install operating system on second partition of usb hard disk , first being ntfs

sumeet inani · 07-30-2012, 09:57 AM

hi I have a usb hard disk which also needs electric power other than USB .
It has first partition of ntfs measuring 927GB .
I created a primary partition (fat32) of 4GB at the end as creating at beginning will entail large relocation of data .
My computer's hard disk ain't working .
It can boot from USB . Actually I do use my 8GB USB stick having tiny core.

I tried to install tiny core iso using unetbootin on 4GB partition in windows xp (of another computer) . But there was no option of installing to g:\ (f:\is 923GB roughly).
Is it possible to install any linux operating system on my second partition of USB hard drive (I think the first partition being NTFS is a hindrance which I have to overcome , also a light weight distro which runs on RAM is preferred because USB2.0 interface ain't as fast as SATA).

MS3FGX · 07-30-2012, 10:13 AM

There would be no problem installing Linux onto a second partition on an external drive. The problem is likely that you are attempting to install it from Windows, which is unable to see more than one partition on external drives. You'll need a Linux machine (or at least, a live USB/CD environment) to get it installed.

sumeet inani · 07-31-2012, 07:52 AM

I can use a live USB stick But I think installing a standard distro will trouble the USB with frequent read/write . Isn't it ?

sumeet inani · 07-31-2012, 09:56 AM

ALso I installed slitaz from USB stick on partition /dev/sdb2 which is second primary ext3 partition of my USB hard disk.
ALso installed grub on MBR of /dev/sdb.
I notice that /dev/sdb2 has boot/grub/menu.lst with root set to (hd1,1)
Whenever I boot , on selecting USB hard disk in BBS-popup-menu , I just get a blinking cursor which stays like that.

sumeet inani · 08-02-2012, 07:02 AM

this time i unmounted everything except portable USB hard disk and installed still I get blinking cursor.
Please help.

sumeet inani · 08-04-2012, 09:51 AM

Can you suggest me a distro which you have tried on portable USB hard disk drive & runs from RAM ?
Thank You.

jefro · 08-04-2012, 12:16 PM

Many disto's run from ram either by default or with a boot option. They all work in ram as well as they do normally.

You will outgrow the usb so just use it like a normal hard drive. They are very unreliable devices to don't use them for any important data. Expect it to break when you need it.

sumeet inani · 08-09-2012, 09:45 AM

I need to just play video & surf web (no doc reading) . For that purpose I have found tiny core & slitaz as wonderful options.

As told I above I am not able to boot USB hard drive .
If you have booted from USB hard disk drive then please explain.

jefro · 08-09-2012, 05:22 PM

Most newer computers have a new bios that allows you to choose the usb as a boot option. You need to put the usb in at power off and boot to bios to see if it can be booted.

If not then plop linux has a way to boot to a cd or floppy that can then boot to usb.

sumeet inani · 08-10-2012, 10:05 PM

My computer has 'amd phenom x4' processor.
I select corresponding USB device as first option in hard disk & it works well for USB stick but when I choose my 'freeagent seagate' USB hard disk as first option then all I get is a blinking underscore shaped cursor for a long time.
No grub prompt.

I tried to install grub manually

Code:

#df
Filesystem           1k-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs                 3035912    142100   2893812   5% /
tmpfs                  3035912    142100   2893812   5% /
tmpfs                  1686616         0   1686616   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sdb2              3763404    179428   3392804   5% /mnt/radicula
/dev/sdb1            972936528 870441192 102495336  89% /fa
/dev/loop0             1597430   1597430         0 100% /dvdbox
/dev/sda1             15618104   3298336  12319768  21% /media/VIVEK
#cat /mnt/radicula/boot/grub/menu.lst
# /boot/grub/menu.lst: GRUB boot loader configuration.
#

# By default, boot the first entry.
default 0

# Boot automatically after 8 secs.
timeout 8

# Change the colors.
color yellow/brown light-green/black

# For booting SliTaz from : /dev/sda2
#
title SliTaz GNU/Linux (cooking) (Kernel vmlinuz-2.6.30.6-slitaz)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.30.6-slitaz root=/dev/sda2
#grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/radicula  /dev/sdb
/dev/sdb does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.
#

Please see attached file for list of files on installed partition.

sumeet inani · 08-11-2012, 12:15 AM

I saw the log file after installing slitaz . It said

Code:

# cat /var/log/slitaz-installer.log 
start_installer: Sun Jan 20 11:03:23 UTC 2002
mount: mounting /dev/ on /media/cdrom failed: Block device required
ask_for_target_dev: /dev/sda2
ask_for_target_dev: /dev/sda2
mkfs_target_dev: ext3
mke2fs 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
239040 inodes, 955867 blocks
47793 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=981467136
30 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
7968 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736

Writing inode tables: done                            
Creating journal (16384 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 29 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
install_kernel: vmlinuz-2.6.30.6-slitaz

LZMA 4.57  Copyright (c) 1999-2007 Igor Pavlov  2007-12-06
grub_config: /mnt/target/boot/grub/menu.lst
install_files: OK
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
/usr/sbin/grub-install: line 434: grub-probe: not found
sh: xfs: unknown operand
The file /mnt/target/boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.
end_of_install: Sun Jan 20 11:05:38 UTC 2002

sumeet inani · 08-11-2012, 12:17 AM

I saw the log file after installing slitaz . It said

Code:

# cat /var/log/slitaz-installer.log 
start_installer: Sun Jan 20 11:03:23 UTC 2002
mount: mounting /dev/ on /media/cdrom failed: Block device required
ask_for_target_dev: /dev/sda2
ask_for_target_dev: /dev/sda2
mkfs_target_dev: ext3
mke2fs 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
239040 inodes, 955867 blocks
47793 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=981467136
30 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
7968 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736

Writing inode tables: done                            
Creating journal (16384 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 29 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
install_kernel: vmlinuz-2.6.30.6-slitaz

LZMA 4.57  Copyright (c) 1999-2007 Igor Pavlov  2007-12-06
grub_config: /mnt/target/boot/grub/menu.lst
install_files: OK
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
/usr/sbin/grub-install: line 434: grub-probe: not found
sh: xfs: unknown operand
The file /mnt/target/boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.
end_of_install: Sun Jan 20 11:05:38 UTC 2002

sumeet inani · 08-11-2012, 12:50 AM

is there any such rule that bootable partition should be within first 4GB (because mine is after 927GB and I have installed GNU GRUB 0.97) ?

Also in grub prompt I get

Code:

grub> root (hd0,
 Possible partitions are:
   Partition num: 0,  Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
   Partition num: 1,  Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

Actually I get dropped to rescue mode on boot.
Is it due to non-recognition of type of first partition ?

sumeet inani · 08-11-2012, 08:21 PM

I have made some progress .
Actually I installed slitaz manually as instructed in their handbook.
As pointed above , grub-install is faulty in slitaz.
So I booted tiny core
Then ran

Code:

$sudo su$sudo su
#grub
    GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

       [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.   For
         the   first   word,  TAB  lists  possible  command
         completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
         completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> root (hd1,
 Possible partitions are:
   Partition num: 0,  Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
   Partition num: 1,  Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> root (hd1,1)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x8
grub>setup (hd1)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1)"...  16 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd1) (hd1)1+16 p (hd1,1)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded
Done.
grub>quit
#sync

Still , I get following error

Code:

grub loading stage 1.5
grub loading , please wait
error 17

please help

sumeet inani · 08-11-2012, 08:32 PM

I have also tried

Code:

root@box:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 16.0 GB, 16008609792 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1946 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1947    15633376+  c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204885504 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1               1      121125   972936531   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2          121126      121601     3823470  83 Linux
root@box:~# fdisk /dev/sdb

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 121601.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): x

Expert command (m for help): f
Ordering is already correct


Expert command (m for help): q

root@box:~#