Here is what I have: A hackable I-A1, An 512MB CF card (not a micro drive) And an External USB drive. What can I do with these pieces?
A. Run Jailbait Linux: but will it support the USB drive? And how exactly does that work once you have written over the internal Sandisk image you automatically boot into Jailbait right, does that mean you don’t have to keep anything in the CF slot?
B. Run Midori: same deal as Jailbait e.g. USB drive support? I need this to be a standalone unit. And since what I ultimately want is software compatibility and a really small form factor workstation. I will eventually want to try…
C. Windows 98, I have seen mentions on this board of people running 98lite on different smaller CF cards and running the whole thing on a micro drive. But running on a actual Solid State CF card? I’ve read here about how that will eventually burn out your card.
I know that there are better more complete hardware solutions for running a Win98 workstation on a IA-1:
1. CF to IDE adapter: run it all off of a laptop HD
2. HD Sandisk hack: beyond most Hackers soldering abilities. It involves pulling the internal Sandisk and doing a point by point soldering job effectively hardwiring an IDE cable directly to the Main board This has the added advantage of bypassing the whole booting from CF slot step. And I guess this hack along with a bios change would make the unhackables hacked. (anyone who could perform that much soldering would not be daunted by replacing the Bios chip as well.) I guess, if I could ask a question about this hack, would you still need to replace the Bios on the unhackables if you do this kind of soldering job? Wouldn’t the bios go straight to the IDE drive?(As it has replaced the Sandisk it normally boots off of?) But from what I understand the IO Bios will work.
3. Get a Micro drive
All of those last three options are kind of expensive. It’s near Christmas time and I need to wait until after to be spending money on a hobbyist hack.
The ideal thing and why I am posting, would be a software solution that would allow you to boot Win98 off of an external USB HD.
Would it be possible to modify the Jailbait or Midori Linux Distros to recognize a External USB drive and Boot Win98 off of that? What are the complications involved?
I can guess that some of the Hardware limitations could make this very difficult.
A. USB 1.1 or 2.0: is the IA-1 Capable of using 2.0 devices It might be very hard to run the OS off of a USB 1.1 drive the transfer speed may be too slow.
B. The External USB drive Glitch: (mentioned also on the IO boards) where trying to transfer big files locks up the system.
Any Ideas or comments, sorry for going on for so long, this is a rather long post.
The Id orbits the Mind,
May it not find it's way Home
-Krelmoon
