Kubuntu on VIA EPIA with Compact Flash Card

[smithbrycer]

Hello,

Long time listener; first time poster:

I'm attempting to install Kubuntu on a VIA EPIA TC6000 with a Transcend 4GB compact flash card (with IDE to compact flash adapter) and 512MB of RAM.

My first attempt was with the Kubuntu 6.06.1 Dapper Drake Desktop cd. It appeared to be installing correctly, but after setting the / and swap partitions the installer mysteriously disappeared at the copying files stage. I tried a second desktop cd at a lower burn speed of 16x but with the same results.

My second attempt was with the Kubuntu 6.06.1 Dapper Drake Alternate cd. This failed right off the bat with the following error:
Kernel panic - not syncing VFS unable to mount foot fs on unknown-block (1.0)
This cd was also burned at the lowest setting of 16x.

I event tried a debian 3.1r3 i386 installation cd that resulted in the same kernel panic error listed above.

Has anyone encountered this error? Any workarounds?
Are there preliminary steps to take in preparing a compact flash card as the primary drive for a linux install?

Regards,
Bryce

[askrieger]

Re: Kubuntu on VIA EPIA with Compact Flash Card

I must admit that I'm not sure that Kubuntu is installable on a system with a compact flash card as the primary mass storage system. The only Linux distro that I have seen that claims to install to a flash card is Puppy Linux. You should be aware that flash memory has only a limited number of read-write cycles before it becomes unwritable. I don't know the number of cycles, but my guess would be dozens to hundreds, not thousands.

[donh3]

Re: Kubuntu on VIA EPIA with Compact Flash Card

Could it related to two partitions on the CF card? I've had weird thing with USB drives and CF cards with multiple partitions. Try only one partition and install.