HD Install :: frugal install for embedded applications

After booting on a regular pc, I intend to frugal install on a CF which will become the heart of an embedded system.
I'd like to work with cheatcodes like "restore=hde2 opt=hde2 home=hde2 mydsl=hde2/mydsl noeject 2 ssh cron".
The two things I'd like would be:
-runlevel 3: getting an active network interface but no X for there is no screen
-console on serial port during boot so that I have a way to look at the messages (in case something wrong -who knows?- and to get a chance to know the ip at first boot) and then leave the serial port free for a modem interface (with the right commands in bootlocal.sh).
Can the dream become reality?
Are there traps I don't see (I bet hde will change its name on the next system, but I guess I can find it and modify it in the grub file)?

Runlevel 2 has networking too; the difference between 3 in DSL is that 2 has 3 root consoles, while 3 has 3 user dsl consoles.

The serial console I don't remember now, but it was something like console=serial. Check Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt from 2.4.31 kernel tarball.

original here.