Basically, with the help of Claudio Lanconelli I got the CF card functioning properly with the System Ace so that it could be mounted under uClinux.
The issue seems to have been with my bootloader. I was using a bootloader of my own creation that used the xilfatfs driver over the xsysace driver to load the uClinux into memory from the 'image.bin' file on the CF card. Apparently, that combination of drivers left the System Ace in such state so that when uClinux took over operation from the bootloader the System Ace errored out. I never was able to figure out the specific cause of the failure.
Claudio shared his bootloader with me and it avoids the use of the xilfatfs driver and loads the uClinux 'image.bin' file using the lower level calls to the xsysace driver. Not only does is his bootloader smaller (xilfatfs is not linked in), but it also is friendly with uClinux so that file systems on the CF card can be mounted without problems.
Claudio gave me permission to include his bootloader with this email to help anyone having problems with the System Ace in the future.
Thanks Claudio and everyone else in the microblaze-uClinux for being a terrific resource for the rest of us who are a little further down the learning curve.
Mike Thompson
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