On Mon, 2007-07-09 at 16:57 -0700, John Wendel wrote: > I'm building a new box and I'd like to install the root filesystem on > a compact flash card. Not too hard. But I want / to be read-only, to > avoid premature wear out of the flash. > > It seems that I need to use a "union filesystem" that will let me > mount some writable directories (/etc, /var, ???) from another > device. Another avenue that you might want to explore is changing the mount options so that nothing is written to the drive unless you intend it. i.e. Ignoring updating "access times", etc. That lets you keep things writable, if you'd like to do so. I don't think you can put /etc/ on another device. But you definitely can mount /var/ from another location. /var/, /usr/, and few others can easily be mounted from other drives just the same as they can be on other partitions on a hard drive. -- [tim@bigblack ~]$ rm -rfd /*^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Huname -ipr 2.6.21-1.3228.fc7 i686 i386 Using FC 4, 5, 6 & 7, plus CentOS 5. Today, it's FC7. Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists.