Status of USB install support in FC4 Test1?

[Bernd Bartmann]

On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 09:04:40 -0800, Pete Zaitcev <zaitcev at redhat.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 10:36:05 +0100 Bernd Bartmann <bernd.bartmann at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The intended application is a completely hard disk and fan-less system
> > - no rotating parts --> no mechanical problems (broken fans or hdds).
> > With 4GB and even 8GB CF-Cards and a passively cooled VIA C3 CPU
> > available it is easy to build such a system as a thin client or
> > firewall machine.
> 
> Bernd, thank you for the explanation. You forgot to mention that your
> CF card is inserted into a USB adapter, but it's documented in the bug.
> This seems like an imaginative use, so perhaps we ought to support
> running from those, although I would rather see a special distro for
> things like these, such as the one in MDK's Small Router project.
> 
> BTW, I am afraid you may be in for a surprise, as (most) CF cards do
> not have built-in write levelling and using ext3 on those might cause
> a premature failure.

Usage of a CF cards is just a little playground for me. Anyway it
would be good if the mkinitrd problem for usb-storage devices could be
fixed in anaconda. Other USB storage devices like external HDDs would
then be supported as well. If you don't want to enable usb storage
support in anaconda in general because of the possible boot problems
then at least it would be good to have it in expert mode.

Do you know any CF card vendor that provides this build-in write
levelling or should I use another filesystem type?

Thanks,
Bernd.