Package: debian-installer Version: 20080522 http://wiki.gpl-devices.org/wiki/Installing_Linux_on_booting_SD_card
Recently, BIOS vendors have been starting to implement a 'boot from SD card' feature, much like they have added 'boot from USB memory stick' some years ago. The only SD-card host controller that I've seen this implemented for is SDHCI compliant host controllers. While this is a nice feature to support, for most systems it is just a gimmick and not something neccessarry. However, there are hand-held devices such as netbooks in the pipeline which do not have any other mass storage device. No hard disk and no IDE-attached flash disk or the like. They just have one (more likely two or more) SD card slots and you install and store not only your data but the entire operating system on that SD card. Furthermore, there are products like Samsung moviNAND which are basically a SDcard in a BGA package that can be soldered onto a PCB. So from a protocol and software point of view it is a SD card, but it is mechanically soldered onto the board. Such device have gained some popularity in ARM-based designs, but we'll likely see them in the x86 world, too. Installer requirements The distribution installation initrd needs to 1. include and auto-load the sdhc.ko and sdhci_pci.ko kernel modules 2. create the /dev/mmcblk* device nodes as per udev/hotplug events The actual distribution installation program needs to 1. recognize /dev/mmcblk* as block devices that can be used as target device 2. use a grub-install or similar program that can discover the bios drive number to /dev/mmcblk* device name mapping debian-installer doesn't currently (debian testing installation image of 2008-09-08) support this, and thus Debian cannot be installed on a system with bootable SD card. -- - Harald Welte <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://linux.via.com.tw/ ============================================================================ VIA Open Source Liaison -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]