Read-Only Compact Flash

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Read-Only Compact Flash
started by: Panes XP

Posted by Panes XP on Sep. 26 2006,19:51

I am building a diskless network client;
I would like to restrict changes to DSL after (re-mastering)
I've also discovered compact flash cards are limited to about 100,000 erase/write cycles before they fail.

Is it possible to get a read-only compact flash reader?
Or are there any other solutions?

Thanks in advance

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Sep. 27 2006,00:13

Use a frugal installation for your compact flash.

Posted by ersatz on Oct. 04 2006,04:29

I have a similar question.

I know that Frugal uses up less disk but it's still installed Read-Write. I want to be able to pull the power plug and not worry about fsck failing on a reboot. Can't I mount root as 'ro'?

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Oct. 04 2006,14:11

I thought the frugal cf type installation scripts would install it so that it would not be rw...

In any case, just remove the "frugal" boot/cheatcode from your bootloader, and /cdrom should now be mounted as RO.

Posted by ersatz on Oct. 05 2006,04:36

Thanks for the suggestion ^thehatsrule^ but removing the frugal switch didn't seem to help. I am running off an HD install so maybe that's why. Do I need to turn on initrd or something else to do with a ramdisk? I know that there are certain system files that need to be writeable.

It looks like I may need to use tmpfs or upgrade to DSL 3.0 so I can use unionfs. Does anyone have any experience with this? I'll give this a try on friday.

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Oct. 06 2006,18:29

Uhmm... using a non-frugal HD install on your cf?
ouch!! That will kill it pretty fast, or so I'm told - I haven't tried

Also, unionfs is only available to frugals afaik. And though I suppose you could manually remount all your directories to a ramdisk - I'll still suggest for you to use a frugal installation.