Fedora installed on USB HDD doesn't start when the internal HDD is connected
Hi.
Sorry for my bad english... I'm not a professional but I'm also not a total newbie. Somewhere in between :D OS: Fedora 18 686, KDE 4.10.2, kernel 3.8.8-202. I have installed Fedora on my internal HDD and it works great. Well, almost... But the (real) problem is when I tried to install it also to my USB HDD. I used this "tutorial": http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ve-4175427930/ I disconnected the internal HDD and I used a USB flash drive to install. I spent several hours (hard work) customizing the Fedora installation. I'm using grub4dos to start it: Code:
title Start installed Fedora first HDD HDD. It didn't work. I don't think it's because of the HDD order (0/1 a/b) because it wouldn't of started at all but I keep an open mind... The kernel starts to load, I see a lot of green [ OK ] with modules loading. At some point I see a red [ Failed ] to something "Waiting Plymouth boot to quit", a couple of green [ OK ] again and it's not loading anymore. The last one is "Started graphical interface". Btw, the [ Failed ] with "Waiting Plymouth boot to quit" I see it also when I try to boot on Fedora live with the USB flash and the internal HDD connected but it's starting ok in the end. On my installation it doesn't. It could be that it's not recognizing the internal HDD, it could be because of the grub2 from the internal hdd, it could be because it's reading something from the internal HDD installation or it could be the grub4dos menu entry used to load the USB HDD installation... I don't know... Oh, one of the differences between these 2 installations is that on internal HDD I installed the NVidia driver and on the USB HDD I kept the Nouveau driver. What can I do? Thank you for any suggestion. I searched before asking but couldn't find something useful. Regards, David Later edit: I found some sort of solution - to use "root=UUID=5831c69e-e9fd-4f61-812a-ebb9207c1155" instead of "root=/dev/sda2" but it's not working 100%. I'm thinking that the problem may be that Fedora was installed on sda and, when the internal HDD is connected, the USB HDD becomes sdb. In theory it shouldn't be problems but they are (slow boot, it's reading incorrect configuration files and so on). My (updated) question: is there a way (a kernel parameter maybe) to "tell" Fedora that the USB HDD should be seen ALWAYS as sda (or at least on most computers)? Thank you. |
Well, it is possible to format the partitions with LABELS set, and ask GRUB2 to ignore UUID and use root=LABEL=my_label to boot a certain label. See for instance http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1530532&page=2. Not sure whether it is stable.
UUID is your best best AFAIK. It references particular partitions. So while "UUID=5831c69e-e9fd-4f61-812a-ebb9207c1155" works for root, use dbus-uuidgen to get the UUID for /boot and change /boot/ references to that UUID..? The message "Waiting for Plymouth boot screen to quit" is related to graphics drivers (nvidia for instance) and X. What is immediately before that line in dmesg? Sometimes it is the next-to-last line in boot that hangs.. |
The foolproof way to do this is to install each distro independently of each other on their own hard drive, and install grub to the mbr of THAT drive. Use your bios to choose boot order. Most all computers have a key you can press on boot to choose which drive you want to boot. I've used this method for years, it's much easier than trying to set up multiboots and juggling partitions. Linux doesn't care which drive it's on, and this should not affect how it works. Buy installing Linux on two drives and letting the system think they're both sda, you're asking for trouble.
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When you look in /etc/fstab for the USB install does it use the UUID also? If not then adding it there may solve your problem. That said I think most distros use UUID in fstab nowadays.
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Thank you for the answers.
With the UUID now it's loading KDE (slow but it's loading). @Sigg3.net You're right, UUID is better than labels. I used dbus-uuidgen and it showed "7c705303552339b01f39521e517f2890". Where you say I should change the /boot reference..? @guyonearth I installed them independently and on their own HDD. For the internal HDD I used Grub 2 installed in its MBR, for the USB HDD I used Grub4dos installed in its MBR. And I use Bios (or F12 key) to choose which drive to boot. @273 /etc/fstab: Code:
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@DavidBrenner
you could use blkid to get UUID. Code:
$ blkid |
Thank you, it's a good idea. I already use it to get the UUID of the last 2 partitions added in fstab (previous post).
When I start only with the USB HDD: Code:
/dev/sda1: LABEL="BOOT" UUID="2CAA-9BF8" TYPE="vfat" But when I connect also the internal HDD: Code:
/dev/sda1: LABEL="System XP 32bit" UUID="1CAC3ADFAC3AB35E" TYPE="ntfs" |
@DavidBrenner
Code:
/dev/sda1: LABEL="BOOT" UUID="2CAA-9BF8" TYPE="vfat" Recommended Partitioning Scheme |
From that link:
Quote:
It is just a Fat32 partition with many useful tools. It was not designed especially for RedHat/Fedora boot. Fedora is started with a grub4dos menu (the entry from my first post). It is very similar with the way Grub 2 loads Fedora from the internal HDD. For some time I used the same technique on the internal HDD without any problems. So it doesn't seem that the problem could be from this... |
What problem[s] are you still experiencing?
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1. Slow boot. I know that the USB HDD is slower than the internal HDD, but still...
For example I see that [ Failed ] to something "start Waiting Plymouth boot to quit"twice and it waits a long time in that "area". 2. Sometimes it seems that it loads configuration files from the internal HDD. For example I update Fedora on the internal HDD, I reboot on the USB HDD to install the same updates but Apper says "no updates" no matter how many times I try... I power down the computer, disconnect the internal HDD, power up and boot with USB HDD. This time it shows the updates in Apper... And sorry for not answering faster but I had a 2+ hours power outage in my area... |
What does "mount" return when you boot from the USB and the internal drive is connected and when it isn't? Also, is the USB install noticeably slower when the internal drive is connected?
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I think I found a solution with the slow boot: it seems that it's a KDE bug in Fedora.
I removed livesys-late.service from After= from /lib/systemd/system/kdm.service. Now it starts faster and there isn't much of a difference between with or without internal HDD (systemd-analyze shows only 6 sec difference). I also disabled iscsi.service and iscsid.service. Now, after the kernel is loaded, boots in about 65 sec which is acceptable. On the other hand, mount doesn't show that a partition from the internal HDD is mounted, only that sda becomes sdb. mount (without internal HDD): Code:
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime) Code:
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime) http://www.imagebam.com/image/aab845251787907 |
I don't see anything there that suggests that the internal drive is being mounted at all. You can confirm that the correct drive is being mounted as / by checking:
Code:
ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/ I think, perhaps, the problems are just due to the USB install itself rather than any interaction with another install. |
Quote:
Code:
ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/ Quote:
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