This is where we got ours from http://www.pcengines.com/testordr.htm
but I've been told you can also get it from http://www.tapr.org/tapr/html/cfa.html ----- Original Message ----- From: "J Baribeau" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Nick French" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Preston L. Bannister" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 2:16 PM Subject: Re: K7+sis730 combo+32DIP > Hi, > Where can I get the adapter for the compact flash to the IDE connector? > What is the part called? > Thanks, > Jean Baribeau > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Nick French <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Preston L. Bannister <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 5:53 AM > Subject: Re: K7+sis730 combo+32DIP > > > > We just plug the compact flash into the IDE and it looks just like a > > harddisk. > > > > Anyway what I was trying to get to is how do we get the kernal of a > standard > > install of LINUX without LILO. > > This will solve my problem then as I can flash my existing BIOS with > > LinuxBIOS and then it can load the kernal from a standard Linux disk (CF > in > > our case). So I guess we need some IDE reading code and the format of the > > disk to be able to get the Kernel off it. > > > > I guess this is what adam is doing or have I missed something. > > > > Cheers > > > > Nick > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Preston L. Bannister" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 1:29 AM > > Subject: RE: K7+sis730 combo+32DIP > > > > > > > Adam has pretty nicely summarized my point of view. > > > > > > My interest is in workstations and servers. I'm interested > > > in taking pretty much stock PC hardware finding the minimum > > > distance hack that will make booting nearly bulletproof. > > > > > > If the motherboard EEPROMs were commonly 512KB or bigger then > > > the LinuxBIOS approach would be incredibly cool. > > > It seems the most common size supported EEPROM size is 256KB. > > > It seems Linux does not(??) fit comfortably in this space. > > > It looks like LinuxBIOS is less practical than I'd like. > > > > > > The Disk-On-Chip and CompactFlash adapters are interesting but > > > too single-source and more suited for projects hacking hardware. > > > > > > I'm imagining a boot sequence something like: > > > > > > 1) If no network, boot from disk. > > > 2) If network and no disk, boot from network. > > > > > > Where (2) would effectively use the local disk as a cache. > > > > > > Now from browsing around the embedded Linux web pages, it > > > seems that fitting a kernel into 256KB (compressed) is not > > > impossible, but then I have not gone through the exercise. > > > > > > OTOH if a stripped down Linux kernel and a startup program > > > can easily fit into a 256KB EEPROM, then we're back to cool :). > > > > > > > > > From: Adam Agnew > > > > I'd like to use the linux kernel as a bootloader too. But there are > > > > problems with that. > > > > > > > > A lot of people who want to use LinuxBIOS are not thinking about > > clusters. > > > > They have desktops and servers and want to replace their BIOS and > still > > > > proceed in desktop and server functionality. > > > > The Linux kernel isn't fitting in 256k anytime soon. It's a tight fit > in > > > > 512k. Commodity consumer motherboards aren't shipping with 1Mbyte > > eeproms > > > > any time soon. > > > > > > > > People don't want to swap out their prom for a disk on chip. They > don't > > > > want to patch or compile a kernel. They don't want installing > LinuxBIOS > > to > > > > take all day. They want simple functionality in a small amount of > time. > > > > The linux booting linux scheme isn't delivering that for the > > > > desktop/server user right now. > > > > > > > > Linux booting linux works great for cluster nodes. The admittadly > small > > > > but annoying investment on a DiskOnChip for every node is worth it. > > > > Spending a day getting just the right functionality out of the linux > > > > kernel is worth it. People running clusters are experianced and > > > > knowledgable so it's not a big deal. > > > > > > > > But when some system administrator wants to use LinuxBIOS I want to be > > > > able to point him to our rom-o-matic type web site, a place to > download > > a > > > > working bootloader, and a nice little utility to make it all come > > together > > > > so he never has to think about it again. LinuxBIOS gains popularity > more > > > > quickly and maybe some chipset makers or motherboard manufacturers > take > > > > notice and start to make our lives easier. > > > > > > > > I like the leaving everything to linux philosophy too. And if all > > > > motherboards shipped with big generous eeproms we wouldn't even be > > having > > > > this discussion. What can I say? I need a way to boot LinuxBIOS on > 256k > > > > for desktop and server machines. > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
