Booting Linux from External Hard Disk

saikee · 01-28-2008, 05:37 PM

kg0l,

It appears that your Grub system files are stored in the 2nd disk where Ubuntu resides. Without the 2nd disk Grub cannot its system files and so complains "Error 21 - selected disk does not exist".

The cure

(a) Use Vista's boot loader to boot Ubuntu
(b) Always run the systems with two disks and amend Ubuntu's Grub to fire up Vista.

tuse · 04-27-2008, 08:50 AM

Ok, now I have got Ubuntu working by the duplication of GRUB.

If I now wish to use a 3rd OS, say Solaris(in particular) on a 2nd external hard disk (or on the same 1st external hard disk) how do I get around this?

All your help will be highly appreciated!

saikee · 04-27-2008, 11:22 AM

Don't think SOlaris supports booting from an external hard disk.

You can put it in an internal disk.

To boot it make sure its boot loader isn't installed in the MBR. If Solaris is installed in 3rd partition of 1st disk it will be known by Grub as (hd0,2) and can be fired up by commands

Code:

title Solaris in 3rd partition of 1st disk or (hd0,2)
root (hd0,2)
chainloader +1

The above is using a Linux's Grub to boot up Solaris' boot loader which is also Grub. The former is version 0.97 while the latter is 0.95. The v0.95 inside Solaris is a special version.

All Unix-like systems like Solaris and BSD can be booted exactly the same way as a MS Windows.