with chance of seeming stupid.
why not a dvd+rw mounted as ext2?
it will require dvd+rwtools and so but... it is virtually a hdd as far as linux is concerned. if you are going to customize you might as well pop that in and add in the fstab.
hmm, might work with cdrw aswell... hmmmm, oh well.
here is the link to the programme anyway.
http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW
i wil think some more on it...
EDIT cone to think on it. my motherboard has a intergrated nic that works in knoppix, and a integrated soundcard aswell (not great just an AC97 but...) it is an ASRock K7S8X and i think rev3 (not 100%) cost all of 85
here is a link to a review on it
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2003/asro...8x/k7s8x-1.htm /EDIT
hope to help OErjan