Is it possible to install to a FireWire external drive?

ManweoftheValar · 09-29-2003, 10:09 PM

I currently run Windows XP and want a dual boot system. I don't want to repartition as it's a pain in the posterior anatomy. I happen to have an 80GB external hard drive (FireWire) lying around and I was wondering if I could somehow boot Linux with it. (I would install LILO on the MBR of my main HDD)

LarryDoliver · 09-30-2003, 07:56 AM

I'd bet that you'd need at least a 10MB boot partition on the internal drive.

Then again, does lin4win still exist out there? If so, this might get you there.

Search here and goole for lin4win - it used to come with the redhat install CD's in something like dostools directory...

ManweoftheValar · 09-30-2003, 08:56 AM

Well, if it's that easy, I have an old 4GB HDD that used to be in my other comp (upgraded) that I could put in there, and then set that to boot linux. I'd need to know how to install most of my Linux files to my FireWire drive (which I don't know how to set up for Linux)

LarryDoliver · 09-30-2003, 09:21 AM

ahhh, no prob!

install your 4GB drive and partition in 3 buckets. I'll assume this is your second hdd:

Code:

partition      size          mount point
hdb1           50MB         /boot
hdb2           512MB       <swap>
hdb3           [fill]           /

You've got room there to do a complete install on that 4gb drive. ((put grub on MBR of hda.) Reboot and once your up and running, create a new filesystem on the external drive (ext3). That will look something like

(I'm assuming the device name of your firewire drive is /dev/scd0

Code:

fdisk /dev/scd0
n (to make a new partition, p , 1 to make a single primary parition)
mkfs -t ext3 /dev/scd0

then, temporaroly mount this drive, copy your home dir over to this, and remount at /home:

Code:

mkdir /mnt/temp
mount /dev/scd0 /mnt/temp
cp -r /home/* /mnt/temp
rm -rf /home/*
umount /mnt/temp
mount /dev/scd0 /home

then edit fstab to make this drive remount at bootup.

(I used "/home" as what you want to put on the external drive. You could put something like "/usr/local", depending on what you mean by "most of my Linux files to my FireWire drive")

ManweoftheValar · 09-30-2003, 05:54 PM