[Voyage-linux] Read/Write on CF Question for Voyage 0.3

[mgrollman]

I have built a number of systems using Voyage 0.2 and now Voyage 0.3.  
Both are great, but from time to time, with have an issue using 0.3 with 
a hard disk.

Often we add a small hard disk to our systems to record sensor data, 
still running Voyage itself from the CF.  There is something is the way 
our 0.2 systems handle the read/write status of the CF card that is 
different from he way it is handled in 0.3 that relates back to working 
with the hard disk.  Thus I am curious if there is a way to get the 
Voyage 0.3 to behave in this manner a bit more like the Voyage 0.2, as 
in the Voyage 0.3 version, we wind up with some junk data written to the 
CF card if we are not careful.

Let me explain the failure mode.  For some reason, when a hard disk 
failures in our 0.2 systems, by the time the application programs that 
access the drive are loaded, the CF card has been made read-only by the 
Voyage boot cycle.  However, if the 0.3 version (Etch) in the event of a 
hard disk failure, application programs will have started already that 
are accessing the files on the drive mount point, and this makes it 
impossible to remountro the CF card.  The net result is a bunch of 
sensor data that should be written to the hard disk gets written to the 
CF card instead.

I assume the reason the the CF is ever in a read/write state has 
something to do with preserving the boot log.  But if I am willing to 
forgo this benefit, what would I need to change in the Voyage startup to 
ensure that the CF card is read-only as early as possible in the boot cycle?

Any insights are greatly appreciated.

- MichaelG