m0n0wall Forum - Read Error with soekris NET4501 v1.3X

hey, long time monowall user, but i'm now stuck with a new install.

i am trying to get 1.34 on a soekris 4501 (64MB, the single NIC version, with an atheros WLAN adapter). i'm using a kingston 256MB CF card.

if i do a straight write of the 1.34 embedded image, i get a Read Error on boot. if i install net45xx-1.236.img it boots perfectly, just no WLAN (as expected). if i then try an upgrade through the management page straight to 1.34 or even 1.31 (after renaming the img, of course), upon reboot, i get the Read Error again.

i have tried 2 different kingston CF cards, the 256MB and a 4GB. no love. i have tried physdiskwrite on a windows 7 machine. no love. i have tried 1.31. no love.

my primary 4801 is ticking away for a good 8 or more years with a kingston CF card.

an ideas i have missed??

thanks
david

Code:

# gunzip -c embedded-1.34.img | dd of=/dev/sdc bs=16k

gzip: embedded-1.34.img: decompression OK, trailing garbage ignored
640+0 records in
640+0 records out
10485760 bytes (10 MB) copied, 4.15932 s, 2.5 MB/s

# eject /dev/sdc