Booting from a USB Drive

[Steve Holmes]

Yeah, I'm not sure what to do next.  Next time I have someone around
to look at my screen, I'll have to get into the grub shell at boot
time and see if I can probe available devices and maybe manually force
the boot/kernel line and see where it blows.  Originally the message
was an error code 15 or 17 and further stated that it couldn't find
any of the kernel files like vmlinuz and yet they are there where they
should be expected.  So grub is failing before any other actions can
be taken.  

On Wed, Dec 01, 2010 at 10:00:11AM -0700, Lisa Kachold wrote:
> Hi Steve!
> 
> On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 11:10 PM, Steve Holmes <steve at holmesgrown.com>wrote:
> 
> > The drive boots after all but only as far as grub.  I found out
> > earlier today that the grub menu comes up but it fails to find the
> > file systems for booting the actual system.  It looks like I will have
> > to rebuild the grub configuration or something.  So yes, you're right;
> > the drive should boot and the MBR does work; it's just the rest of it
> > that doesn't but that sounds more like a grub issue now rather than
> > booting from the USB drive.  Somehow while preparing this disk with
> > the Arch Linux installer, I think grub's identification of drives may
> > have been off or something.  I almost wrecked my windows internal disk
> > doing this some how but at least I salvaged that for now so I need to
> > walk on some egg shells while doing this I guess.
> >
> 
> Yea!  I have had terrible luck with all but the MANUAL directions on
> building systems:
> 
> Steps:
> fdisk - (partition/fstype/bootableflag)
> mkfs
> grub
> 
> All available from any linux system.
> 
> If you are building a Slax system, you want to google slax bootable USB
> directions (which will be the same).
> 
> 
> >
> > On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 05:34:31PM -0700, Lisa Kachold wrote:
> > > If the drive is bootable, it will boot.
> > >
> > > Check the bios to ensure you have allowed boot from bios, and use spare
> > > systems before rebuilding your drive.
> > >
> > > You should be able to fdisk -l /dev/sdN  (or whatever it is) plugged in
> > and
> > > verify the boot.  You should be able to verify your MBR and GRUB settings
> > > also.  You can always REPEAT setting up the MBR?
> > >
> > > If you can't boot it, it's not built.
> > >
> > > Rebuild with a better set of instructions!
> > >
> > > On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 9:57 AM, Stephen <cryptworks at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > newer machines should be able to boot directly to USB hdd just fine...
> > > > just never have had a drive that really worked with that.
> > > >
> > > > On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 9:24 AM, Steve Holmes <steve at holmesgrown.com>
> > > > wrote:
> > > > > That's rather annoying when some drive manufacturer forces us to
> > leave
> > > > > their junk on the drive when we wish to do otherwise with it.
> > > > > Actually, my drive came out of an old laptop and I stuck it inside a
> > > > > portable drive enclosure so I would think we should be able to boot
> > > > > with it.  I used grub to make this disk bootable or at least attempt
> > > > > to do so.
> > > > >
> > > > > I might have to do a grub-install to the /dev/sda MBR but I hesitate
> > > > > to do so at the moment.
> > > > >
> > > > > On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 07:25:08AM -0700, Stephen wrote:
> > > > >> I have an external drive that has the same issue. in my case there
> > is
> > > > >> a small "firmware" that resides on the USB-PATA bridge that has
> > about
> > > > >> 3-400 MB of stuff on it and mounts as a CD. this definitely fouled
> > all
> > > > >> my attempts at booting to the device.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 3:23 AM, Steve Holmes <
> > steve at holmesgrown.com>
> > > > wrote:
> > > > >> > I got a new machine which (of course) has Windows pre-installed
> > and
> > > > >> > I'm not ready to dump it entirely just yet so in the meantime, I
> > built
> > > > >> > out a complete Arch Linux 64-bit system on a portable USB external
> > > > >> > drive.  I also used or tried to use grub to set it up to boot.
> >  During
> > > > >> > the original settup session, it appeared to do all this OK but I
> > can't
> > > > >> > get the laptop to recognize or boot from this device.  I did not
> > > > >> > modify the master boot record on my laptop; instead, I figured on
> > > > >> > using the boot menu on the laptop to choose the USB drive; this
> > method
> > > > >> > works beautifully with an ISO image I burned to a small thumbdrive
> > but
> > > > >> > I cannot do the same with my larger USB portable drive on which I
> > > > >> > installed Arch Linux.  Do I have to do anything else to make this
> > > > >> > thing bootable?
> > > > >> > ---------------------------------------------------
> > > > >> > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
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> > > > >> >
> > > > >>
> > > > >>
> > > > >>
> > > > >> --
> > > > >> A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you
> > from
> > > > >> rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze
> > button.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Stephen
> > > > >> ---------------------------------------------------
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> > > > > ---------------------------------------------------
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> > > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
> > > > rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.
> > > >
> > > > Stephen
> > > > ---------------------------------------------------
> > > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> > > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> > > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Network Operations Center Engineer
> > > Atjeu Hosting
> > >
> > > (503) 754-4452
> > > (623) 688-3392
> > >
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> >
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Network Operations Center Engineer
> Atjeu Hosting
> 
> (503) 754-4452
> (623) 688-3392
> 
> http://www.it-clowns.com | http://www.obnosis.com

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