Booting Fedora 9 from USB using SuSE 10.1 and Grub

MainMeat · 04-09-2009, 04:46 PM

Hi All,

I guess I am a bit new to this and having read through several forums I am sure there is a solution. I have a laptop on which I have installed SuSE 10.1 some time ago. I also require Fedora 9 and want to run this from a external USB drive. I have installed Fedora 9 successfully on the USB drive, and during the installation specifically did not write changes to the MBR, but wrote it to the first boot record of the external drive.

I guess the next step is to add an entry to the GRUB boot loader of SuSE 10.1 in order to allow for an option to boot Fedora 9 from the USB drive. Can someone please help me or point me into a direction on how this can be achieved?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Kind Regards.

ronlau9 · 04-10-2009, 09:25 AM

First we try it the easy way yast>system>Boot Loader>Other>Propose New Configuration
If it does not come up with Fedora as a option keep it as it was
Run the the command as root fdisk -l (l Lower Case) post it and we give you the lines you should add to you're menu.lst

MainMeat · 04-14-2009, 02:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronlau9

First we try it the easy way yast>system>Boot Loader>Other>Propose New Configuration
If it does not come up with Fedora as a option keep it as it was
Run the the command as root fdisk -l (l Lower Case) post it and we give you the lines you should add to you're menu.lst

Hi,

Thank you for your reply. I have tried using yast to update the boot loader but it does not recognize Fedora.

Running fdisk -l provides the following output, where /dev/sda is used by SuSE 10.1, and /dev/sdb is for Fedora

Code:

linux:~ # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sda2            6778        7296     4165560   12  Compaq diagnostics
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3              14         275     2104515   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4             276        6777    52227315   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
/dev/sdb2              14         274     2096482+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3             275        7296    56404215   83  Linux

For clarity, below also find the contents of /boot/grub/menu.lst:

Code:

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Tue Apr 14 06:20:46 UTC 2009

color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,0)/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title SUSE LINUX 10.0
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda4 vga=0x317 selinux=0    resume=/dev/sda3  splash=silent showopts
    initrd /initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- SUSE LINUX 10.0
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda4 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume selinux=0 nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off  3
    initrd /initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: 2.6.13-15.18-default###
title 2.6.13-15.18-default
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.13-15.18-default root=/dev/sda4 vga=0x317 selinux=0    resume=/dev/sda3  splash=silent showopts
    initrd /initrd-2.6.13-15.18-default

Thanks you for your help, advice and assistance!

Regards

ronlau9 · 04-15-2009, 04:43 AM

We can try to add to you're menu.lst
title Fedora
rootnoverity (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
Use a linux text editor to do so

MainMeat · 04-15-2009, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronlau9

We can try to add to you're menu.lst
title Fedora
rootnoverity (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
Use a linux text editor to do so

Hi,

I have included this in the menu.lst on SuSE 10.0, and the result is:
- Fedora is visible in the Grub Boot Loader
- When selecting Fedora I briefly see a screen with:
chainloader +1
GRUB Loading stage 2...
- After this is jumps back to the boot loader again and displays the options as seen at the beginning.

Do I have to make any changes to the files that was installed on the external USB drive?

Kind Regards,

ronlau9 · 04-15-2009, 02:09 PM

To be sure where the OS are will you try the next .
When you see grub is loading press the escape key .
It gives you a few option .
One of them is C for command line .
Choose this option
It brings you to the Grub command line
Give the next commands GRUB> find /grub/stage 1
GRUB> find /boot/grub/stage 1
Hope fully it gives ome use full info

MainMeat · 04-16-2009, 01:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ronlau9

To be sure where the OS are will you try the next .
When you see grub is loading press the escape key .
It gives you a few option .
One of them is C for command line .
Choose this option
It brings you to the Grub command line
Give the next commands GRUB> find /grub/stage 1
GRUB> find /boot/grub/stage 1
Hope fully it gives ome use full info

Hi,

I have managed to resolve this by installing GRUB on the usb drive, and configuring my system BIOS to boot from the USB drive first, so here was my solution:

(http://urge2blabber.blogspot.com/200...usb-drive.html)

- I have a laptop running SuSE 10.0
- I have a USB drive that I am going to install Fedora 9 on

I installed Fedora on the USB drive, ensuring that I use the correct HDD during partition configuration. During installation I noted that:
- I do not want to update the MBR, as this would mess up the SuSE boot loader. So I wrote the boot record to the first boot sector on the USB drive
- I initially installed KDE which is highly unstable on Fedora 9 and crashes after making the smallest config change - and it looks bad, so I opted for GNome, which apparently is stable.

After the initial install, Fedora reboots, and the system boots into SuSE.

Using SuSE I then updated the Fedora boot loader on the USB as follows:
- All references to '(hd1,0)' in /boot/grub/menu.lst was updated to (hd0,0)
- Open the grub prompt by executing 'grub <return>'
- Ensured that (hd1,0) is the correct HDD, since (hd0,0) would be the SuSE hdd by executing:
geometry (hd1)

and this returned

drive 0x81: C/H/S = 7296/255/63, The number of sectors = 117210240, /dev/sdb
Partition num: 0, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 1, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
Partition num: 2, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

- installed the grub boot loader on the USB drive (hd1) by executing:
setup (hd1)

and this returned
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/fat_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/fat_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 17 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+17 p (hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.

- Then typed 'quit' to exit grub and rebooted the system
- Lastly I configured the BIOS to boot from the USB drive and finally...Fedora now boots. Since the boot priority is USB and then the HDD, when the USB is unplugged, the system loads the SuSE boot loader.

Hopefully this info will be helpful to someone in the future!