Can the X40 boot from a pcmcia CF card reader?

[seneca]

so? can it?

Thinking about installing linux to one and going read only as much as possibly, I already run Openbsd with mfs and ro on my soekris that runs very nice.

[seneca]

Doesn't anyone know?

[em500]

No, they can't. And the SD slot isn't supported as a boot device either. But most USB keys are bootable, so you could setup booting from a USB key (or USB CF reader) and mount the root fs from the PC-Card CF. Or have the root fs live in ram, like some linux live distros do.

You could also try to see if the USB-SD hybrids (like the Sandisk SD-Plus) are bootable in USB mode. Then you can boot it in USB, unplug it, stick it in the SD slot and mount it there. The next stable kernel release (2.6.17) will include support for the SD controller. For current kernels you need to download the driver (sdhci) separately.

[seneca]

Hmm, too bad... It would be nice though, since the pcmcia slot is "integrated" and doesn't stick out like a usb stick or a usb cable to an external unit.

I guess I can do the the boot partition on the hdd and keep the root on the CF in the pcmcia slot. And ports and the likes (that needs compiling) on the hdd aswell....