Complicated boot process

shingo013 · 06-29-2009, 04:24 AM

Ok this is what i got.. I have a 2gb usb from which i can boot fine and a 250gb external which won't boot.My question is how would i go about installing the linux OS on the external but keep boot information on the stick so that i can still boot off it??
Thnx for the help

bhaslinux · 06-29-2009, 05:25 AM

boot linux and then use qemu to go through the setup into the plugged-in 250GB disk and after this
boot from 250GB disk. This must work fine !

shingo013 · 06-29-2009, 06:05 AM

problem is, my machine won't recognize the 250GB disk as bootable. Any idea?

linus72 · 06-29-2009, 06:13 AM

hello, please explain what you mean by this bhaslinux

Quote:

boot linux and then use qemu to go through the setup into the plugged-in 250GB disk and after this
boot from 250GB disk. This must work fine !

And Shingo013, can you post menu.lst or what distro are you running from hd and what bootloader?

Please post output of fdisk -l while both devices are plugged in.

shingo013 · 06-29-2009, 06:19 AM

@linus72 , my hdd's smashed.Overtemperature f**** it. Thats why i am looking for an usb solution (not using a hdd at all). I'd go for any distro as long as it fits on my 2gb stick and has persistent changes( no livedisc sh*t where i have to configure my network everytime i boot)

linus72 · 06-29-2009, 06:38 AM

Well, for reference I have, on my 2gb kingston data traveler formatted ext3 booting with grub
I got tinycore, microcore, puppies- browserpuppy47, gallipup412 and netbook904 puppy.

all run persistent and all have their little save functions.

Now, is your HD unplugged from motherboard?
If not, you should unplug it, then have the usb and the external hd plugged in
when installing grub from a livecd.

It's pretty easy so if you need help, just ask.

shingo013 · 06-29-2009, 08:02 AM

@linus72, thnx mann, your stick brought me to slax, which i installed successfully on my 2gb stick. Thanks for your time dude...

linus72 · 06-29-2009, 08:12 AM

That's good!, but I thought you wanted to get the external hd going too

anyway, if you need any more help, just post

also, look for my tinycore/microcore/puppy/+more rescuecd later today
in "general"

bhaslinux · 06-29-2009, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linus72

hello, please explain what you mean by this bhaslinux

And Shingo013, can you post menu.lst or what distro are you running from hd and what bootloader?

Please post output of fdisk -l while both devices are plugged in.

Ok this is the method i use to install over USB
Instead of using cdrom and booting off and installing on the USB drive (fearing that something
may happen to the internal HDD) I use qemu to install the OS into the USB disk and then
once installed, you can boot off the USB disk and change the grub params to enable rootfs from USB.