@k-Tracker

If it's anything like the SOM on the ITXllama you'll need rloew's patches for it to work properly and boot win98.

I use win98-quickinstall nowadays - it's fast and includes rloew's patches by default.

https://github.com/oerg866/win98-quickinstall

Thank you for sharing this. I was not aware of this project. I retested all previous configuration with CF and SD cards under various BIOS settings with Win98SE and WinME. All of them hang on the first boot after the install. Including safe boot or step-by-step with no any windows drivers loaded. I'm under the impression that this is not related to the storage device drivers and might be related to the BIOS on those iCOP devices.

Does the storage show up if you try to install XP?

Yes, WinXP is running fine on this machine. This is very unclear where the problem happens exactly. I don't see anything else in BIOS that I could try.
I also hope to get ebox-3310mx at some point to triage this. It has the same Vortex86mx, and should have a similar overall design (no screen obviously).

It looks like the Vortex86MX has the same issue with its SD card slot that the Vortex86DX has.

Safe mode should work for 98 though, it does on my DX (its a weecee)

I'm aware of that SD CARD issue on Vortex86DX but I don't think it's related to my problem. I'm using CF CARD as well. But it's not able to get to safe mode.
I wish somebody else could confirm of successful run of WIndows 98 on Vortex86MX.

I'm not ready to say it's a win yet, but...

Following oerg866's release of 9xQI, I went ahead and tried it on my unit with the PMX1000, Vortex86MX, and was able to get it installed with almost no trouble (any trouble I was having mostly related to bad cheap SSDs on Amazon). I did have problems with it booting initially and was struggling to figure out why until I brute-forced the IDE configuration.

In no small order:
OnBoard PCI IDE Controller: Secondary
Secondary IDE Master: Hard Disk

• LBA/Large Mode: Disabled (used for 32GB drive, ymmv)
• S.M.A.R.T. : Disabled

Hard Disk Write Protect: Disabled
ATA{PI) 80Pin Cable Detect: Host & Device
OnBoard IDE Operate Mode: Native
Primary IDE Pin Select: SD Card
Standard IDE Compatible: Disabled

I changed no other settings there, but I did go into the PCIPnP configuration and reserved IRQ12 for the network adapter which worked out basically perfectly.
That screenshot was taken after also setting the VGA driver to VBEMP to get over 256 colors and higher resolutions.

It's honestly stunning how fast it performs, considering how awful it was to use under Windows XP. At least part of that is because of the 98lite configuration ripping IE from Explorer, but I'm sure the older kernel helps a ton to lessen the load compared to NT/XP.

Where I'm running into trouble right now is getting the sound working, I can plug in a USB DAC and thanks to the drivers packed into 9xQI, it enabled the USB 2.0 controller, grabbed the composite devices and got me audio over USB just fine. The internal chipset is based on HDA, and seems to be Realtek-based judging by the downloads I found for the "R3010 HD Audio Controller" off the Vortex86 webpage. Unfortunately for the 86MX, the only driver available is on XP, and I'm a bit terrified seeing all the drivers it thinks it could be.

I need to troubleshoot other issues like why I keep losing the storage device entirely, since it keeps being a sore point for this hardware, but I hope some of this info helps.