Booting from CF card slot


Forum: DSL Embedded
Topic: Booting from CF card slot
started by: mrcrab
Posted by mrcrab on Dec. 26 2005,16:11
I have a new DSL ITX box - way cool!  It can be booted successfully from a CF card in a USB CF reader.  So far, so good.

The board I have has a CF/PCMCIA slot built-in.  How can I get it to boot from the built-in CF slot?

I've looked on the forums but haven't found anything yet.

Thanks!
Posted by mrcrab on Dec. 26 2005,18:29
Found an easy way to do it.  I've got an IDE to CF adapter and it boots from hda0 like a regular HDD.
Posted by kinetic on Dec. 29 2005,00:44
i read that even heavy duty CF cards have a lifespan of only 3 million write cycles...

does a DSL frugal install do anything to minimize the number of writes that occur?

thanks
Posted by cbagger01 on Dec. 29 2005,20:26
Yes
Posted by Frugal . . . on Dec. 29 2005,20:33
What exactly is the purpose of the Frugal distribution?  

I'm not sure which way to turn.  I need a distribution with Firefox, ssh server, a simple window manager, a touch screen driver, usb camera driver, normal network support for a wired network (maybe a pcmcia wireless card in future) and a Flash Player 7 plugin.  I intend to run the browser full screen on startup pointed to a page that only contains a Flash movie.  

How would I do that using DSL?  Do you create a bare bones distro and then add the applications to a writable part of the CF?  

Any direction would be helpful.

Thanks.
Posted by cbagger01 on Dec. 29 2005,21:14
You can search the forums for a wealth of information on the whole Frugal concept.

In summary, a frugal installation is essentially the same as a livecd bootup in behavior.

The read-only filesystem is copied over from the livecd to the hard drive (or in this case, the CF card) and it is booted using the LILO or GRUB bootloader instead of the ISOLINUX bootloader that is used for the CD itself.

Because the filesysetm is still compressed and read-only, all writes are done to the /ramdisk and are not done to the CF device.

How do I save my settings and files then?

You use the DSL backup/restore utility.

This system is used to save selected files and directorys into a tarball and saved to a writable area like a hard drive, a flash drive or even a floppy disk.

Because the "backup" part of the process is only done on command or upon shutdown, the number of "writes" to your flash device is very small and there is virtually no risk of wearing out your flash drive.
Posted by mayakovski on Dec. 29 2005,22:12
Quote (cbagger01 @ Dec. 29 2005,16:14)
You can search the forums for a wealth of information on the whole Frugal concept.

In summary, a frugal installation is essentially the same as a livecd bootup in behavior.

The read-only filesystem is copied over from the livecd to the hard drive (or in this case, the CF card) and it is booted using the LILO or GRUB bootloader instead of the ISOLINUX bootloader that is used for the CD itself.

Because the filesysetm is still compressed and read-only, all writes are done to the /ramdisk and are not done to the CF device.

How do I save my settings and files then?

You use the DSL backup/restore utility.

This system is used to save selected files and directorys into a tarball and saved to a writable area like a hard drive, a flash drive or even a floppy disk.

Because the "backup" part of the process is only done on command or upon shutdown, the number of "writes" to your flash device is very small and there is virtually no risk of wearing out your flash drive.

Does that mean that upon shutdown it automatically does a backup?
Posted by roberts on Dec. 30 2005,01:26
Yes, a backup is done automatically upon shutdown.
That is if a backup device has been specified.

Most the the script installs in DSL preset a backup device.
Some not. You can use the DSL control panel and click backup/restore to see if such a device has been preset.

Or at the command prompt you can
cat /opt/.backup_device
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