Boot Fedora 8 on pcmcia compactflash
 

I'm trying to install & boot Fedora 8 from a Cardbus (aka PCMCIA) based 1GB compactflash card. I wasn't able to use the CD to install to the CF directly because the kernel re-init of the cardbus device meant that the installer could not find any boot media to install to. This happens irregardles of whether I use the 'nopcmcia' option at boot time or not.

So, I tried using an IDE->CF adaptor. With this I can at least install a minimal image which boots & runs OK on the IDE->CF adaptor. When I switch back to the CardBus/PCMCIA interface, I still cannot boot the unit. Each time the pcmcia driver loads & reconfigures the Cardbus device & I am stuck without a root filesystem.

I should add that I am able to make the above method/hardware work OK in Fedora Core 3 (I can blacklist the Yenta driver). On FC3, I can install direct to the CF card on the PCMCIA interface from the Fedora3 install DVD with the 'nopcmcia' option.

As far as I can see the PCMCIA utils etc have changed quite a bit between these 2 kernels (2.6.9, 2.6.23) which I think is partly why I have this issue. The other thing that I notice is that in the F8 kernel, the PCMCIA driver is built-in. I think this is the main source of my woes and the only way I can think of getting round this is to rebuild the F8 kernel with PCMCIA removed. Hence the post. Can anyone offer any other simpler options ? Ideally, I'd like to be able to continue to install via the DVD but it isn't playing ball when I use 'expert' mode. It usually results in a stack fault (possibly because I am chosing an unsuitable driver for some portion of the unit). Thanks !