Compact Flash selection and Image installation

Now its time to get a compact flash card:.

And install a boot image appropriate for the purpose you've given your Netvista. In looking through what others have done, it looks like any SanDisk, Toshiba, PNY or Kingston CF cards 128 Mb and smaller will work. I have tried to get two different sizes (4Mb and 16Mb) of Lexar CF cards to work and have not been able to get the Netvista to boot from them. I do get a message that an incompatible CF card is

The image I created for Thinstation was slightly over 17Mb, and the m0n0wall page lists the image size as less than 6Mb so an 8Mb card should work there if you can find one. For LTSP you can actually boot from the network, so no CF card is required. Given those sizes, I guess you should consider 32Mb the smallest practical card if you want to experiment with different installations. I located my SanDisk 32Mb cards on eBay . But I was not able to find anything smaller than 32Mb, but I was able to purchase two 32Mb cards including plastic cases and shipping, for less that $9.00, The actual closing price for the cards was $2.00 each.

Once you have obtained a compatible CF card, the next step is to write a boot image to the card. This process is slightly different depending on what system you're going to install, so I will cover the installation of the images separately in each section. For now all that you need to do is locate a CF card reader that works with your PC and CF card. I have used many card readers with no difficulties getting any of them to work either under Windows or Linux. As always your mileage may vary, so if you have problems getting the card reader to work, try it in a different computer, or try a different reader in your PC. Assuming that you now have a working card reader / CF card combination, we can move on to the next step which is actually writing the image to the card, and booting the Netvista.