze/
   

3. Change /etc/default/grub to this and run update-grub

   # If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
   # /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
   
   GRUB_DEFAULT=0
   GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
   GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="console=tty1 console=ttyS0,57600n8"
   
   # Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
   # This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
   # the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
   #GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"
   
   
   # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
   GRUB_TERMINAL=serial
   GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial --speed=57600 --unit=0 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1"
   
   # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
   #GRUB_TERMINAL=console
   
   # The resolution used on graphical terminal
   # note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
   # you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
   #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480
   
   # Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
   #GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true
   
   # Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
   #GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY="true"
   
   # Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
   #GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"
   

4. Add this to /etc/inittab

   T0:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty -L 57600 ttyS0 vt102
   

5. Insert mSATA drive or USB drive and boot from it (boot 80 for first mSATA drive, boot 81 or 82 for USB drive depending on number of mSATA drives installed).