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Though fairly new to Linux, I have set up an external drive connected by usb and put Debian Etch on it. But after reading a lot of info I cannot figure out how to boot it, or whether it is even possible to boot it.
First obstacle: the Phoenix 08 BIOS of my Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop has no option for booting usb and apparently cannot be upgraded to do so.
Second obstacle: trying out "Super Grub Disk" inserted in cdrom, it recognizes the internal disk but not the usb disk. The grub command "find
boot/grub/stage1" reports that file on the internal disk but not on the usb disk, even though it is there.
Curiously Partition Magic (which I originally used to partition the internal disk for Windows and Libranet Linux) shows the Etch partitions on the umounted external disk. Shouldn't grub also be able to go there?
Can some kind soul tell me whether what I am trying to do is really possible?
Last edited by hilltownboy; 02-26-2008 at 10:01 AM.
Distribution: Mandriva 2009 X86_64 suse 11.3 X86_64 Centos X86_64 Debian X86_64 Linux MInt 86_64 OS X
Posts: 2,369
Rep:
I do have a brand new computer it don,t mention booting from usb.
But I do have the option booting from a remove able drive.
Once a friend off mine came along with a usb drive After rebooting the system knew the usb drive was there.
So booting from usb is possible.
So if you,re computer has the same option it must be possible
Thanks for your comments. 1. The drive connected by usb is actually a 30G Maxtor internal drive inserted in a 2.0 usb enclosure. 2. On my Dell laptop F2 accesses the BIOS, and even with the usb drive connected no provision is available there for booting usb devices, only for floppy, cdrom and internal hard drive. Thus the question is whether some other technique exists that can boot the system that is on the usb hard drive.
You may be able to use "Smart Boot Manager" I have used it to boot DamnSmallLinux that was installed to a compact flash card that was in a usb card reader. That was using an H-P P3. I used "RAWRITE" in Windows to write SBM to a floppy disk and booted from that. There is also a "sbootmgr.iso" you can burn to disc and boot from that, I burned mine to a mini-CDR for easy portability.
Last edited by Ryptyde; 02-26-2008 at 07:33 PM.
Reason: reason to use rawrite.
That's interesting, Ryptyde. I've read in other comments about Smart Boot Manager that it does not handle usb devices. Perhaps there are different versions of it.
In searching SBM I found an eight page discussion of "Boot from USB" in Community Ubuntu Documentation indicates that grub will do the job in some cases but not in others. If not, apparently one can create a minimal linux kernel on a CD that the BIOS will recognize, which in turn will boot the system on the usb hard drive. But it seems complex and one might have to take a computer science course to grasp it all.
That's interesting, Ryptyde. I've read in other comments about Smart Boot Manager that it does not handle usb devices. Perhaps there are different versions of it.
In searching SBM I found an eight page discussion of "Boot from USB" in Community Ubuntu Documentation indicates that grub will do the job in some cases but not in others. If not, apparently one can create a minimal linux kernel on a CD that the BIOS will recognize, which in turn will boot the system on the usb hard drive. But it seems complex and one might have to take a computer science course to grasp it all.
You are right I confused SBM with a floppy image from the DamnSmallLinux site used to boot usb devices that DSL was installed to. Sorry!
Don't Dell's have boot menu that can be activate with F12 or some other key during POST?
Quote:
Originally Posted by hilltownboy
Thanks for your comments. 1. The drive connected by usb is actually a 30G Maxtor internal drive inserted in a 2.0 usb enclosure. 2. On my Dell laptop F2 accesses the BIOS, and even with the usb drive connected no provision is available there for booting usb devices, only for floppy, cdrom and internal hard drive. Thus the question is whether some other technique exists that can boot the system that is on the usb hard drive.
Older Dell BIOS do not activate USB (at one point Dell used Phoenix BIOS, then switched to their own). My BIOS has no hard drive option other than the internal drive. The grub shell on the Super Grub Disk does not see my external drive. But your comments on Damn Small Linux indicate that there is a method to boot a USB system despite the inadequacy of an older BIOS.
Yes, weisso5, you are correct: my Dell Inspiron 8000 has a CD-RW. But relatively inexperienced, I am the confused one, not you. I'm still researching how to create a disk that will activate the kernel that is on the usb external hard drive (in effect getting around the problem that the old BIOS will not boot it directly).
I created a simple grub booter floppy and had the same result as with the Super Grub Disk: no recognition of the usb drive, only of the internal drive (hd0). Says (hd1) or (hd2) do not exist.
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