On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 3:55 PM, Steve Holmes wrote: > I'm pretty much doing all that though it is with Arch Linux. What > seems to be at the core of the matter is When I use the installation > media from CDROM, The internal hard disk, containing original windows > partitions, is /dev/sda and the attached USB drive is /dev/sdb; so far > so good. > > The instalation sequence proceeds along just fine with that > construct. When it comes to grub, grub sees the internal disk as > (hd0) and the attached drive as (hd1); note this is while I'm still in > the live CD environment and when I chroot to the USB drive for > configuration. Before chrooting, I mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev so my > devices can be found when I do the grub setup in my chroot > environment. Hope I didn't lose anybody yet. > > Now when I boot the machine and choose USB from the BIOS boot menu, > grub starts up but now the USB drive is (hd0) and the internal disk is > (hd1); no, I did not transpose anything yet in this message. Now at > this point, I get the boot menu with the two Arch linux entries and > after choosing the first one, the initial RAMFS loads so at this > point, my USB drive is accessed fine. But along here, my internal > hard disk is being discovered to be /dev/sda and shown accordingly. > This list time, /dev/sdb wasn't even mentioned. After getting dumped > out into the emergency shell, I decided to try looking for /dev/disk > and then went into the by-label directory and saw entries for sda1, > sda3 and sda4. No mention of my linux partition. > > Again, the bottom line here is for some reason, it can't find my USB > drive during the boot sequence even though it just loaded the RAMFS > from that same device just a few moments before. Does this make any > sense? > Sure, that is why someone told you above to use the UUID to identify the drive instead of the changeagble /dev/?da type references. Here is a reference: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingUUID > On Mon, Dec 06, 2010 at 01:23:35PM -0700, Dazed_75 wrote: > > Lisa, the 11th IS the "this Saturday" he mentioned. > > > > Steve, I cannot speak to your several attempts with Arch and other > distros. > > I can say that if you INSTALL ubuntu to a USB drive (not use a loader > with > > the .iso), then when you get to the end of the partitioning phase there > is > > an advanced button on the lower right portion of the dialog box. If you > > click that, you can tell the installer to put GRUB on the USB drive > rather > > than your hard disk (you may need to have specified manual partitioning > for > > the USB drive) and after doing that you should be able to use the BIOS > boot > > menu to select booting from the USB drive. > > > > Larry > > > > On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 12:40 PM, Lisa Kachold >wrote: > > > > > We have a joint install/hack fest at UAT next Saturday the 11th also? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 9:33 AM, Steve Holmes >wrote: > > > > > >> OK, Thanks for the advice. Alas, that still didn't work. What is > > >> still happening is the RAMFS boots fine and the final messages shown > > >> before it barfs indicate that it found my internal haard drive and its > > >> 4 windows partitions. But then it shows /dev/sdb to be a mass storage > > >> device but it never shows the 2 partitions (sdb1 and sdb2) as I would > > >> expect. I'm beginning to wonder if and how people are getting a > > >> system to boot strait from a USB device like this. The pre-built ISOs > > >> work and the system is running under the live image but For whatever > > >> reason, the UDEV stuff isn't discovering the existing partitions on > > >> the USB drive when it is the same device being used to boot in the > > >> first place. I may need to bring my laptop in to either Thursday's > > >> east side meeting or this Saturday's install fest to show the errors > > >> to someone who might know more. It seems like what should have been > > >> an easy solution but I think the USB stuff is getting in the way some > > >> how. > > >> > > >> Another thread on the list here shows a guy doing exactly what I'm > > >> trying to do; have my machine remain native windows for now and boot > > >> with a full distro on a portable hard disk. I wonder what else I > > >> might be missing here. > > >> > > >> On Sat, Dec 04, 2010 at 06:35:40PM -0700, Joseph Sinclair wrote: > > >> > Steve, > > >> > I would start over with ext3, and this time I would recommend > using > > >> UUID as the drive identification method, as that method is resistant > to the > > >> reordering/remapping that you're experiencing (UUID was introduced > exactly > > >> because modern controllers may reorder drives on boot). > > >> > > > >> > ==Joseph++ > > >> > > > >> > Steve Holmes wrote: > > >> > > Well, I have some more progress or updates on this problem. I > still > > >> > > can't get the thing to but from the USB external drive but here is > > >> > > what I have so far. Sorry for the lengthy details. > > >> > > > > >> > > 1. I found out that when I start the HP laptop and use the boot > menu > > >> > > to choose the USB drive, grub picks up the devices in the opposite > > >> > > order than what I knew them to be while running from a live CD. > > >> > > > > >> > > 2. So I reconfigured the menu.lst file in grub to use (hd0,0) > instead > > >> > > of the former (hd1,0). > > >> > > > > >> > > 3. When I boot now, grub starts up and when I pick the menu item, > the > > >> > > RAM FS begins to load. But then I get a message saying that it is > > >> > > waiting for a device and after 10 seconds, it dumps me to an > emergency > > >> > > shell - probably inside the RAMFS. > > >> > > > > >> > > At this point, I could determine that the kernel was scanning > devices > > >> > > and was now mapping the internal hard drive to /dev/sda and it > showed > > >> > > the 4 windows partitions. But for /dev/sdb, no file systems! It > > >> > > looked like UDEV was seeing the device but not able to recognize > the > > >> > > file systems. Yet, this very drive is what I installed the stuff > on > > >> > > to and when I run from the Arch install CD, this USB drive shows > up > > >> > > just fine. I thought I would try ext4 as the file systems on this > > >> > > drive; I'm beginning to wonder if I should scrap the whole thing > and > > >> > > do it over with ext3 instead. I thought if Arch installer > supports > > >> > > ext4 when building that it should be able to boot with it. Is > there > > >> > > any chance the kernel wasn't built to support ext4 or something? > > >> > > > > >> > > Should I look for anything else? > > >> > > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > --------------------------------------------------- > > >> > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > >> > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > >> > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > >> > > >> --------------------------------------------------- > > >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > >> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > >> > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > (503) 754-4452 > > > (623) 688-3392 > > > > > > http://www.it-clowns.com | http://www.obnosis.com > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Dazed_75 a.k.a. Larry > > > > The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain > occasions, > > that I wish it always to be kept alive. > > - Thomas Jefferson > > > --------------------------------------------------- > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > -- Dazed_75 a.k.a. Larry The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive. - Thomas Jefferson