Mounting the NFS rootfs over PCMCIA cards

[BJörn Lindqvist]

Hello! I'm trying to get a laptop to boot using a bootfloppy and then
mount FAI:s nfsroot using a PCMCIA card. Unfortunately, this seem to
be a terribly hard task to solve. I have searched the mailing list and
many others have the same problem as me.

Problem 1: FAI:s default kernel doesn't include PCMCIA support so you
need to compile your own kernel. But that's not all. Because the
PCMCIA drivers can only be activated by executing some scripts from a
file system, you also need an initrd ram disk. Problem 2: FAI doesn't
need and doesn't use an initrd. Plus it needs to fit in 1024kb so it
can be placed on a boot floppy.

So it is not exactly trivial and if it is possible (which, according
to Thomas Lange, it might not be:
http://archives.free.net.ph/message/20040521.055200.d191daa2.en.html)
it requires some hacking.  Maybe something like:
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/linux/linux-kernel/2002-49/0912.html. Anyway
I have started this wiki page:
http://faiwiki.informatik.uni-koeln.de/index.php?title=Installing_laptops_with_PCMCIA_cards_using_a_floppy_disk
in an attempt to solve this issue for me and to save it for future
generations. So if anyone know how to do it, reply to this thread or
write your findings at that page. I'll complete the howto with how it
should be done when I find out.

--
mvh Björn