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diff --git a/img/novena-uart-console-pvt2-photo.jpg b/img/novena-uart-console-pvt2-photo.jpg
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+++ b/img/novena-uart-console-pvt2-photo.jpg
diff --git a/quickstart-board.rst b/quickstart-board.rst
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--- a/quickstart-board.rst
+++ b/quickstart-board.rst
@@ -1,7 +1,121 @@
 Quickstart: Just the Board
 =============================
 
-- shipped contents
-- first boot, getting a shell, networking
-- running from an SSD
-- checking for updates
+.. note:: Before you begin...
+    You will need a 5v USB-FTDI cable and a computer to work from (as a
+    terminal). You will also need an Ethernet cable if you want wired
+    networking.
+
+First attach the FTDI cable with the USB side connected to your host machine
+and the UART end connected to the Novena. The correct UART connection is
+described on the `"Using Novena PVT1" wiki page
+<http://kosagi.com/w/index.php?title=Using_Novena_PVT1>`_, and is shown below.
+
+.. TODO:: better image of attached cable
+
+.. figure:: /img/novena-uart-console-pvt2-photo.jpg
+   :align: center
+   :alt: Novena UART Console Cable (PVT2)
+   :width: 100%
+   :target: _images/novena-uart-console-pvt2-photo.jpg
+
+   *Novena PVT2 board with FTDI UART cable attached to console port (note wire
+   colors and orientation)*
+
+Before powering on the Novena, open a terminal program on the work machine and
+open the FTDI device using 115200 baud as the speed and "normal" settings for
+everything else (eg, ``8n1``). Eg, on a UNIX machine you could use the
+``screen`` command line program::
+
+    screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200
+    # Should be a blank screen until the Novena boots.
+    # Type "Ctrl-A" then "k" to quit when you are done.
+
+Finally connect power to the Novena board's DC barrel jack. You should see
+u-boot and then kernel boot messages stream out the console.
+
+Eventually you will enter the `"first run" menu system
+<http://www.kosagi.com/w/index.php?title=Novena-firstrun>`_, which was created
+by ``xobs`` specifically for the Novena. You should be able to make reasonable
+selections for yourself by reading the prompts; a US-centric set of defaults
+for a headless (aka, no display) system might be:
+
+ - "Configuring console-data": select "Don't touch keymap"
+ - "Configuring locales": "en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8" or yours
+ - "Configuring locales": the locale you selected
+ - "Configuring tzdata": your region, or "none of the above" to get to UTC
+ - Enter a new root password
+ - Create a user account
+ - Choose a hostname or accept the autogenerated one
+ - Disable graphical logins
+
+Following all the prompts, the system should get configured and you will be
+able to login as the user you created. Horray!
+
+The next step will be to get networking up and running so you can upgrade
+and/or install new software.
+
+.. note::
+   You need a wired connection to install required tools before you can use the
+   wireless interfaces.
+
+**Configure Ethernet Networking**
+
+Attach ethernet cable to a switch/router to the left-hand port (eth0). If DHCP
+is enabled on the local network, the interface should be configured
+automatically. Test the connection with::
+
+    sudo ifconfig eth0
+    sudo ping www.mit.edu
+
+**Configure WiFi Networking**
+
+.. warning:: The below isn't really a great way of doing things (and hasn't
+   actually been confirmed to work), it's just a quick way to test.
+
+.. TODO:: closed wifi hotspot, passwords
+
+Install packages::
+
+    sudo apt-get install wireless-tools iw
+
+Connect to an open network named, eg, "31C3-open-legacy"::
+
+    sudo iw dev wlan0 connect 31C3-open-legacy
+    sudo dhclient wlan0
+
+**After networking is configured**
+
+Once networking is going, you should definately update the ``apt`` package
+database, and you may wish to upgrade all existing packages (from the factory
+image) to the most recent available versions.
+
+The default configured debian mirror (to download updates from) is in the
+United States.  You might want to change the ``/etc/apt/sources.list`` file to
+point to something closer; changing to ``http.debian.net`` will auto-select a
+good mirror wherever you are in the world.
+
+To update package information, a process which should run reasonably fast even
+the first time::
+
+    sudo apt-get update
+
+The ``upgrade`` step could take 30+ minutes all together, even given a fast
+connection, because disk I/O operations on the built-in microSD card are very
+slow. Don't start this process until you are patient enough to let it finish
+without interruption. You don't really need to do the ``upgrade`` up front
+before you start experimenting, it's just a good idea to stay patched with bug
+fixes and security updates. To upgrade all packages with new versions, run::
+
+    sudo apt-get upgrade
+
+You may encounter a dpkg problem with the dbus package ("Package
+libdbus-1-3:armhf is not configured yet."). If this happens run ``sudo apt-get
+install -f`` to fix configuration, then ``sudo apt-get upgrade`` to finish the
+upgrade.
+
+You will almost certainly find youself needing i2c control utilities if you
+will be hacking on the Novena, so now would be a good time to do::
+
+    sudo apt-get install i2c-tools libi2c-dev
+