Boot from CD to PCMCIA Hard Disk

I am working to find/build a Knoppix style distro that will use a the CDrom as boot disk, auto detect hardware and such, but link the main filesystem to a PCMICA hard disk.

The idea is to allow the flexablity to move from machine to machine, but still allow config files to be changes, and new software to be installed.

Does anyone have any information on this topic...

A key reason for this is my need to get my wireless card working from Knoppix so any info in that area would also be helpfull.