The solution

Bering uClibc

Bering uClibc starting at 2.0rc2 provides a kernel which modularizes softdog and includes a wd1100.o module in the distribution. Along with this comes a /etc/modules file which loads softdog by default, but here wd1100 can be defined as an alternative. This fits the existing model of module initialisation and makes other changes in the initialisation unnecessary. The real beauty of this is that userland does not need to be touched. If the watchdog driver is initialised as documented above then killing the watchdog program will reset the system.

As of Bering uClibc 2.3, the standard kernel contains a patch by Paul Traina that will detect the presence of a keyboard controller, hence a special kernel for WRAP boards is no longer needed.

Changing the syslinux.cfg file on the compact flash card to include

reboot=bios

should make the box reboot, even if you are not using the watchdog.

Bering

Bering does not yet provide a modified kernel, you will have to roll your own using the instructions by Jacques Nilo which can be found here.