I have two Astlinux machines. 
 
One is housed in a Shuttle XPC box.  This one has 2-slots in the back and a couple USB ports on the front.  With this hardware config it made sense to me to use an IDE-CF adapter that fits one of the slots in back of the machine.  This has proven to be very handy especially during the development process.  Makes swapping out the boot CF card very easy to do.  For this reason alone, I think I would suggest you go the CF card route if your hardware can be setup this way.  For the CF card, I chose a common 256mb Sandisk (not an Ultra or anything fancy) and it seems to have performed quite well.  After much experimentation, I came to agree with consensus that using a USB "thumb" drive for the Key Disk is the best way to do it.  You can try what you want but suspect you will arrive at this conclusion eventually.  I went with a "no name" 1gb gizmo I found on sale for $39 at the local discount store and it works well.
 
Now my other box is a bit odd.  It's a LEX NEO which is a tiny little mini-itx machine without any slots.  And the USB ports on it are the old USB 1.1 type.  It really did not like the USB thumb drives (throws errors when trying to mount).  But it has a CF port built in on the second IDE channel.  For this unique hardware setup, I chose to use the same type CF card for boot as I used on the Shuttle.  But for the Key Disk, I got a 1gb "Disk on Module" gizmo that terminates in an IDE interface.  Cost me big bucks ($400) but it solved the problems I was having with the USB dongle on this unique hardware.  And everything fits neatly inside the little black box so it looks really slick.  But I must admit that having to take the machine apart to remove the CF card for upgrade and dealing with updates to the Key Disk in this machine are a real PITA.
 
Point of all this is, what you end up with will probably be driven by your hardware setup and what you want to achieve with it.  So far the low end Sandisk CF cards have proven to work pretty well and I have tortured them viciously.  I have not tried the HIGH DOLLAR fancy ones so really do not know from personal experience if they offer any advantage.  I think that starting out, your best bet is to stick with the low end SanDisk CF card in at least 64mb for your boot and a USB thumb disk in at least 128mb for your Key Disk.  I got the IDE>CF adapter with the backplane mount off E-Bay for about $8.00 and this is a gadget I highly recommend if your hardware supports it.  This is all low budget stuff and is adequate to get you started.  Suspect it would even perform quite well in production.
 
good luck with it !!
 
G.Hendershot
 

From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of canuck15
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 11:31 AM
To: 'Discussion of AstLinux - Asterisk on Compact Flash'
Subject: Re: [Astlinux-users] Compact Flash Cards

DOM's are not nearly as common.  You can buy CF everywhere locally.
 
I use a Sandisk 256MB.  I had problems with a Lexar 128MB one.
 
If you need an IDE to CF adapter make sure it supports UDMA signalling.  A lot of them don't.  The standard consumer Sandisk (not industrial, not Ultra) CF I bought did not specify UDMA in the specs but in reality it actually supports the signalling, just not the mode.  If your IDE to CF adapter does not support the signalling then it can cause complications.  At least it did for me. 
 
 


From: Graham S. Jarvis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 1:36 AM
To: Discussion of AstLinux - Asterisk on Compact Flash
Subject: Re: [Astlinux-users] Compact Flash Cards

Hello Graham,
 
If you were previously using a HDD then why not use a DOM (Disk on Module) rather than a CF?  A DOM is plug-in replaceable on the motherboard, no IDE/CF card required.
 
-Graham S. Jarvis-
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 10:19 AM
Subject: [Astlinux-users] Compact Flash Cards

Hi all

I'm gonna buy my first CF card for use with AstLinux (so far I have been using an HDD) so was wondering if anyone has any recommendations.  Is there anything I need to look out for (such as a minimum speed)?

Cheers

Graham.


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